March 29, 2021, me and the missus woke up at 5 am to make it to the Tidal Basin in Washington DC in time to watch the sunrise over the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. It wound up being a magical experience that I’m glad I captured in 4K for everyone else to enjoy.
If you plan to make this journey yourself, be sure to park on West Basin Dr SW. We parked a few steps from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
Since I was concerned about having a parking spot, we left our house at 5:30 am and arrived at our parking spot off Ohio Dr SW at 5:50 am. 5:50 am was too early to because the sun didn’t start rising for another 30 minutes.
But, it’s better to be early than late for an event like this. What’s crazy is that this entire experience is free minus the cost of gar and parking.
If I were to do it again, I’d make plans to have breakfast in DC. But, since there’s a pandemic, I didn’t want to increase my chances of interacting with other humans because I already have a job where I encounter several people on a weekly basis.
When I prepared for the voice-over for my video, I looked up information about the history of the Cherry Tree and why Washington DC has a Cherry Tree celebration.
My search for more information bought me to the National Park Service article about the chronological history of the Cherry Tree in Washington DC. If you love viewing cherry trees in full bloom, you should thank the following characters who played roles in the experience we enjoy today:
- Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore
- Dr. David Fairchild
- First Lady, Helen Herron Taft
- Dr. Jokichi Takamine
- Yukio Ozaki
Use the following link to read the entire store about the history of the Cherry Tree in Washington DC:
What I found interesting about the story is that two thousand trees were donated by Japan in 1909 and every tree except a dozen were burned due to bugs.
How crazy is it to know that bugs almost stopped our Cherry Trees from making it to the Tidal Basin?
Hopefully, the following walking tour video inspires you to visit the Tidal Basin the next time the Cherry Trees are in full bloom.
After you watch the video, let me know your favorite part in the comment section.
Enjoy!
Are you interested in other attractions around the DC Metro Area? If so, visit our page dedicated to different attractions around the DC Metro Area. The page is called, “Things To Do in the DMV”. Here’s the link to the page:
