the chefs, and there are many of them, taking part in what is called the cherry picks program. and if there is one thing that could have me jealous about not being in the studio today, it's because diggy simmons is visiting us today. his new album just dropped. his hit is on the radio everywhere, and it's even on this 45-year-old's ipad. the song is great. diggy is great. he'll be in studio with sarah coming up later. do you know what else is great is the weather today. perhaps one of the most popular man here at the tidal basin is tucker barnes delivering on what looks to be a spectacular day. >> warming up, too. >> yes, it is. >> days like today that reminds you why washington is the most beautiful city in the country. absolutely gorgeous here. let's get to the numbers. i probably don't need to tell

you, 80s later today, after a relatively mild night. fog overnight, it's dissipated to the north. 63 last look at reagan national. mid-60s across the area. expecting highs quickly to jump into the mid- to upper 70s with the bright sunshine. then eventually 80s. >> i don't know how to contain my enthusiasm. >> average high still in the 50s. haven't done that in a couple of weeks. here's your satellite radar. quiet today. things changing tonight and tomorrow. showers and thunderstorms back in the forecast for the weekend. if you have a choice, come down today. today will be the nicest of the next couple of days. looks to me like the cherry blossoms are peaking today. here's your day planner. high temperatures later this afternoon, upper 70s, near 80. yesterday we were in the mid- 70s, so warmer than that today. >> cannot wait. i am still so struck and, you know, awe inspired by all these people out here this morning. come down to the tidal basin if

you can. come say hi to us and if you can find a park or a place to stand, good luck. it's simply gorgeous here today. in the meantime we want to go back to the studio. will and sarah have the headlines. good morning. >> good morning to you. >> thank you. our top story this morning, a deadly police chase end on connecticut avenue. police say officers were following the car when it sped off. >> that car careened into a tree at chevy chase circle and burst into flames. two people in the back seat both died. fox5's sherri ly has been on the scene all morning long and joins us live with the latest. sherri, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, will, good morning, sarah. that fiery crash happened here at chevy chase circle when the car slammed into a tree over here. the ground is actually still scorched from that crash this morning. police were right behind that car. they had been following it. they were able to pull two people out, but two people died. the crash woke neighbors from their sleep early this morning.

one person took these pictures. the car was engulfed in flames. one person said it burned for at least 10 or 15 minutes before finally being put out. two passengers in the back seat were trapped in the burning car and died. police say an officer was following the stolen car around 1:15 this morning after spotting it near jones mill road and east west highway. he called for backup as they were about to move in, and the car sped away on connecticut avenue. seconds later it slammed into a tree and burst into flames. a neighbor describes what she heard. >> booms, explosions. and flames 20 feet in the air. it was just, you know, to know somebody may have been hurt and to hear this morning two people killed is pretty disturbing. >> reporter: the names of the victims have not been released. police say the driver who was a male was taken to the hospital with serious injuries and underwent surgery this morning. a male passenger from the front

seat was also taken to the hospital, but had only minor injuries. police tell us charges are pending. that's the latest here in chevy chase, back to you. >> traffic back to normal. also making headlines this morning, the army staff sergeant suspected of killing 17 afghan civilians, up from 16, by the way, will be charged today with murder, assault and other offenses. meanwhile, other incident involving alcohol and violence has surfaced in the background of robert bales' past. documents from 2008 show he was extremely intoxicated when he made a pass at a woman and punched and kicked her boyfriend outside a bowling alley in washington. that quote from the sheriff's office. no charges were filed. president obama defending his record on oil drilling. in oklahoma yesterday the president announced he's ordering a fast track for the

south keystone pipeline that will relieve a glutted of oil keeping gas prices low in nebraska but high in other parts of the country. a proposed casino could take another step forward today. a senate committee is expected to vote on a measure to expand gambling in maryland. the measure would also allow table games in the casino. back to the cherry blossoms, to quote holly morris from earlier, man, they are really spectacular. sarah, you have the lavender on, or the pink. special occasion. >> it is, and the colors are so gorgeous. we want to head back to alison seymour at the tidal basin, with the virginia man who designed the stamp. good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you. what a treat, and from our own back yard. it's phil jordan, the designer from falls church, virginia.

good morning. >> good morning. >> i want to introduce the executive director of the postal service. good morning. >> good morning. >> there are other items you can buy with that beautiful design on it from phil. first, i have to ask you, tell me what went into this design. >> when we started out, allison, the idea was to celebrate the 100 year anniversary and to produce a stamp that would perhaps invoke 1912 as well as the contemporary view. so we decided to do one scene across two stamps. >> i don't know that you can see, the perforations in the middle, but this is how they look separate. >> on the left is 1912 and on the right the contemporary version. the artist, paul wright, wanted to invoke the spirit of the gift of the japanese people and the beauty of this event. i think he did it very successfully.

