National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade

Visiting the cherry blossoms has been a wonderful tradition in my family. We would pack a picnic and head towards the tidal basin. The parade is a wonderful way to celebrate the ending of the cherry blossom season. Hubby and I usually work during the parade in the telecast area. The cherry blossom festival organization is non-​profit. The parade is free, however you can sit in a ticketed area for a closer view. Ticket sales help fund the various cultural activities that the festival sponsors.
I love watching the cherry blossom & lantern balloons. There are usually funny characters, including clowns on tricycles. The musical numbers are fun. I enjoy seeing the park police on horses. Bonus points to the clean up crew.

We were so lucky that we happen to be in town during the parade! The best view is from the Smithsonian American History Museum. You can go to the second floor and watch the whole parade in the shade without melting in the heat. The marching band and dancers were fantastic along with the Cherry Blossom balloons and floats. My 22 month old son was tapping his feet the whole time and cheering with the crowd. Bring the whole family because this is an awesome event for all. I would love to experience it again in the future.

When my friends Dave and Arienne wanted to visit the nation’s capital it so happened that the dates we agreed on for our trip was the same weekend that the National Cherry Blossom Festival was being held. I jumped at the idea of seeing all the historical buildings Washington had to offer while admiring the beautiful, blooming cherry blossoms around the area. I’ve always heard about how amazing the flowers are around the capital especially near the Tidal Basin. I also heard how great the festival parade was as well. So when I found out that I could get tickets to sit comfortably in one of the grandstands I was instantly sold.
So off we went to the parade on a beautiful Saturday morning. The ride into the capital was not so bad… in fact it was very easy. Coming from NJ/​NYC where you need a PhD to navigate the public transportation system, D.C.‘s is idiot proof. Just follow the color coded subway lines and you can get yourself to most parts of the capital and the surrounding cities. We stayed at Bethesda so we took the red line to the Metro Center stop, switched trains and got out at the Federal Triangle. From there it was just a short walk to Constitution Ave where the grandstands were. There were numerous highlights of the festival parade including an appearance by Lance Bass (of former N’Sync) and a performance by British singer, songwriter Estelle. They had some giant balloons including Doraemon and of course lots of marching bands from around the nation. I have to say it was an amazing experience, especially since I love parades in general. Being at the nation’s capital celebrating cherry blossoms while watching a great parade was just the icing on the cake!

After all these years, I finally had the chance to attend the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade.
The weather was cooperative (very nice considering the recent patterns), except that standing in one spot too long without shade proved to get very hot after awhile.
The section of the parade that was free for spectators was on Constitution Avenue right in front of the National Museum of American History (between 10^th and 14^th Streets). This section is easily accessible from the Federal Triangle Metro Station. The steps of the EPA made for some decent seats if you couldn’t get to one of the large flower pots that lined the road.
In at least one spot, they had a performance artist (singer) in between two marching bands — that was so not cool — it came out sounding like a bunch of noise. I couldn’t hear the singer at all nor could I separate the music sounds for each performance. I think that was a bad call — I hope that someone on the coordination team noticed and won’t do that again.
Overall, not bad but I’m still not sure how I feel about the guy selling «fresh» pretzels out of a Petco shopping cart… :/