Teeming

As clever as we thought we were driving across town early this morning to the National Arboretum in order to enjoy being outdoors on this beautiful spring day and yet avoid the crazy cherry blossom congestion, we got our comeuppance as we navigated home at noon. 

A journey that might usually take 20 minutes or so ended up three times as long, partially because of traffic, but also due to driver impatience. I bailed from the back up to get on the last leg of interstate to take us home, hoping I could weave our way through edges of town to hop back on before crossing the river, but I didn't take into account the fact that such a side route would be the route for many cherry blossom visitors. 

In fact, we actually ended up driving right by the Tidal Basin itself, ground zero for blossom watching. As we rolled slowly past, my eyes widened at the sight of so. many. people! walking five or six across and all the way around the 2.1 mile circumference of the Tidal Basin. 

I wondered if perhaps it had been made into a one-way thoroughfare to help move the congestion along, and I was reminded of another spring some years ago in a spot not so far away. Then, we were walking Haines Point just after the peak of the cherry blossoms when, looking down into the water, we saw the silver flash and glimmer of thousands of herring making their run around the peninsula from the Potomac into Washington Channel and back out again. It was a gleaming river within the river, and it was hard to look away and keep walking.

Today, I forced myself to regard the road and finally found the clear way I was looking for all along