More Cherry Blossoms

Like I said before, there are a TON of tourists in town for the Cherry Blossom Festival.  The main place to see the trees is the Tidal Basin.  We wanted to avoid the madness so we tried to get there early, before any of the tourists were awake.  Most tourists show up at the National Mall around 10 a.m. because that is when all the museums and shops open.  But monuments are open pretty much 24 hours.  We arrived about eight a.m. today and there were already a lot of people there, but parking hadn't got crazy yet and we found a spot in the second lot we tried.  Now here's a bunch of pictures.

These are from our drive around the East Potomac Park (to the east of the Tidal Basin).

The houses for generals at Ft. McNair along the Potomac.  We saw them much closer when we were on the Cherry Blossom Cruise.  They are done in a plantation style and are really gorgeous.

Cherry blossoms make everything prettier.  Even streets.

Soooooo many blossoms.  It was so cold, they could be mistaken for snowballs.  We learned our lesson from the boat ride - we both wore coats and hats.

We walked all the way around the Tidal Basin.

We saw so many couples getting engagement photos taken - it made me really happy. 

The Jefferson Monument

Looking out at the Tidal Basin from the Jefferson Monument.

More of the Jefferson Monument

The classic self photo.

Yay, trees!

One of the few cherry trees with pink blossoms.  The Cherry Festival logo that is on everything is a pink blossom, but we only saw about three trees with pink blossoms; all the rest had white blossoms.

So gorgeous.

The Tidal Basin overflowed a bit.  You can see the edge of the walkway in the water.

We were going to go back downtown to see the fireworks display for the festival, but T has priesthood meeting tonight and I don't want to go alone.  Maybe I can see them from the balcony?...  I'll let you know.

Oh, as we walked around the Tidal Basin we saw the FDR Monument.  I was not impressed.  It's all outdoor and just a bunch of stone walls with his quotes on them.  I think part of the problem is that I am not such a fan of FDR as a president.  I don't think he's as great as everyone else does:

•  He cheated on his wife (the wonderful Eleanor Roosevelt) through his entire marriage - I think infidelity is always wrong.
• His New Deal programs during the Great Depression were full of waste and not as effective as people think they were. For example the Civilian Conservation Corps hired young men to work in rural areas.  Often one set of men would be sent to dig miles of holes for telephone poles.  The next week a different set of men would be hired to fill all the holes that were dug the previous week.  This type of thing happened often within his New Deal programs. His programs didn't decrease unemployment as much as he claimed they would; unemployment rates only went from 25% to 19% his first two terms and didn't decrease further until the U.S. entered WWII.  I think there should be fewer government programs that create waste.
• He proposed and received a huge expansion of government social programs - I believe in a small federal government and fewer programs.
• He started Social Security without much thought to how it would affect future generations - I think it is the responsibility of the individual to plan wisely and provide for their own retirement.
• He ballooned the national debt (from 40% of the GDP to about 125%) - I don't believe in deficit spending to get out of a depression. 

FDR did do some good things:  I think he was a good national leader and rallying person during WWII.  I think he probably did the job better than anyone else could have during WWII.   I like that he signed the act that created the FDIC.  I'm just not a fan of the vast majority of his social and economic policies.  So there you go.  I'm not an FDR or political expert by any means and if you like him, I'll still like you.  I didn't mean to make this all political.  No more political posts, I promise.

Let's end on a happy note.  T shaved his beard last night.  He looked really good on his way to priesthood meeting tonight so I took his picture. You're welcome.  He saw the picture and gave us the quote that is now at the top left of our blog.