The Capitol Grounds in Spring

It’s been a while since we drove in to town. At cherry blossom time and spring break it is the busiest time of year. And with the pandemic, the last three years have been very quiet. I actually preferred it that way. Now we have to deal with crowds and traffic again. For that reason alone it was nicer to live on Capitol Hill - although it was aggravating in other ways - especially street parking. So yesterday we found a parking spot next to the Air and Space Museum and headed towards the Capitol. It was already a lot warmer than is typical at this time of year. We decided to walk over to the Library of Congress first because I saw some beautiful peonies blooming. Then we crossed back over to the Capitol grounds and there is more construction going on. What it is this time we don’t know but the area is barricaded off. The tulips by the fountains looked pretty mangy - we missed the peak season. But the tulips in the raised gardens still looked quite magnificent. There was less foot traffic here than usual. The blossoming trees and shrubs looked beautiful everywhere we looked. The Capitol reflecting pool was filled with ducks and ducklings and they were all making a lot of noise and getting feisty when someone started feeding them. All in all it was a nice morning walk. For whatever reason the city just doesn’t look as clean as it was when we lived there and I’m beginning to feel a bit more detached from it. It’s hard to believe that we lived there for thirteen years and I worked there for ten. It was a wonderful experience, but at this age I might prefer the lifestyle of the Midwest - except for the snow. So for now we will continue to visit. There is always something to see.