The Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC was, ostensibly, the main purpose of my visit there April 6-9. My mother, sister, niece, nephew and brother drove up from South Carolina on my suggestion to see the nation's capital for the first time. Rei flew in from Vegas to join us there.

Since I had been to DC many times, I planned out the trip ahead of time, so that we would always know where we were going next, which eating places would be close by, which buses and metro trains we should take, etc. I like schedules and order. On the agenda were the National Air & Space Museum, the National Zoo, Cherry Blossom Parade, Arlington National Cemetary, a Karsten-guided tour of the memorials and monuments of The Mall's west side, and then a final walk around the tidal basin and Jefferson Memorial to see the cherry trees in their explosion of pink blossoms.

The best laid plans..... never work.

About twelve days before the trip the blossoms peaked. They last for two weeks at the very most, under the perfect weather conditions. There was to be no perfect weather, however. A squall the weekend before our arrival shredded every petal, and there would be no cherry blossoms available to view for our trip. This didn't change much of the schedule, though, since viewing blossoms was only to be a side-activity while seeing other sights.

Damn the weather! Chill and rain would not surrender the city to our exploratory pleasures, and so on Friday, on waking to find falling wetness, we headed for the protection of the National Air & Space Museum. The kids had tons of fun seeing the Spirit of St Louis, Apollo Moon lander and space suits and the Skylab and assorted space stuffs. I learned that I weigh 300 pounds on Jupiter, which is only a bit more than my youngest brother does on Earth.

Due to the inclement weather, we had already decided to postpone our trip to the National Zoo from Friday afternoon to Sunday. While we were inside the museum the weather cleared up so I decided we'd just do our tour of The Mall instead. Kimber and Colt had fun running around the open space, and riding the oldest operating merry-go-round. Finally we made it down to the Washington Monument, to the WWII Memorial, then to the Lincoln Memorial & Vietnam Vets Memorial. We skipped the Korean War Memorial because my mother and sister seemed to be quite tired and ready to get off of their feet as we'd done a lot of walking.

Rei and I went out with his friends Friday night. A couple of them live in the DC area and others of them had flown in from Vegas and ridden down from New York. We went to a couple of bars, the first extremely crowded. I'm quite sure it was a fire hazard of some kind. I've never seen a place packed quite so severely. The drinks were strong, though. From there we took a cab to a bar called TomTom's (?) in Adams-Morgan. The drinks there were terrible. Though I asked for whiskey sour, I was somehow mistakenly given kerosene and whale fat. We opted to walk back to the hotel, which was about one and quarter miles away, instead of paying a cab for the three minute drive. Tipsy people walk superfast.

Saturday morning was supposed to see us lining up along Constitution Ave at 9am to get a good view of the Cherry Blossom Parade. However, it was again cold and wet, and so I told the kids they'd have to watch it on television from the hotel. Arlington Cemetary was also scrubbed. That afternoon, despite the drizzle, we did head down to The Mall and saw that there were quite a few festival vendors still out, mostly asian food and tshirt sellers. My sister bought the kids a couple of shirts. Since they're only three and four, that and the photos will probably be the only way they remember the trip. Anyhow, My mom, her husband, who was supposed to be in Houston getting ready to go to Iraq to work for Halliburton but who failed his physical because he has emphysema from smoking too much, Rei and I went to the Holocaust Museum. I'd had to advance reserve timed tickets, and had only gotten four. We had planned for my sis and the kids to stay at the hotel while we visited here, but now my mom's husband was taking my brother's ticket, so my brother and sister and the kids went to the Museum of National History. Lots of dead animals there for them to enjoy.

That night Brandy, Kimber, Colt, Rei and I went down to Chinatown to eat at Tony Cheng's. The crab rangoon there was muy delicious. Muy.

Sunday, the last day of the trip, we finally were able to go up to the National Zoo, which is free and operated by the Smithsonian. It's definitely not the largest or greatest zoo I've been too, but it was nonetheless crowded. Most of the animals, however, seemed to be taking a siesta. They need more animals there. From what I could see, the only species they had in plurality were asian elephants, beavers and pandas. They had about fifty bazillion different species of alligator, however. But ONE prarie dog....? It was like a solitary confinement prison for animals. One tiger. One lioness. One gorilla.

My niece, Kimber, was very excited when I mentioned there was a Komodo dragon. She kept demanding we see the dragon. When we finally saw it, she was pissed. She said it was a lizard not a dragon. Every kid's gotta learn dissappointment sometime.

After having lunch at the Lion Mane Cafe, where the kids, and Rei, recieved their foods in plastic panda heads, we headed for home. Though I enjoyed spending time with my family, I was quite happy to have my own vehicle to drive back home.

I didn't take a lot of photos, mostly because of the weather and also because I've been to DC bunches of times so I've got photos of a lot of the stuff we visited already. It was my first time at the National Zoo, though, so there are several from there. Not very good ones....


Colt on The Mall





Kimber and Colt splashing me at the megafountain in front of the National Gallery of Art on Constitution Ave.





Kimber and Colt chasing ducks at the reflecting pool of Lincoln Memorial.





Kimber and Colt enjoying tulips at Washington Circle.





Colt, Brandy and Kimber at the entrance to the National Zoo.





Quite a bit more impressive than the bare cherry trees were the many brightly colored tulips.





Yeah, his trunk nose is bigger than mine.





It was difficult getting a good photo of the pandas, as the exhibit was under renovation and the crowd control was not so well planned as in San Diego. This is the sleeping mama panda, Mei Xiang. Tai Shan, the nine-month old cub, was hiding out of sight.





The papa panda, Tian Tian, eating.





Giraffe eating from a basket. Wonder how long it takes his food to reach his stomach?





The Capybara, which is a giant rodent native to South America. And if you're Catholic and don't like fish, the Vatican says Capybara is an acceptable substitute during Lent.





A curious beaver.





This is a terrible photo..... getting the autofocus on my camera to ignore the fencing and tree branches was a task. Anyhow, here is a Bald Eagle.





One of the many alligators and crocodile at the National Zoo. They must have raided a swamp or something to create the reptile exhibit. The ferocious beast pictured is a Cuban crocodile. I can't think of a good Coast Guard joke to insert here.





A somewhat depressing sight, like a homeless man on a steam vent, this gorilla was curled up asleep by herself at the base of the high concrete wall surrounding her enclosure.





Colt, my nephew, at the tiger fountain.





I've seen more pussy at a gay bar than was on show here at the big cat exhibit at the National Zoo. The photo is the lone tiger.





Karsten (me) and Rei, in an out-of-focus club photo from Friday night, April 7, 2006. I can't remember the name of the place, but I think it was near M & 18th NW.