Weekend Report: Cherry Blossoms, Heated Yoga, and the Drum Circle

People either get this or they don’t, but sometimes I just love puttering by myself. SpeedyKate was away for the weekend, so I spent Friday night and Saturday all alone just doing my Mollie thing. And it was glorious.

Saturday morning, I slept ridiculously late (for me that means until 10:30), then went for a long run around the Tidal Basin and Hains Point. The cherry blossom tourists were out in full force, packing the Mall’s paths and sidewalks and pushing me off to run in the street. I don’t really mind though – I think of tourists as the price we pay to live in a nice place that people want to visit!

There were a few good blossoming trees down at the end of Hains Point and I was just so happy to be running in a tank top in the sunshine.

And while the families and photographers and hanami enthusiasts were probably bummed that the 3,750 sakura trees weren’t quite blossoming yet, I can look forward to beautiful cherry blossom runs all this week and maybe next.

Map details here. 

Saturday night I went to a fun but sad goodbye/good luck/congratulations party for my friend Carrie, who is moving with her fiancé to Tennessee. The saddest thing about living in DC is that everybody leaves…sigh. But if you’re looking for an awesome Tri coach, and/or a chiropractor, in Knoxville, look up Carrie and John!

Sunday was another slow day for me – lots of outside time, sitting in the sun and biking and getting a few things done.

Sunday afternoon I went to a heated vinyasa yoga class at Yoga District on H Street. You may recall that I used to do Bikram yoga (the REALLY hot yoga) pretty regularly, so the heat does not scare me, but the yoga poses and flow of it all can be tricky! The teacher started with some chatter about how 108 is a holy number etc. etc. etc…conclusion? Today we’re going to do 108 push-ups! Oh. My. Goodness. Seriously guys, I am so sore all over and my run this morning was rough.

After yoga I hopped on my bike and headed to the Drum Circle. YAY DRUM CIRCLE! It happens every Sunday from 3-9pm at Meridian Hill/Malcom X Park, and has been happening there for over 40 years. When I lived nearby in Dupont, I used to go pretty regularly, but since I moved to Eastern Market last May I haven’t gone once. A travesty!

A not very good picture from yesterday.

The Drum Circle is the most eclectic group of people in DC – there are the drummers themselves (and cowbell and tambourine and clarinet and recorder and whatever other instrument players want to play), and then the dancers in the middle of the drummers, then the watchers and swayers and children and other dancers around the outside of the circle. And then around the park you have picnickers, slack liners, hula hoopers, krav maga-ers, acro-yogis, jugglers, and people doing really any other odd outside activity you can think of. Best people watching ever and one of my all-time favorite things about DC.

It’s still early in the season, so not quite green yet, but these pictures from my first Drum Circle blog post a couple years ago capture it well.

And that, my friends, is that. Yay springtime weekending!