Really? This is it? A bunch of pink trees around a tidal basin? This is what I waited in line to get a Metro ticket for; braved crowded trains for; and endured a 45-minute trip for?
I’m not impressed.
The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a much ballyhooed conglomerate of events that signifies the oncoming of spring. And though Washington puts on a festive air with parades, runs for charity and other related events, let’s face it: Those pink trees are pretty overrated.
Now don’t get me wrong – there are a number of activities that the city holds aside from the actual viewing of the trees. Promotions such as the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, fireworks and cultural festivals are unique and enjoyable avenues for tourists and locals to enjoy what Washington has to offer. Although not big on parades, I personally enjoyed volunteering for the parade on Constitution Avenue – which included performances by former participants on American Idol and Miss America – and attending the cultural festival afterward, which showcased many Japanese traditions.
But come on; we’re talking about a bunch of pink trees. For those of you who smartly passed on a trip from College Park to the nation’s capital this weekend (on what some were calling the “peak day of blooming”), here is what you unfortunately missed. Twenty-minute lines just to get a Metro pass if you did not have a SmarTrip card. A 45-minute trip in packed trains and with crying babies. Crowded Metro centers and walking lanes, and seas of people everywhere.
Yet here’s what really got me, and what I found laughable at best: I had forgotten just how few trees actually surround the tidal basin. The way this event is described, it’s as if somewhere hidden near the Washington Monument, there is a huge forest of pink cherry blossom trees that everyone from the world comes to witness in beautiful bloom. That’s not what I saw, though. (For the record, the flowers weren’t even that pink; they were more like a pasty, slightly blushed white – what a rip-off.)
Maybe it was just this year or maybe I went on the wrong day, but for someone who genuinely appreciated viewing the trees for their aesthetic beauty and presence on the tidal basin in past years, I was left with distaste for what the festival and the trees themselves had to offer this time around. To quote a friend, “If I knew it was going to be this much work to see a bunch of pink trees, I would have just looked outside my neighbor’s yard; he’s got plenty of them.”
Ope Laniyonu is a junior international business and marketing major. He can be reached at laniyonudbk@gmail.com.
