Intro
The National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. is not just an event; it's a celebration of beauty, culture, and the enduring friendship between the United States and Japan. This festival marks the season when over 3,000 cherry trees, gifted to Washington D.C. by Tokyo in 1912, burst into a sea of pink and white blossoms depending on the type of cherry tree. Apparently the initial gift was represented by 12 different varieties. Two varieties, the Yoshino and Kwanzan, are now the most common type.
Mostly Yoshino cherry trees circle the Tidal Basin and spill north onto the Washington Monument grounds. Yoshino cherries produce many single white blossoms that create the effect of white clouds around the Tidal Basin.
Interspersed within the Yoshino trees are a small number of Akebono cherry trees, a mutation of the Yoshino cherry with single, pale‑pink blossoms.
The Akebono cherry trees flower around the same time as the Yoshino, providing a tint of pink to the billowing white Yoshino petals. You'll need to wander over to East Potomac park to spy the Kwanzan trees with their heavy clusters of pink double blossoms.
For those who live in and around DC, it is easy to get to visit it during the peak bloom to view their magnificence in their entirety but for those who have to travel to get there, a bit of research and a good dose of luck is needed. Make no mistake, though, even if you miss peak bloom by a week or two you'll still have some wonderful views.
The Timing
The festival typically spans four weekends, starting in late March and running through mid-April. This year the peak bloom occurred on March 17th so it was one of the earliest on record but, that being said, when I got there on March 25th there were still an amazing amount of blossoms on the trees. I had been tracking weather predictions and temperatures since January to try and guess the best timing and it worked out very well this year. Last year, we missed the peak by about 3 weeks and saw very little still on the trees.
One of the factors in the blooms staying for any length of time is whether the trees get a blast of cold and high wind days after their peak. a couple days of weather like that and the trees will lose those precious petals.
Fortunately this year the weather was relatively warm and calm after the peak with only one day, Saturday March 23 being windy and wet. This worked in our favor though as they postponed the Cherry Blossom Festival day down at the DC Wharf until the following Saturday March 30th, when we would be there!
The heart of the festival lies along the Tidal Basin, where the bulk of the cherry trees were planted. The sight of the Jefferson Memorial, seen at top, framed by the delicate blossoms offered a near postcard-perfect moment. I will have to photoshop out the paddle boats though! Be forewarned, it is very busy there during the festival.
Where to Stay
While we used to always stay in Georgetown, this time we decided to try an area I happened upon last year; the DC Wharf. Phase two of the Wharf opened in 2022 and it is an amazing place to stay. There are dozens upon dozens of restaurants, bars, cafes, and a handful of quaint shops. Not too much for shopping though so this is a spot to go for the cuisine and nightlife for sure.
The wharf is pedestrian only, with bike paths of course, and can be accessed easily by foot from the L'Enfant or Waterfront Metro Stations. There are lots of piers that have been built up that have activities such as a games area, a concert area, a relaxation pier and so on. There is even a large fire pit seating area that has S'more kits you can buy and toast on Thursdays through Sundays.There is also a large parkade underneath the runs nearly the length of the Wharf area. More on that below.
We stayed at the InterContinental DC The Wharf (an IHG hotel) for most of the trip and had our last night at the Canopy Hilton (free reward night TYVM). Both were awesome but the IHG was a bit nicer overall. It has an amazing rooftop pool that, yes, was even open during our visit! The hotel had a lovely fitness center which admittedly I did not visit other than to take some pictures. To be fair, I did probably walk about 20 miles during the whole trip so rest assured I got in my exercise!
A little bit about the IHG. They have a very weird policy that they charge you a fee for some things but then you supposedly get a credit back on it if you use it in the hotel. We had one such fee but in the lobby I overheard a clerk explaining another type of fee to another couple so it might depend on the room. Anyhow, we had paid for the room in full ahead of time and were expecting only the valet (don't bother) and pet fee ($75 for full stay). Nope.
