Cherry blossom sunrise: 2013 edition

A few years ago I decided to view the famed Tidal Basin cherry blossoms at sunrise. I loved it so much that I've returned every year since to catch a glimpse of those blossoms in that stunning morning light (and avoid crowds). This year the whole family joined me! Amelia wasn't too thrilled to be woken up at 5:30, but Elsa the morning person was excited immediately (translation: she never stopped talking once she woke up). Everyone perked up when we settled down under the blossoms to have our breakfast picnic of donuts and chocolate milk and wait for the sun to rise. It was fun to see/hear Elsa's amazement when the sun finally popped up. I'm so glad I finally got to enjoy this with the whole family.

 

While the crowds were definitely at a minimum compared to evenings and weekends, there were SO. MANY. tripods and photographers lining the Tidal Basin. It was a bit treacherous trying to get around them. But you only get a few peak days of blossom perfection out of the entire year and I think we hit it just right. Plus, the weather was gorgeous (thankfully we managed to get home before temperatures climbed to 90 degrees that day).

I love the trees around the FDR Memorial. The kids spent most of their time running around here, being chased by Ben, while I took some photos.

The girls were pretending to be otters.

A bird enjoying the view.

I love the colors around the George Mason Memorial.

The loop around Hains Point is always gorgeous.

And a few iphone photos:

 

Oliver just couldn't make it to his usual nap time. And neither could I. This sunrise adventure wore us both out and I might have taken a nap as soon as we got home. This baby, more than any of the others, has really been wearing me down. We're getting close though...

2012 sunrise here.
2011 sunrise here.
2010 sunrise here.

tidal basin: the pink version

It's hard to believe that this is our 8th year seeing the cherry blossoms in D.C. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the gift of the trees from Japan so there are tons of events going on for the next month to celebrate. The blossoms peaked much sooner than they usually do.

The last few years I have gone down at sunrise to see the blossoms and loved it so I went down again this year. It was cloudy nearly every morning this past week but finally Friday morning had a forecast of sun. I think all the photographers waited until Friday because the Tidal Basin was completely filled with tripods and monster lenses. It's such an interesting scene and this year seemed particularly crazy. While walking around I saw a car accident, a serious altercation between two runners who ran into each other (D.C. folks are a little uptight), and a woman crashed on her bike right in front of me.

Despite the craziness, it was a really beautiful morning (even if it was a bit hazy) and I loved taking my time wandering the tidal basin (without a stroller) and enjoying the early morning lighting. It was so interesting how much the blossoms had changed from our visit at the beginning of the week, transforming from white to pink.

Cherry blossom paparazzi!

I decided to change things up a bit this year and brought my bike with me. The Tidal Basin is a crazy place to navigate on bike so after I walked around there I rode my bike around Hains Point. It was such a beautiful, peaceful ride along a road entirely lined with blossoming trees. There were hardly any people around and blossoms were raining down on the path as I rode along.