a day in DC with cherry blossoms

As I wrote on Facebook, my friend Lynne and I went into DC on Monday to see the Annie Leibowitz display (Pilgrimage) at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art (or whatever it's name is).  Since the museum doesn't open until 11:30, we decided to stop off to see the cherry blossoms.  The paths around the Tidal Basin had lots of tourists, although they were not impossibly crowded, and many, many cherry trees all blooming.  We took photos - quite a few.  I'll post a few here.  It was a lovely sunny day, but not too hot.  Just perfect for being outside.

After seeing the blossoms, we went into China Town and ate lunch.  Boy has that place changed since I was last there!  There are all these US stores with their names written in Chinese.  I think we saw ONE Chinese restaurant.  We didn't actually go under the arch, but just went along the street the Metro is on, so perhaps there are authentic Chinese stores and restaurants on the other streets.  We ate at a place that seemed Asian and featured broiled chicken.  Delicious food.  We did go into one Chinese store - it was amazing!   They had very inexpensive embroidered house slippers (I bought a pair) and
 shelf after shelf of lovely pottery, which I managed to resist.  Lots of Chinese spices too and other foods.

After lunch, we went to the museum.  The photography display was interesting.  She is a marvelous photographer.   If left me wondering how Annie L. selected the places she would visit.  Each photo was connected to a person (at least most of them were).  The people were not all Americans - several were English.  Some were writers, some artists, some pop stars (Elvis), quite a variety.  We didn't have time to visit the rest of the museum.  I plan to go back one of these days.