Friday, April 04, 2008

Cherry Blossoms/The Hype

Many things simply aren't worthy of the hype they've managed to accumulate for themselves. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, for instance, or Roombas, or ecinacea. I'm sure we all have our personal lists. Every so often, though, something thumbs its nose at the laws of too-high expectations and actually proves itself worthy. Two soaring examples of this in DC are Ben's Chili Bowl and the cherry blossoms. Sure, Ben's has ridiculously long lines at nearly all hours of the day, and the Tidal Basin in late March/early April is inconceivably crowded with the most disgusting hordes of tourists, but at the end of the day...it's hard to explain. It's as if missing out on these things would be missing out on life itself.

I didn't make my usual pre-dawn trip to the Tidal Basin this year, but I managed to sneak in a late-afternoon stroll through the blossoms. As always, they filled my eyes with sparkly joy and made my heart giddy with beauty. Consider this my official addition to the Cherry Blossom Hype, then, I guess. Click on the pix below for a floral explosion.