>> i would agree. there is a dedication ceremony if you will tomorrow around the stamp. can you tell us about it? >> that's right. tomorrow we're excited to be issuing the stamp nationwide. the first day of issue dedication is here in washington. as beautiful as it is today, i hear it might rain tomorrow. >> yeah. >> the great thing is this is indoors at the national museum at 10:30 tomorrow. the postmaster general and the japanese ambassador are going to be there and dedicating and unveiling the stamp. we'll also be selling the stamp. here's a sheet of the stamps here. >> wonderful. >> and selling these really nice note cards that include the matching stamps. and you can pick up our catalog that has the cherry blossoms on it. one of the best things is the program is nice, and the first thousand people get a free one with the stamp on it and the first day of issue

cancellation. >> nice. >> it's a nice keepsake. >> fantastic. tell us about your past experience with the stamps and creating the beautiful images. >> i've been working with the postal service for 21 years, and gone through probably about 300 stamps. this year i have a set of baseball stamps that are coming out for baseball players, which i hope is going to be a great success. >> how does one get started in this? >> actually i had a career in graphic design in washington many years before i joined the postal service. so it's just a natural extension of my career as a corporate designer. >> i see. >> stamps are exciting. they're difficult. they're miniature posters and one has to really extract the essence of the event on the postage stamp. not every artist can do that well. paul did a beautiful job on this one and really, the art is colorful and vibrant and really captures the essence of this

event. >> and the family friendly nature of it, too. i don't know if there is a way for you to come around a bit and point out some of the neater aspects of it. stephen was challenging us to see the person taking the photo. there's a woman there with her smart camera or smart phone. >> when you see the stamp it will be very tiny. >> sure. >> the couple here, the children are dressed in 1912 kimonos and evokes the spirit of the original gift. it's just a beautiful scene of the whole thing, the artist's impression of the event. >> i would agree. i would agree completely. and i was joking with you earlier and saying no way we'll find this in a post office, because the wonderful ones seem to go quickly, but you say? >> we printed 100 million of these stamps. we think that should be enough. you're right, popular

commemorative stamps like this often sell out in two or three months. >> we appreciate you both being here. quite a scene today, isn't it? >> it's wonderful. >> thanks again for coming down and sharing this with us. tomorrow is the official dedication at 10:30. in the meantime, we will be back with tony -- actually we're going to tony now. no, we're not. paul is here with me and trying to tell me what to say. we'll be back with the restaurants commemorating the cherry blossom festival. tony will talk to a few of the chefs when we come back. there it is.  

♪ looks good, doesn't it? this year we want to focus on something that's happening with the cherry blossom festival. it's called the cherry picks

restaurant program. it's in its tenth year. this year over 100 restaurants are participating. they're doing cherry themed dishes. we are joined by some of the chefs and a mixologist with this morning. we'll start to my left. first joining us from bobby van's grill, danny. jason kauffman. how are you? >> great. >> shawn from 901. and shera, who is a mixologist. good to see you. >> happy to be here. >> first of all, who is not shy? >> i can start. >> let me first tell you, you get the challenge every year. got to do a cherry themed dish. how hard is it to come up with something for that? >> i think you want to do something out of the box, want to do something that signifies what you do as a restaurant. so that's what led us to a nice

salmon dish. what we did was make a cherry barbecue salmon. we wrap it in cherry paper. we roast it in the oven. you have that tanginess from the barbecue and the cherry paper that's soaked. sweet potato mash, a sweeter yam. what is unique about this dish, pickled cherry blossoms and fennel salad. we started this tuesday, and people are raving about it. you'll have to stop in. >> available through the festival? >> available for five weeks. throughout the whole festival. that's exciting for us. >> you were cooking that up out here earlier this morning. it smelled great. there you go. that's one of the dishes. >> thank you. >> darrin, bobby van's grill. >> we've got our chicken dish here. got our chicken roll. we got cherries marinated in brandy and rice. i'm going to take this sauce

here and put it over the top so you can see the sauce. that's also got brandy and cherries in it. that's also available the five weeks of the cherry blossoms. come by and see us. >> do you enjoy this, the challenge of coming up with a different dish? >> yes. it was a challenge cooking out here today, actually. >> you did well. smells good and looks great as well. thank you, darrin. shawn, gave you a vote of confidence here, said it's really good. >> it is. >> tell us what you brought. >> we brought out actually a three cheese cheesecake. ricotta, goat cheese and cream cheese. lemon zest. on the bottom there's sour cherry compote. take a little lemon juice sugar and reduce that down. on the side we'll have a cherry balsamic vinegar reduction. >> wow.

