Website of the Week: 2008 National Cherry Blossom Festival

This is the last week-end of the 2008 National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC. According to the website:

“The plantings of the cherry blossom trees originated as a gift in 1912 from the people of Japan to the United States as gesture of friendship and goodwill. Since then, the number of trees has expanded to approximately 3,750 trees of 16 varieties on National Park Service land.”

The first time I heard about the cherry blossoms, I wondered what all of the fuss was about. I mean, they’re just trees, right? And trees produce flowers in the spring. So what?

Well, last year I was fortunate enough to visit the Tidal Basin when the trees were in full bloom. They looked magical. I remember thinking that they seemed like fairy trees. It was a truly ethereal experience.

If you are able to visit this year, you might consider submitting your photographs to the 2008 NCBF Photo Contest, sponsored by Lulu.com. And if you can’t visit, be sure to check out the Cherry Blossom Web Cam.