We were informed there would be a $30 per day charge but that we would get $15 dollar credit per day to both the minibar and the lobby bar. The other couple apparently had an $80 daily fee (in addition to the $30) but the same in credit to something else I didn't hear. Long story longer, unless you use the credit then it is money thrown away. Obviously a ploy by the hotel to make you spend on their property and not at the nearby restaurants like our new favorite there: Hell's Kitchen.
Long story longer, we used the credit as best we could without spending more there as it was very pricey, only to find that we'd been charged for everything in full and no credit issued at checkout by the girl working the counter that morning. We got an alert from our credit card that charges had hit so I went back to the hotel to enquire as to why. Fortunately I was able to flag down a manager and got the money returned but take heed. Keep track of your purchases and request and inspect a final bill to make sure you get your credits applied. Apart from that bit of bother, I really liked the hotel and our view was spectacular as well.
Oh yeah, parking. Just self park. It will cost you $60 a day (yikes) but you can save $5 a day doing so, with no tip needed, plus you can access your car whenever you want. I didn't know self parking was so easy else I'd have done so at the outset. We used the car once while there to go out and of course a tip is expected every time. Upon return I just parked it myself. The Hilton and Hyatt house properties have an elevator that go straight down to the parkade. The IHG did not, with the nearest elevator access about 100 feet away so it is best to unload luggage by the front doors before parking. There are several vehicle access points to the parkade, the best for me was the one by the Hilton loop since it made getting a left turn onto Maine easiest as there was a traffic light there.
Getting to the Tidal Basin
So this was the reason I wanted to stay at the Wharf. It is a nice 25 minutes walk from the Wharf to the Tidal Basin area where you can explore the whole area. When you first exit the Wharf you pass by a cool fish market and then under and over a couple bridges. It will take you right to the north eastern shore with the Washington monument behind you and the Jefferson Memorial across the bay.
Lots of food trucks and crowds are here too but still it is very fun. You'll have plenty of photo ops along this shore like the one at the top of this blog. There is also the Floral Library in this area with several tulip beds that are in bloom during the spring. It all makes for a lovely shot with the monument behind.
If you cross the Outlet bridge before you move into the parking lots with the food trucks, you can walk over to get to the Jefferson Monument. It is just past here that we found Stumpy. You may have read in the news of late about Stumpy. It has gained quite a bit of celebrity over the years.
Stumpy is a cherry tree that has exceptionally stunted growth due to the constant inundation of salt or brackish tidal waters that flood the area it is planted in.
Despite these harsh conditions it has persevered over the years and stubbornly provides blooms for all to see every year.
Unfortunately, 2024 is his last year. Stumpy, along with numerous others will be cut down this summer after the bloom. The tidal waters in this section are just becoming worse every year with the rising sea levels and the increased flooding activity. They plan to plant additional trees in an area of higher ground to replace those cut but, for many, losing Stumpy is a sad event. There were more crowds at Stumpy queueing up for a picture than there were at any other spot we saw.
Making our way back to the hotel we passed once more through the food truck area to grab an ice cream. Once we finished we had a very odd event happen. A Police helicopter decided to come over and hover at low altitude for several minutes above the cherry trees nearby and caused an absolute hurricane of white blossom petals and dust to go everywhere.
The kids loved it. The park rangers not so much. Man, were they mad. I think the cops were just having a bit of sport but they made a pretty big mess. I happened to shoot a video of it seen above. If you look carefully, you'll see two port-a-potties blow over in the chopper draft. Sure hope they were empty!!!
The Kite Festival
Our last day there we walked back over to the Washington Monument to take part in the kite festival. This was absolute chaos and delightful. There were some professional displays and events but for the most part it was just thousands of people all ages out flying a kite on the Monument grounds.
We got a kite to partake, for about a half hour before we got fouled with others, but it was awesome. There was also a Japanese drum concert that was quite a sight to see.
Words cannot really do it justice so I'm just going to let the pics and videos do that...
Yeah, it was a truly unique experience that I recommend for all.
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