Spring

New York in the winter and early spring is a sad, cold, grey place. Takeshi and I were counting down to our trip to Cozumel, Mexico feverishly, dreaming of blue waters and big fancy drinks on the beach. Even though we had only booked our trip a month in advance, it seemed like forever to wait. I even penned in the trip onto our calendar on the wall, and I *never* do that.

Finally the trip came, and even though several things conspired to ruin our vacation - (Takeshi had a fever for half the trip, $60 got stolen from our hotel room while we were at dinner one night, and there was an on-site sewage processing plant at the hotel!! pew) - it was still *AMAZING*.

Instead of doing a lot of shopping, we spent all our money on doing things.. horseback riding (sorry Wendy ;)), snorkeling booze cruise, crocodile swamp tour, renting a jeep and driving around the island, Mayan ruins exploration. Ahh, the pretty tropical birds! the towering white clouds! the raw jungle and the crash of the blue-green surf! The scurrying thousand iguanas!

When we got back, we realized - the only thing worse than March in New York is ... March in New York after getting back from a tropical island. The buildings seemed greyer. the sky seemed greyer. The streets were depressingly iguana free. I was desperately thinking of ways to get some green back into my life. Perhaps by moving to Mexico!

Well, since that was out of the question, the very next weekend, we got out of the city and went to Washington DC... to see the cherry blossom festival. In 1913, Japan gave America a gift of about 3000 cherry trees, which are planted all around the capital and all bloomed *that weekend*. Plus, it was windy so an incredible number of people (read, everyone and their dog), was out flying kites. It wasn't cozumel, but the kites and the cherry trees in front of the white dome of the Capitol building was a sight for sore eyes.

Luckily, the next week in New York, even this city decided to get with the program (Spring-wise), and the trees started to blossom and the daffodil buds planted in the ground next to the trees all started to sprout and blossom. Its.. actually pretty here. It looks like I might not have to move to Mexico after all!
...(until next winter, anyways.)