100% Shot on Film, Straight from the Darkroom

If you are planning to visit Washington D.C. for their annual Cherry Blossom Festival, I highly recommend you do NOT go on the weekend. I have been there twice now, and I can tell you, if you are there Saturday morning, you will not be able to move.

One of the main bits of advice I can give you is that parking will be a problem unless you book a spot in advance. You should be prepared to do plenty of walking as well. If you want to reserve parking, I always use Spot Hero.

Speaking of parking, don’t expect to park close to anything you want to see. We had to walk about 9 blocks and that was one of the closest parking garages there were near Tidal Basin. Another thing, bring your own kite from home if you are there the weekend of the kite festival!

There are many food trucks parked around the outside of Tidal Basin, but only on the Washington Monument side. If you are on the east side, looking for food, you will be looking for a while. Speaking of a while, we waited for 2 hours to get 2 orders of chicken tenders and fries…so I highly suggest finding a restaurant or packing your own lunch!

There is no ATM anywhere close to anything!!!

We had to walk about 3 miles to get to the closest ATM in the lobby of a hotel. Apple Maps will tell you there is an ATM in the museums, however, unless you hold tickets for that day, they will not let you inside. Speaking of museums, if you think you are getting into one on the day you show up, you’re going to be horribly disappointed! You need to purchase all your museum tickets about a week in advance in order to get in.

The vendors, kite vendors, face painting, etc DO NOT TAKE credit cards. CASH ONLY!

Yes, we felt very safe, it was just my daughter and I, however, you must have a plan or it will be miserable. Thank you to Richard Photo Lab for these beautiful film scans!