Cherry Blossom Festival - Washington, D.C. (part 2)

While the cherry blossoms themselves can be very unpredictable (blooming anywhere from early March to late April depending on weather), the National Cherry Blossom Festival takes place each year during the first two weeks of April.

The lantern lighting festival which takes place where
the earliest cherry trees from Japan were planted.

cherry blossoms are found all around the perimeter of the Tidal Basin

There are also various concerts and exhibitions during the festival such as this kenjutsu demonstration below.

cutting bamboo

demonstrating with wooden swords

demonstrating with real swords

Cherry Blossom Festival - Washington, D.C. (part 1)

Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival
The Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival is a an outdoor festival featuring music, food and various merchandise vendors around the Waterfront area in Southwest DC, concluding with fireworks at night.

sunset at the Waterfront

Nando's Peri-Peri

Portuegese chicken restaurant that started in Africa, located in Washington, D.C.'s "Chinatown"(in quotes because DC's Chinatown doesn't have many Asian stores). The price isn't bad given the location and the food is decent.

inside the restaurant

Lemon-herb chicken with fries and garlic bread. The chicken isn't bad, it's juicy on the inside and has a definite lemon flavor on the outside. The garlic bread was a bit bland though and soggy.

Mango-lime chicken. It looks just like the Lemon-herb, but definitely has a tangy, mango flavor to it.

Story of Peri-Peri on the wall

Outside the restaurant

Outside the restaurant, the Chinese sign just says "Chicken Restaurant"

Independence Day

Creating a blog for the first time in many, many years. Even though I labeled this as a food and travel blog, it'll probably be a variety of things including photography. Anyway, let's start this off with a bang since it's (or was) Independence Day here.

I went into sweltering Washington, DC for the fireworks. After the first metro train I was on broke down in a shower of sparks and the smell of battery acid everywhere, I finally made it in at 8:45, 25 mins before the start. Unfortunately, this year's fireworks were not as impressive as previous years.  There was less variety in the fireworks, and they didn't seem to fly as high up as before.

Not to mention, a number of fireworks exploded while still on the ground (as shown in the photo). Looks like there was a batch of defective rockets.