National Cherry Blossom Festival
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The cherry blossom festival is an annual spring festival in the US capital city Washington DC to mark the gifting of cherry trees by Japan on 27th March, 1912. It’s celebrated around peak blossom and each year’s dates are evaluated on weather forecasts but usually happens around March-April.
The commonest types seen are Yoshino followed by Kwanzan. Both of these together contribute more than 80% in total. For others, read here.
For a brief history by NPS, read here.
We have been visiting the festival regularly but not it’s not like an annual pilgrim that we have to attend. Below is a brief snapshot of all our visits based on what we remember.
2015
This was our first visit ever and since we didn’t have a car, we went with some friends taking trains. We first took the light rail till Baltimore Penn Station from where we took the MARC train to Washington Union Station.
Follow the Penn-Union MARC schedule here.
We loved the cherry blossom and had quite a walk and witnessed quite a ruckus at the Penn station while going back. I think we missed our train and had to take another one.
2016
We didn’t go because we were in Hagerstown, Maryland.
2017
We went with some friends and had a great time. This time again we went via trains since parking is always a hassle at DC.
2018
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We went with some friends and met many others at DC. Like other previous visits, we mostly took a stroll around the tidal basin and the mall area. This time, we drove to DC and I remember parking near the bridge over Potomac which was quite a walk from the blossoms at tidal basin.
2019, 2020, 2021
We didn’t go.
2022
This was the first visit with Navya. She loved it but the weather was bad — windy, chilly and it even rained for a while. We had a fabulous time nonetheless. We had parked at East Potomac Park.
2023
We didn’t go.
2024
This was the first visit with my mom since she was with us on her maiden trip to the USA. We circled around the tidal basin for the first time. We had parked at East Potomac Park. For dinner, we went to CAVA.
2025
This was definitely the best visit ever since we meticulously planned our entire day. We first went to Urban Roast for an amazing breakfast and some blossom themed cocktails. We got street parking right at the restaurant. We then parked our car nearby using SpotHero and went to explore magnolia and cherry blossoms at various locations on foot including
- National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden and absolutely loved the Graft. There is a public bathroom here.
- Smithsonian Gardens around Smithsonian Castle. The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art are in the same campus.
- Washington Monument — The kite festival was ongoing.
- Tidal Basin.
We had dinner planned at a nearby Middle Eastern Restaurant so we walked back to our parking spot but before driving to Dupont Circle, had a little break at Capitol City Brewing Company to sample their craft beer.
Ala is an amazing restaurant and we were again lucky to get street parking.
We spent some time walking around the area which has some amazing restaurants and cafes and promised ourselves to visit the area again since a few places to visit remains. We were tired by almost 5 miles of walking and had to make a stopover at an Indian restaurant for Navya’s lunch before we call it a day.
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BG.
