cherry blossoms. or not.

every year the cherry blossoms come and go and somehow i never make it to DC to see them. so this year i promised myself i'd go. i didn't have much of an idea where they were exactly, and driving in DC is my idea of hell, so... jesse took the wheel and i navigated and "recalculated" our way until we passed some pretty pink trees and found a parking spot.

funny story: the trees we stumbled upon weren't cherry blossoms. but more on that later. we sat in a quite a bit of traffic and zoe wasn't too happy about being confined to her carseat unless we were singing, dancing, and clapping simultaneously to WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU! which she sings as will we, will we... ROCK YOU. i like it better that way.


but we managed to enjoy most of the drive. she pointed out buildings and loved the tunnels and mostly we sang and took on the challenge of making traffic fun. and questioned ourselves a little bit about whether or not it'd be worth it. but the closer we got to the city, the better we felt. even though we only live 30 or so minutes away from DC, it just always feels good to be there.


we found a parking spot and started walking. i thought cherry blossoms were pink. or at least pink-ish in color. so when i saw these, i thought we hit the jackpot.


there were lots of other people taking pictures and a couple doing a photo shoot and then some nice lady came and handed zoe a handful of the flowers.




zoe loved the pink trees and we patted ourselves on the back for finding a quaint little spot with lots of pretty cherry blossom trees. come to find out... they are magnolias. and i need to read a book about plants. because i feel like that's just something i'd like to know. at least the prominent ones. especially when i live not far from DC... where we hold the cherry blossom FESTIVAL for goodness sake.





we walked a little farther to where we saw more people and a lot more trees. and some lady said as she walked by us and saw zoe with the flowers in her hands, oh! what beautiful magnolias! jesse and i just looked at each other and cracked up. and walked on... to the real thing.

i loved watching her underneath all of them. the white was really beautiful and i loved they way the arched together and created this little cove. it gives the same vibe as new fallen snow. so pure. but... there are pink ones too, right? or am i just dreaming? we saw a spot where there were a ton more cherry blossoms, and probably better ones, but we rather liked the cozy little place we found. and i loved seeing zoe's face like this...



i looked over at the world war II memorial and thought of the last time i was there, with my grandpa... when my family took him there and he met lots of other world war II veterans, and he got thanked, so genuinely and so often, for his service. and i remember reading him the different quotes carved into the marble and taking a picture with him next to one in particular that choked him up. and i remember being so proud of him that day and feeling so honored to be his granddaughter. so i took a long look and a deep breath and thought of him with love. but i didn't go over there because i knew i'd lose it.


zoe looked too. and people watched. and clutched tightly to her magnolia's from the stranger that decided to be sweet to a little girl. thank you stranger. (in the middle of our visit, she took off her boots and socks, and pulled her socks way up like this and put her boots back on and said that's better).


we headed over to the washington monument and i remembered my little sister telling me that the best way to see it was to lay on your back and put your feet up and look straight up. so we all did.

zoe loved that part. and after she looked up, she closed her eyes. it was the cutest thing.



man, that's big!


we came across this, and so i think it's a sign i should read it. thoughts?


good times. cherry blossoms or magnolia trees.... whatever. (edited to add: it was just brought to my attention that those are actually not magnolias, they are tulip trees. so for now, i give up on being a plant connoisseur).