This past weekend my boyfriend and I went to DC for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. According to the festivals prediction the blossoms would be at their peak from the 20th to the 23rd. The blossoms bloomed right on schedule and they were incredibly beautiful when we visited them on Saturday.
After a while of walking around the tidal basin (which is completely lined in cherry blossoms) it started to rain. Disappointed by the weather, we left to go to the museums at the Smithsonian. It started to pour so we ran into the first museum we saw, the Freer Gallery of Art. It was an awesome Asian Art museum, which trust me is a hard to find... I'm Asian, I grew up in Hawaii surrounded by Asian art, minored in Art History, and have seen a lot of Asian art over the years.
By the time the rain cleared up it was time for us to visit the Holocaust museum. I had tried to visit it before with my family, but we didn't know that you have to go in the morning to get a ticket for a later time that day. This time I went at 11:00 am and didn't get an entrance time till 2:45 pm. The permanent collection at the museum took us about 3 hours to get through. We didn't even get to see any of the special exhibits before the museum closed for the day. I would highly suggest visiting this museum, as it covers a monumental time in history in so much detail that helps one feel the pain of the Holocaust more than reading about it in a textbook. When the museum closed we left to head back to the hotel for a nap before dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill. Its a famous spot know for feeding and boozing past presidents and the movers and shakers of DC. The food was relatively delicious, although something funky was happening with my brussel sprouts. I had eaten brunch there before and had the most delicious crab cakes, so I would definitely go back.
On Sunday we went back to the Tidal Basin because my boyfriend needed to rent one of the paddle boats. After some complaining on my part because the life vests were soaked and the boat seats were kinda wet, we paddled off towards the Jefferson Memorial.
When we finished paddling around we headed off to the American History Museum. Eric (boyfriend) really wanted to see some jacket in the Pop Culture exhibit and I needed to see Julia Child's kitchen. We didn't plan ahead and they were both closed for renovations. I'll be back to see that kitchen! We then headed through The Mall to the Natural History Museum, one of my favorites in DC. Since it was a Sunday it was totally overrun with children so we didn't spend a lot of time in it. Eric got in a cool drawing of a hippo before we got too anxious by the over populated rooms. Next up was the Air and Space Museum because we love planetarium shows. They were playing Journey to the Stars and Cosmic Collisions. We had seen Journey to the Stars together before so we watched Cosmic Collisions. I think it was my 4th or 5th time seeing it. After paddle boats and three museums we were pretty beat, but our bus back to the city wasn't for another two hours so we walked around a bit more, got a bite to eat, then walked to Union Station.
By the time we got to the station, I was really excited to be getting back to the city. I had an awesome mini-vacation in DC and everyone should see the cherry blossoms somewhere if possible. I had seen cherry blossoms in Japan before and there are some in NYC, but the magnitude of all the blossoms in DC is breathtaking.
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