cherry blossom festival, washington dc. ~

it all started a few years ago when my brother and his wife were running a race in dc the weekend of the cherry blossom festival. when they got home, they immediately let me know that the only people out and about that early were either the runners themselves or professional photographers. oh, and i needed to come up the next year to get in on the action!

andrew and i finally got our act together this year and headed up to dc for a long weekend during peak cherry blossom blooms. i’m not sure where to begin, but i will say this. rob and katherine are incredible hosts. dc is an amazing city. and over 250 frames later, i am wishing i was back for more! here is a photo account of our time up there, and trust me, i narrowed down the photos big time!

i don’t travel very often, so when i do, i love capturing city lights. here we are coming into dc.

i know this isn’t particularly spectacular, but i wanted you to see how massive the crowd was! it was like this everywhere!!

jefferson memorial.

we had gorgeous weather saturday and sunday of our trip, but saturday (as you can see above) was crazy windy. the branches were going wild, so andrew had to hold this branch so i could get the shot below.

thanks, hon!

did i mention the blossoms were in peak bloom?? they were so dense!!

the washington monument, of course.

where should we go for lunch? i had to laugh that everyone (myself excluded) pulled out their blackberry.

andrew actually grabbed this shot and it has become one of my fav. pics from the trip. i’m not sure what, but there’s something about it that i love!

the white house. if you look to the left, you’ll see the washington monument. one thing we loved about dc is that everywhere you look, you see a major monument or building. so cool.

on saturday we ended up walking about 10 miles, so a quick ride on the metro was definitely welcome.

on our way to the naval observatory open house, we walked past several embassies. i especially loved this one for vatican city. yes, they had their own embassy!

as the sun was setting, we walked past the national cathedral.

katherine grabbed this shot of andrew and i–i love it!

back at rob and katherine’s place, we enjoyed some homemade strawberry shortcake. rob and katherine are both amazing in the kitchen–it is such a treat to stay with them!

the next morning we headed out bright and early, after a quick stop at dunkin donuts of course, to try to beat the crowds.

it worked! we had an entire metro car to ourselves for several stops. while we’re on the topic, may i mention how much we loved the metro? it was our exclusive form of transportation for the weekend–no cars–and was incredibly convenient, clean, and easy to use! how do we get this in atl?

world war 2 memorial.

i am a fairly indecisive person, but i will have to say that this memorial was my fav. for so many reasons, one being that you had a great view of both the washington and lincoln monuments.

of course, the actual structure helped, too.

the lesser known world war 1 memorial.

more cherry blossoms…and a lot less crowded early in the morning!

at the sculpture garden, katherine, rob, and andrew are studying a modern piece.

rob (who is in the navy) at the navy memorial. super cool memorial.

train arriving at the metro station…

our last morning we attempted to get into the archives to see the declaration of indepence. after waiting in line for over an hour (did i mention it was raining?), we gave up and headed up the steps to check out the front of the building. when we reached the top of the steps to the national archives, we felt like jack in the bean stalk. anyone remember that fairy tale? we felt so tiny!! check out these doors!

being swallowed by the columns…

since it was raining, we made union station our last stop before heading to the airport.

the sounds and bustling activity at union station made for a different and fun experience. and i had no idea there were restaurant and shops inside?? i would definitely recommend stopping through here if you are in dc.

from here we headed home~

i am proud if you made it through all of these photos. we had such a great time visiting our nation’s capital and would love to make another trip up there. rob and katherine–thanks for your amazing hospitatlity and we’ll see you down here in 2 weeks!!

~