It's Cherry Blossom season in Washington, D.C. so as a native I naturally wanted to see them. For the last couple of weeks now, tourist numbers have been swelling thus there have been a lot of people standing on the wrong side on the escalators, insisting on taking pictures such that anyone walking would have to cross between photographer and foreground subjects to get by, and generally making lunch lines longer. Most want to time a spring trip for the peak of the blossoms. My excursion from 14th and Independence Ave. went along the Washington Monument grounds to the WWII memorial then over Independence Ave. to the Tidal Basin, over the Kutz bridge and down Maine Ave. past the waterfront on Washington Channel to the Titanic memorial at Fort McNair. I returned to 12th and C Streets, SW. With 60 F mostly sunny weather, the pink buds on the cherry trees are starting to pop white. They should be at peak by the weekend. I had to negotiate foot traffic in places. The parking lot on the Tidal Basin off Maine Ave. was closed for the first time during Cherry Blossom season that I can remember but vendors were busy setting up food concessions probably for the upcomming festival. The park service decided to close the lot since everyone tries to head for the 180 spots (according to the Washington Post) and causes traffic jams that back up into Virginia. On the run I felt like I was struggling a bit to keep up the pace and haven't been running enough to be comfortable running every day yet. I didn't realize that I was running this pace.
