Since I also work at AccuWeather, I was able to travel to Washington DC to get some awesome pictures of the cherry blossom festival. They reached peak bloom on April 5th and I went to see them on the 11th. It was a gorgeous day out, mid-50’s, and I didn’t want to leave. Well, not until my lens broke of course! But overall, it was a very successful day. If you don’t believe me, you can check them out for yourself.

 

 

This was also my first time in DC which is hard to believe since I only live a few hours away. For me personally, it was a terrible day. My rental car had issues so I left and hour later than expected. Once I got to DC I forgot to put the tidal basin in the GPS so I was on the wrong side of town. I did get to do a short live video for work that you can view here.

But that’s not all — one of my lenses rolled out of my bag and inches away from the tidal basin. The other fell out because I forgot to close it and dented the lens mount. I’m thankful that all the glass is in tact but that was too close for comfort. Thankfully I always have more lenses to use and that’s why I love my macro! Extremely versatile, the Nikon 40 mm macro is one of my favorite lenses of all time.

 

I loved getting to see the memorials for the first time too! It was so cool to see them. I didn’t get enough time to see all of them but I would love to go back and just tour the monuments. American history is one of my favorite subjects. American Pickers & Pawn Stars on history channel, anyone? I could binge those shows for days.

The tidal basin itself is pretty cool. You can rent paddle boats and go around the tidal basin to view the monuments and cherry blossoms from the water. Definitely a must for next time since you can rent paddle boats that look like swans! I would have taken pictures but I don’t have other’s permission to post their faces in my name. Next time, for sure though.

With all the ups and downs of the day, my highlights were eating Waffle House for dinner because A) I love breakfast at any time of the day, and B) the closest Waffle House to my home is an hour and a half away. Also though, coming home to my boyfriend, Jon who knew I had a long, terrible day and just seeing his smiling face and coming into his warm, loving arms was all I needed. Especially since we celebrated our 2 year anniversary the day before. Enough talking though, check out he rest of these photos!