Cherry Blossoms

I spent this past weekend in Washington DC with a few of my friends….the purpose of this little escapade was to see some of the many sites that our Capitol has to offer…it was, after all, the beginning of Spring Break and we thought it would be fun to torture our children with educational stuff. However, this weekend was also the kickoff of the Cherry Blossom Festival. The Cherry Blossom trees were a gift to the United States from Japan in 1912 and they surround the Tidal Basin. Each year, during the first few days of April the trees say goodbye to winter and welcome the warm spring air with their delicate little white and pale pink blooms. It is a beautiful site indeed. I post a link to the National Cherry Blossom “Bloom Watch” site. We saw only a few early risers.
CherryBlossomWatch

While in Washington, we rode the carousel, saw The White House, and visited The Museum of Natural History and the National Portrait Gallery that had the most amazing collection of presidential portraits (did you know that there is not an admission charge to all National museums!!!). Considering there were two college-bound teenagers on the trip, we also decided to visit Georgetown University. The neighborhood surrounding the university is absolutely striking with crisply painted, meticulously maintained houses and quaint little gardens and shops. We rode the METRO (very exciting for the little kids), got off at the Foggy Bottom station and walked for (what seem to be) miles to the University. We purchased the requisite sweatshirts (because we are, of course, collecting sweatshirts from all the universities we visits….I wear my one HAWKS sweatshirt so much that it is almost falling apart) and snapped pictures like all silly little tourists…it was an enjoyable weekend.

The local Starbucks was a frequent benefactor of our visit and I naturally had to order the special drink of the weekend…a chocolate, cherry latte (decadent, but certainly not Flat-Belly Diet approved!). This inspired me to look for other chocolate-cherry recipes and I found a yummy one on Allrecipes.com that I will serve on Easter, along with the expected (and equally tasty) annual treat…white layer cake, with lemon curd filling and butter cream-coconut icing. The chocolate cake is made totally from scratch, but I use a box cake and homemade icing for the lemon cake so it's semi-homemade.

I also found a pattern for a knitted dish towel with a cherry pattern on Ravelry.com that I whipped out in no time at all. I used a white cotton yarn and size 8 needles (I will use a smaller needle the next time because I think the pattern is too loose). There are many rows to this pattern and I found that having a notepad handy on which I made a tick at the beginning of each row was very helpful and kept me from getting confused about which row I was on (I need all the help I can get!)and with this pattern, it is actually important that you knit as instructed or the pattern will be distorted. I had to rip a few rows out, but finally got it down. The yarn arrived today from Australia....I can't wait to begin the sweater!

I hope you all have a joyous Easter! Be safe if traveling.