I’ve been a little overwhelmed with everything I have to do before I leave for the Final Four on Thursday (!), so naturally, last night I procrastinated everything on my to-do list and took a nice long walk around the Tidal Basin to see Washington, DC’s famous cherry blossoms in peak bloom.

I have no regrets.

I rarely play tourist in DC, but I am so glad I took the time to take a long stroll with the crowds admiring these beautiful trees last night. Though Smithsonian is the closest Metro station to the cherry blossoms, I hopped off at my usual stop, Farragut West, and then walked towards the Tidal Basin down 17th Street. If you take this route, you also walk right by the Washington Monument and the WWII Memorial, which offers a stunning view of the Lincoln Memorial just down the reflecting pool. The view is worth the short walk!

It’s been several years since I’ve seen the cherry blossoms in person, and they were just as breathtaking as I remembered. Yesterday was peak bloom, meaning the majority of the trees’ flowers are fully open. Some flowers are more pink, some are more white, but together, they create a magical perimeter for the Tidal Basin.

I arrived to the cherry blossoms around 6:30pm during “golden hour” and stayed until the sun had almost set. Though it was crowded, it wasn’t as crowded as it usually is on weekends—I’ve heard that before work is also a great time to go. Usually when I’m walking by myself, I keep my headphones in and listen to music or a podcast, but last night I took them out to really stay present. Every few minutes or so, you could hear the roar of planes taking off from nearby DCA, and around me, so many languages were spoken. It was a great reminder that people come from all over the world to see the cherry blossoms, and I’m lucky enough to have them in my own backyard.

I love photography and spent some time last night experimenting with different angles to best try to capture the beautiful blossoms. Though I will say, no photograph does the cherry blossoms justice—they are 10,000x more stunning in person. I wish you all could see them! All of these photos were shot on my iPhone XS—I didn’t lug my DSLR to work and the camera on that phone is amazing. I’ve lightly edited a few of my favorites in Lightroom and am going to let the photos speak for themselves today—so enjoy this little photo essay of my time down at the Tidal Basin.