>> that's usually the reaction. >> are you just doing the dessert or other cherry dishes well? >> no, we're running specials. this is actually on the menu. you can get this -- >> any time? >> yeah, any time. this is a sampler portion, and we have a 3-ounce cheesecake. same garnish and everything like that. it's real good. the sour cherries work well. it's not as sweet as a traditional cheesecake, that's where the ricotta and goat cheese tone it down and give more earthiness. >> going to be good. >> please, enjoy. >> mixologist, i like that term, has that replaced bartender now? it's more than being a bartender? >> it is. it's knowing flavors and working with flavors and textures. >> tell us what you have create available at ping pong dim sum.

>> you have the tapioca pearls that give it a nice texture. jasmine tea topped off with the cherry blossom. >> the tapioca pearls, what is that exactly? >> it's a starch that's cooked and it books chewy and takes on the flavor of whatever you put it in. >> you do know your stuff. this all sounds fantastic. thank you for bringing the food and the drink. and this is -- these are just four of the establishments involved this year. go to our web site, myfoxdc.com. we will link you to the information about the program. you'll want to try it out. allison, over to you. >> thank you, it all looks so good. coming up during this 9:00 hour, we have much more, including this week's ask allison. this week's ask allison question is about gift giving, now that we're talking about

the gift of the cherry trees. our question deals with modern day. we'll get to that coming up. also, we are continuing to ask you to send in your beautiful photos of the cherry blossoms. you can send them in to myweatherphoto@gmail.com. holly morris is at the paddle boats this morning. what have you got, holly? >> reporter: i'm trying to take a picture and make the most of my location as well so i can send it in. really, i'm just trying to capture the moment, because this is some of the most beautiful that i've ever seen in terms of the blossoms, and i've done a few festivals in my time. coming up, the people from the national building museum are here, because they're all about family day, or should i say days. they're expanding it this year. we're going to tell you all about it and how your family can take part, live, later. holly, sounds good. we want to get to our trivia question today. it's cherry blossom themed.

the first cherry blossom trees came by boat and that boat arrived in what port in 1912? was it san francisco, seattle, washington, new york, or baltimore? we'll have that answer later. you can take a guess now by heading to our facebook page. we will be back with our special edition of fox 5 morning news live from the tidal basin.     

♪ tell me something good ♪ ♪ tell me that you love me ♪ all right, ask allison, the tidal basin edition coming to you live from the cherry blossom trees. we wanted to talk about a gift question from a viewer. we're talking about the ultimate gift to d.c., the cherry blossom trees 100 years ago. so let me read this. it's from a viewer, she sent in

her name, but i'm not going to say it because it's touchy. whatever happened to the proper etiquette of sending a thank you note for a gift? i have really been put off recently in the kindness department of gift giving in the last two years my husband and i have attended two weddings and a baby shower and have received no thank you. one of the weddings was his best friend and the other was a baby shower where his wife and nephew both family members and close friends celebrated this special occasion. she writes, i am -- perplexed and hurt. am i wrong for feeling this way? any advice to make the hurtfulness for me fade away? i can feel how hurt you were in that e-mail. i thank you. no, it's not okay for all the parties involved to not send a thank you note. it's just not okay. it still is what should be done. i don't care what kind of

internet, what kind of ipad, smart phone you normally send quick messages on. you should have received a thank you note, point blank and period. let's get that out of the way. you talk about your husband not necessarily bringing this up with his best friend and family members. can we talk, ladies can we talk? men might not always zero in on let's say the proper etiquette, the proper things to do, the details, you know, the attentiveness to the little details we kind of take for granted. he might be thinking it's no big deal. i don't know i would come down really hard on him, because it's hard for him to tell a best friend or family member, hey, you didn't really send us a thank you note. it seems petty and small and i think it would be uncomfortable for him to do that. perhaps a way of getting around that to say to his best friend, is the gift okay? hope you didn't have another

one like that. we didn't know if you had received it, because we haven't heard anything. say it in a casual way. making it more serious is going be uncomfortable. you run the risk of being sort of mocked in a way, like, wow, the only reason you gave us a gift is to give us a note? you have to get over that. here's something my father the preacher always said, you have to giver expecting nothing in return. unconditional giving and unconditional love. get your feels out of this situation. know you were raised the right way. don't you stop doing what you're doing. you can't expect others to get a pen and paper and write a note to you. i appreciate you, so i hope that's enough. thank you for writing in. if you have a question, send it in to ask allison. the link is on myfoxdc.com. don't know if you hear all that. basically she wants him to say, where is the thank you note.

