DC Cherry blossom

Once again.... we went to D.C. Tidal Basin for the beautiful cherry blossom.

I never thought Washington D.C. could be so crowded before my first visit to Cherry Blossom festival. And after you experience that once, you understand why. Not only the people living near by would take the chance of cherry contemplation but also tourists from everywhere in US want to let cherries awake them out of the long gloomy winter.

This year the weather is a bit chilly in April but just to see so many people join this activity with the spring spirits warm us up. We walked around the area and I took as many photos as possible (though a bit hard with the crowd and my hon thinks I'm a bit obsessed with photo shooting :D).

Everyone looks so happy and that is contagious I think. The spot we took this picture is very hot. Every couple took turn for photo shooting and we helped each other too. Being friendly is surely one of the American qualities.


After the cherry, we went to World War II Monument to take a rest. It's freshing to walk around the fountain and we saw many tour guides explaining this monument to the tourists. I remember the first time I came here there was nobody. Just me and the monument but in April festival season, all the places near the Mall are crowded by visitors. And I think it's a great treat for visitors that all the D.C. museums are free, so they can visit as many as they want during the stay.

Where else we could go to feel the spring more? We chose to walk to National Gallery.

We all face some problems when visiting so many famous museums in an intensive period of time, we'll start to forget which paintings are in which museum. That happens to us too. That's why revisit the museum is a great thing to do. To remember again those paintings to our own taste. I specially paid attention this time on Flemish painters, to check on Rembrandt and Vermeer... We both think The Frick collection in New York has better Vermeer's works than the National Gallery. :D Isn't that amusing? And we also went to see Degas' huge painting of ballet girls and Toulouse' several paintings. I asked why all of the paintings of Toulouse and Da Vinci are covered with glasses and they told me it's because they are more valuable for the Gallery and/or they were like that when purchased before. This made me cheer up to know Degas, Toulouse (my favorite painters) are more valuable than Renoir and Rembrandt for National Gallery.

We all think next time we should spend the whole day revisit each inch of National Gallery again, both west and east wings. You'll never know how long you will stay at one city in your life, won't you?! And before we went back to metro stop, we found Newseum building stood just in front of National gallery entrance which will be open on April 11th. And after check more info about this museum, surprisingly we found out that it probably will be one of the rare museums not free in DC area and admission is $20 for adult except on the opening day. So that means I'll GO for sure. :D