Our first night, after the conference was done for the day, we decided to go check out the cherry blossoms down by the tidal basin. We stayed at the JW Marriott, right next to the White House and the mall, so it was a quick walk to get there. On the way, we passed the White House and the Washington Monument.
It was such a gorgeous night and the sunset was spectacular.
The next day, at 11 AM the conference shut down so everyone could go across the street to join the Rally for Medical Research. They handed out t-shirts and signs and we were joined by a number of other groups that were rallying for a specific cause, like breast cancer, heart disease, lung disease, etc and listened to speakers who talked about why medical research was important to them. We hung around just long enough until the sun started beating down (it was ~90ยบ) and we were getting hungry. We did have some fun taking pictures though.
Best helmet ever.
Our last day, my lab mates Beth and Ashley and I decided to quickly check out the Smithsonian museums, we only had time to run through the Museum of American History and the Natural History Museum, before we headed down to the tidal basin again to see the cherry blossoms, which we read were in peak bloom that day.
The museums were much better than I remembered from 10 years ago, the were so packed though, lots of school groups out that day.
We were so fortunate to be able to see the cherry blossoms at peak. I don't know if there will ever be another time that I'll be able to get down there to see them like this again, but if I do, I'm definitely going to be bringing my tripod along for some early morning photos!
