DC Visit for Cherry Blossoms

I'm one lucky guy.  At least when it comes to timing trips with the show that Cherry Blossom trees put on.  Last year, I was in Tokyo during the Cherry Blossom season and documented it here on the blog.

And earlier this month, I found myself in our nation's capital when their own Cherry Blossom trees were on full display.   Double bucket list visits, right?

I also brushed up on the reason for why the Cherry Blossom trees are even there.

Each year, the National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, DC. The gift and annual celebration honor the lasting friendship between the United States and Japan and the continued close relationship between the two countries.

My trip to Washington D.C. was brief, but I was able to take in the trees from a few different vantage points.  (I've posted about another trip to DC all the way back in 2012 when I took this photo of the Washington Monument.)

I thought that the trees were mostly around the tidal basin, but it turns out that the trees are everywhere.  3,000 of them make quite an impact.

I was so struck by my visit to Tokyo last year that when I came across a flowering cherry tree last Spring, I brought it home and planted it in our #newoldbackyard.  In July, I did a quick follow-up post showing how it appeared to have 'taken' after being planted.  This will be our first Spring with the tree in the ground and based on the small amount of flowers that the tree had at the nursery, I'm hopeful that we'll get a small 'show' of sorts as the flowers emerge.