can you do that? >> you're right. it's tricky. i have another suggestion. if you don't feel comfortable bringing it up, next time something comes around for those people, birthday or something, don't get them anything and let it be on then when they want to say, you didn't get a gift for your god son or whatever, say i didn't think you appreciated the last gift since you didn't send a thank you. >> wow. [ laughter ] we'll be right back with more from the tidal basin. is that how you really feel? >> yeah. why not? >> oh, boy. turn left. the passat is one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. not that we'd ever brag about it. turn right. come on, nine. turn left. hit the brakes. huh? how'd that get there? [ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine top safety picks like the passat and jetta. so we're celebrating with our "safety in numbers" event. that's the power

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♪ welcome back. you're taking a live look at the cherry blossoms here along the tidal basin. they are in peak bloom i think today, as a matter of fact. this year we are marking the

100th anniversary since the u.s. was given the cherry blossom trees by the people of japan. >> today, i think, will be the best of the weekend days. >> i think so, too. >> people are taking full advantage of it. they are here in force. so somebody got the message to them, and i think it might have been tucker barnes. tucker joins us again now with a look at this day and how it might be the best day, right, tuck, of the weekend? >> yeah, i think so, allison. temperatures in the 80s later today. so get out and enjoy the afternoon. of course, come here to check out the cherry blossoms. as we get into the weekend, rain showers around saturday and sunday. just a beautiful sight here at the tidal basin. i got here early at about 4:30 this morning. not too many people out. by 6:00 a.m., basin was filled with photographers. and now we're getting people of all walks of life. it's amazing. i continue to be amazed by the beauty of the cherry blossoms. current conditions, and outside it's a comfortable start. not nearly as much fog as

yesterday. yesterday the fog held out until early afternoon. today, mostly sunny here to start your morning. temperatures in the 60s. 63 now in washington. 63 at bwi marshall. sunshine today. clouds to the west. frontal system out there in ohio and eastern kentucky. you can see the rain showers and the clouds. that will start to work in later today and tonight. cloud up during the evening hours. i think the rain will start to arrive by sunrise tomorrow. not going to rain all day tomorrow. we'll have periods of rain. warm front north of us now. temperatures are going to be a little warmer than yesterday. should be in the 80s later this afternoon. with the cold front to the west moving through, we'll have rain showers, perhaps a thunderstorm both saturday and sunday. behind it, cooler temperatures with highs in the 60s. let's do the five-day forecast. absolutely perfect today. 82degrees, lots of sunshine. then we cloud up with rain

showers both saturday and sunday. then the cooler temperatures, highs by next tuesday, only about 62 degrees. might have to bring out the jacket you put away for the winter. that's a look at your forecast. sarah, back to you inside the comfy fox 5 studios. >> tucker, thank you. some could consider our next guest as hip hog royalty, but diggy simmons has always wanted to do this on his own. here is diggy simmons to celebrate your debut album. thanks for coming in today. >> thank you for having me. >> we appreciate it. it's called "unexpected arrival." to talk about your background, a lot of people consider to you to be from a family of hip-hop royalty. your father, founding father of run dmc, and your uncle, founder of def jam label. what was it like coming from

this family and breaking into the hip-hop biz? >> to me, it's just like my family. you have a dad and you have an uncle, so it's like that to me. as far as coming in to music, it was something i really wanted to take into my hands. i started writing raps late '08 and early 2009. it wasn't like i wasn'ted to be a famous rapper, just a passion for it. and that led to me loving this and i wanted to do this. so we're here now. >> you would see your dad, you were influenced by watching it as you grew up too, somewhat? >> i saw him do it, but it wasn't something i forced myself to do or pushed to do. i had a lot on my chest and things i wanted to express and made me want to write them down. >> it was important that you do this on your own. you put out your first mix

tape. you did that all on your own, without the help of the family. explain how you did that and how it felt. >> it was really important i did that by myself. i wanted my talent and everything i did to speak for itself opposed to my dad going and doing it all for me. so, you know, i put that out on the internet, and that escalated into me having a lot of people that wanted to sign me, which was crazy, and that's why now i'm signed to atlantic records. >> i got to tell you, we were listening earlier in the studio, your hit out now, just great. >> thank you. >> you're a phenomenal talent. it was wonderful. >> thank you. >> tell me about the album itself. what was going through your mind, where you were at when you were putting this together and where this came from. >> i mean, when i was going into the album, i just wanted to make something honest and real and something people can relate to and be inspired by

and listen to it top to bottom with all different feelings, whether great feelings, vulnerability, things like divorce. >> you had your dad and uncle, who could easily be sounding boards and critique, but you say they've mostly stayed out of this at your wish. how has that been for them? >> like i said, my you can, he was like a little, like, whatever. i want to be a part. he respected me and the same with my dad. they both respected my wishes, that i wanted to go about it by myself. >> now, you're not performing, but you are doing an instore signing tonight. that is from 5:00 to 7st at dtlr. you'll be there signing autographs. when are you going on tour? we want to hear you. we know the album is out. >> definitely back soon.

i love being in the dmv area in general. i'll be in all three places on my next tour. >> diggy simmons, good luck to you. thank you so much. pleasure to meet you. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back after this. ♪ hey, hey ♪     

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she dyed her hair and cut it off, but america cut her out. >> wasn't enough, apparently. erica van pelt has been eliminated from "american idol." she sang billy joel's "new york state of mind" but didn't get enough votes to stick around. she tried to sing her way back on the show last night with a rendition of whitney houston's "i believe in you and me" but the judges chose not to save

this time. bummer. rough night for kim kardashian. according to tmz a woman threw white powder on the star last night in hollywood. kim went to a private room, brushed off the powder. the fire department determined it was just cooking flour, thankfully. the woman who threw the flour was taken into custody. not fun. >> not fun at all. >> got her good, too. >> did you see the pr lady? not kim kardashian. i give her major props, brushing off and getting back out there and continued to do interviews. good for her. coming up, entertainment and projects for the entire family. holly is live at the tidal basin this morning where she's learning more about family days, two days, filled with events for families visiting the cherry blossoms. plus, such a short window to see the cherry blossoms as we know, so good thing we've got cameras.

coming up next, how to use our smartphones to capture a great memory. we'll be right back. >> like that new stamp. >> it's gorgeous.   u and get one ? wierizon 4g lt and a 4. true hd disay, it's great for watching movies and sports, i'll get one for me and one for my wife. i'll be like [manly voice] "a phone, my sweet" and get one free. verizon.

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♪ what a beautiful morning. so many people out here this morning. we've had a wonderful time, having a wonderful time. here's a look at a picture from 1941. people obviously, they've been taking pictures of the cherry blossoms forever. >> yes, they have. now we still take pictures, but we don't necessarily need that, i can imagine the camera back then, with the accordion thing on it probably, then the single lens cameras, and the point and shoots. now our smartphones where we

take a lot of pictures. our lauren demarco has a special smartphone edition of taking pictures of the cherry blossoms with your smartphone. here's lauren. >> reporter: i don't think there is a better place to be in the spring time than washington, d.c. it is just beautiful out here. if you're coming down to visit the cherry blossoms, you try to capture it on camera, right? with the new devices, it's becoming more and more possible. look at this beautiful photo. this was taken on the iphone 4s. i'm holding it here on the new ipad. you can see that beautiful detail that you get with that screen. joining me this morning is stu with premier photo tours. good morning. >> good morning. >> reporter: you do walking tours here. >> popular time of the year. >> reporter: tell me about the tour you're going to do with smartphone. >> the cameras have gotten so good that they're becoming a reasonable alternative to carrying a big camera.

you always have it with you. don't have to worry about hauling that big camera back, and you get nice quality pictures. >> reporter: there are different options, depending the smartphone you have. this is the droid razor. you can check whether you want to do landscape, adjust your lighting and adjust for exposure. some have the option of iso. can you explain that? >> yes. the the sensitivity of the sensor to light. higher iso you can take pictures in lower light. this camera has a single setting, you're limited to what the camera is capable of doing. you can adjust the iso a little bit, you can take pictures in lower light and get good results. >> reporter: with the iphone, there are few options. >> there are. >> reporter: still takes beautiful pictures. can you show us a little bit with your iphone? >> sure. >> reporter: when you go to the

