Cherry Tree, Geocaches and Japanese Movies
Since work is slow I decided to spend the day in DC yesterday. And since I haven't updated this thing in a while and I'm in a writing (and procrastinating) mood I though I would put something here about it. I have a fondness for this time of year with the flowering trees in the area start to bloom. One of the events I anticipate every year is the Cherry Blossom festival. That was my main reason for visiting the city.
The National Cherry Blossom festival is almost over. It runs for several weeks but ends this weekend. Due to a late cold snap the cherry blossoms and other flowering trees in the area were very late to bloom. I managed to time everything perfectly this year. The blooms were quite literally at their exact peak when I showed up. The trees were fully filled out with blossoms and they had not yet begun to drop to any appreciable degree.
Visiting the festival on a weekday is by far the best way to go. When the blooms are out on weekends the Tidal Basin is packed. As it was there were some fairly significant crowds yesterday, but it was more or less manageable. The one challenge was the heat. The temperatures yesterday hit records throughout the region and tipped into the 90's.
I was prepared for that though and dressed appropriately. I went ahead and brought along my shoulder bag that I carry around when geocaching. It contains my GPS, binoculars, a notepad, and floppy hat and a few other knick knacks. I had to wear my hat all day to keep from burning the top of my head. Normally when I wander the Tidal Basin I get stopped a couple of times by people asking me to take their picture. I think the hat shifted my look a bit away from “kindly old guy” to “vaguely well dressed vagrant” because I didn't get stopped a single time.
I didn't have a lot of time to spend in the city so I limited myself to just doing the standard loop around the Tidal Basin. In years past when I've had more time I've ranged further afield to check out some of the more distant cherry trees deeper in the city and along Haynes Point. I'll probably do that again at some point but for this year I was content to just see the highlights.
I did mix things up a little bit by doing the loop clockwise, which is opposite of the way I usually go. I also started at a different spot by approaching the Tidal Basin through the MLK Memorial. That white stone memorial park accessorizes well with the white and pink blossoms.
I spent most of my time in the area between the MLK and the Kutz Bridge. That is the spot where the cherry trees are the oldest and where the Japanese Lantern is at. The trees are a bit spread out in that spot and if you stand and look in certain directions you can fool yourself into thinking you are in a giant forest of blooming cherry trees bordering a lake. The trees are also ancient and gnarled here which contributes to the fairy tale atmosphere.
I stopped a couple of times while doing the loop to do some geocaches since I had my stuff with me anyway. It was only a few earth caches and virtual caches since traditional caches are very difficult to place this close to the mall. I wandered a bit around the FDR memorial as well since it was a good stopping point half way around.
When I was done I zipped over to the mall and briefly hit the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to do a few more earth caches. I would have liked to have stayed longer and done a few more but I needed to get back to my car before I got a ticket. I took the METRO back to Rosslyn where I was parked and picked it up.
It was by now fairly late in the afternoon, but that evening I had a Numina staff meeting to attend so I didn't see any point in going home. To waste time until the meeting I drove down to Merrifield and did a little shopping at a giant thrift store that is there. Nothing caught my fancy though so I left with still plenty of time before the meeting. I decided to spend it taking in a movie.
There is a brand new swank boutique movie theater in the area that shows a lot of art house style movies. I had been by the place a few times but had never gone in. I knew from the internet that they were showing “Up on Poppy Hill” which is the latest Miyazaki movie (sort of). I figured I wouldn't have many chances to see a Miyazaki movie on the big screen so I decided to give it a go.
It turned out that they were running a special so the movie ticket only cost me $8. By this point I was pretty baked from wandering around in the sun all day so instead of buying a $4 concession stand drink I bought the dollar version across the road at a Target. And when I walked back into the movie theater they went ahead and let me carry it in, which was a bonus.
The movie theater was pretty stylish. The design and décor is very upscale but other than a few bored concession workers there was pretty much no one else in the building. When I walked in for the 5:05PM showing there was no one else at all in the movie theater. I thought I was going to be the only person until a couple walked in while they were showing the previews.
The movie was entertaining but certainly not my favorite Miyazaki. It was a dubbed Studio Ghibli film but it was directed by Goro Miyazaki, and not his father Hayao of Totoro and Spirited Away fame. Hayao did have some involvement though. The filmed looked very similar to the other Miyazaki films that I knew and it had some similar elements. The characterizations were very similar and the protagonists were the recognizable plucky but very responsible pre-teens you see in all his movies. But the story was a fairly straightforward melodrama and romance with no spiritual or supernatural elements. It was a B+ movie, but a fun movie experience in a neat theatre.
Then I went to the Numina meeting which was all schedules and NPC's and staffing and spreadsheets. Boring. And it was also a reminder that the event is fast approaching and that I need to write some stuff to take place in those slots on the schedule that are assigned to me. Which brings me back to the procrastinating that I mentioned at the top of this.