Drama at the Cherry Blossoms

It is finally spring!! These are pictures from another one of our adventures in MD...but this time we had Julie, her boyfriend James, and his adorable little brother Braden along for the ride. Our day started out fabulous...gorgeous sunny day (windy, but sunny).  A fun "train" ride down (the metro), which the girls loved. Half price metro tickets- since it was the weekend.Two very happy little girls.  Some of my favorite people all set out to enjoy the Cherry Blossoms in DC while in PEAK BLOOM! I was so thrilled. I had looked forward to this all week. 

When we got off the metro it struck me how crowded the city was. I figured it would be, since it was Saturday during the Cherry Blossom festival. But when it took us over 30 minutes just to  wait in line for the bathroom, I realized it was really crowded. Nonetheless, the Cherry Blossoms were simply breathtaking. I just wish I could have enjoyed them more. I spent a good part of the time we walked around the tidal basin apologizing to people for running into them with my double stroller. It was WAY too crowded for a stroller, and with people stopping every two feet to take pictures, I kept running into them! 

Anyways, we were still enjoying ourselves, until about 3/4 the way around the tidal basin Abi got tired and started to cry, at which point I realized it was past 2pm...time for her second nap, and she already missed her first one. We also hadn't had any lunch and couldn't find food anywhere. The girls were starving. No problem, I thought, we'll just walk the next mile back to the mall and find food there before heading back on the metro. Simple, right?

That was before we had to cross the bridge. That is what I will call it. There was no other way around the tidal basin but to cross it. And it was a bridge to a major road that had concrete barriers on either side of the side walk to protect the pedestrians. That was great, but it meant only about 3 feet of side walk and absolutely NO where to go on either side of that. If you could manage to hop over the 3 feet high barriers, you'd fall in the tidal basin or onto the busy DC  street. 

As we approached the bridge we noticed people were  just inching along. I thought it may take a good 15 minutes to cross. Well, that was before my double-wide double stroller entered the bridge. There was just enough room for the stroller and one other person walking the other direction. I started getting dirty looks right away. But that was mild compared to when other stroller, bikes and double-wide strollers came at me from the other direction. It was like two cars on a one way road with hundreds of cars behind each other. I had NO idea what to do. To top it off Abigail had just dozed off right before the bridge, so taking the kids out meant waking up a very cranky baby. It got so bad, that other Moms with strollers and pedestrians behind me said some of the meanest things. I wasn't saying anything but lots of "I'm sorry's". I felt bad for the traffic jam, but what was I supposed to do with two kids? About 30 minutes into it my eyes were teared up and I really wished Joe was there. Almost ONE HOUR later we made it over the bridge (it should have taken 5 minutes). That was only thanks to a bunch of people willing to help lift strollers over other strollers (I kept cringing, imaging my girls getting dropped into the tidal basin below). 

After the bridge I thought, "That was really horrible, but at least we can get some food now". Well, after walking up and down the national mall, the only places to eat had like 100 people in line! Ok, not doing that. So we headed to the metro station. And I kid you not, there were so many people waiting to get on the escalaters that take you down to the metro, that it never moved. It looked like 500 people waiting just to get TO the metro stop. 

At this point it was 3:3opm, we hadn't eaten, girls hadn't napped, we couldn't get food and we couldn't get home. At this point I just laughed (there were many other times that day I wish I had just laughed). I was preparing myself for laying down on the mall grass and bracing for a looong afternoon. 

But God provided, as he always does. A few blocks away we found a hot dog stand for some food. And a few miles away we found a little known metro station that we could walk right into. And through it all Abigail was still asleep. 

Julie, James & Braden were troopers. We left at 9am thinking we'd get home by 2pm. By the end James was carrying his 5 year old brother, Braden, on his back the miles to the metro station!

Honestly, by the end, my attitude wasn't the greatest. I wish I could say I was cheerful through it all. But once we got home I realized that day would turn out to be one of those great, unforgettable memories in the end, that wasn't so funny in the moment :) 

I wished all week I could go back on a non-crowded day, with out a stroller (not sure how I'd manage that), to enjoy how gorgeous it all was. But I think I'm gonna need to give it a while before I muster up the courage to go back to DC any time soon  :)