Visiting Stumpy One Last Time at the Tidal Basin

My favorite cherry tree at the Tidal Basin is Stumpy. I knew him before all of the hype and have picture of him in all four seasons. He always got our attention whenever we walked around the Tidal Basin. But because of flooding, a lot of cherry trees are being removed to restore the area. That means that Stumpy will be removed next month once the project begins. So we thought we should pay our last respects to Stumpy. It was not as easy to get to him because there is already renovation work going on at the Jefferson Memorial, and the sidewalks were so flooded they were blocked off. That meant we had to walk all the way around the Jefferson Memorial to get back on the path to Stumpy. Now there is a sign that explains the project where Stumpy is situated. He was really under water and a fence surrounded him to protect his last days. He has become a tourist attraction and everyone wants to know how he could be saved. Apparently transplanting him just wouldn’t do because he is so far gone from all of the water damage. They hope to genetically save his DNA and create little Stumpy’s. It’s still so sad to see him go and we will miss him - the little cherry tree that could.