options screen, there are two options. >> right. just the -- you have the option for your grid, which gives you the rule of thirds grid. the idea is you don't want to have your subject dead center in the shot all the time. want to have it off to the side a little bit, to give your eye a little movement around the frame. then we have the hdr option. >> reporter: that's interesting. >> high dynamic range. what that does, it helps overcome the camera's tendency to, it can only take a certain range from black to white. can't see that whiter range. hdr takes several shots and combines them together, so you expand that. >> reporter: probably something we saw here on this ipad. takes a nice photo. the big thing that you can do with these phones, even though the iphone itself doesn't have

too many options, you can download apps. >> right. >> reporter: what are some of the top apps? >> camera plus. it gives the standard iphone camera more capability. has a lot of different effects you can apply afterwards to make interesting pictures, old timey pictures, black and whites. >> reporter: one thing, when you move that square around, instead of just doing the focus, it shows you some of the lighting. >> right. >> reporter: then the after effects. that is really cool. >> there are several of these apps. panoramic apps. they sort of take advantage of the fact this is a digital dynamic media. you take a bunch of different exposures and it tells you where to take them. take the shot as you move the camera around. you can actually go a complete 360 if you wanted. it stitches them all together into one shot. >> reporter: really cool. neat stuff you can do here with all these things these days. thank you for coming out. >> thank you. >> reporter: good luck with all

of your tours the rest of the cherry blossom peak bloom. >> thank you. >> reporter: everybody else, head out here and take pictures. even on overcast days you can get great shots. you can get all this information, go to myfoxdc.com, morning page and look for the smartphone zone. thanks, lauren. a lot of people will be doing that, click, click, with their phones. the entire family can come here and enjoy the cherry blossoms and celebrate the 100th anniversary. family days will take place saturday and sunday this year. >> ton of performances and activities to take part in. we want to send it over to holly, who is getting a preview of the fun event. she's over at the paddle boats. >> reporter: i am enjoying this morning. you want to bring your camera, but you want to bring time, allow yourself time to sit here and take in the scene.

that's why i came here, all these people are doing that. including karen, my new best friend. when you talk about family days, she's brought her family. tell your story. >> i'm expecting a baby next week, and i decided to take the remaining time i have available and enjoy the beautiful weather. >> reporter: she came down with her husband and is here reading the paper. what do you think? >> it's beautiful. i've never seen them before. >> reporter: how long have you lived in the area? >> about nine months. >> reporter: good, i cut you slack. your first spring. brought your baby out, and next year you can bring it again and take pictures. i say it, because she doesn't know what it is. but you think it's a girl. >> yeah. >> reporter: i'm going to hop up and get my heel out of my skirt and come over here. that's another tip, wear flat shoes. or you could bike down here. look at this family. tell me your name. >> jody. >> reporter: and. >> sawyer. >> reporter: nice camera.

how did you work this? this is a good way to come down. >> we drove from pennsylvania yesterday, and took the train here this morning. >> reporter: so how has the ride been around the tidal basin? >> so far we just came from union station, stopped at a few monuments and it's beautiful. we're going to head around the jefferson and lincoln. >> reporter: what do you think about the flowers? >> i like them, because it's like showering on us, and i'm going to get great pictures for the rest of my class and family. >> reporter: very good. enjoy the day together. that is awesome way to come down and not have to worry about parking. bring your bike. as you're planning your weekend, you want to on saturday or sunday go to the national building museum. we have family days, plural. >> it's saturday and sunday, saturday 10:00 to 4:30, sunday 11:00 to 3:30. two free days for the family inside. even if it rains, you can enjoy

crafts, a ton of activities for kids, and live performances. >> reporter: this is the seventh year you've done this. you did expand it to a second day because of the 100th anniversary. let's show people some of the activities people can do. >> great. i thought i would teach you how to make an origami tea house. >> reporter: great. let's learn. >> pick a color. >> reporter: purple. >> this is one of many activities you can do with the building museum, chrysler, we have a ton of different groups on board. fold your paper in half. crease it. unfold it. fold to the center. in two parts. >> reporter: when people come out for family day, i imagine it gets crowded quickly. plenty of supplies and space? >> right. >> reporter: might need to pack your patience a little bit? >> uh-huh. >> reporter: fold it again. >> unoiled it. >> reporter: and it's free? >> it's free.

we have popcorn cherry blossom trees you can make. you can stitch a cherry blossom pin. >> reporter: wow. you have a lot going on there. tell me the significance of the japanese tea house here. >> sure. the tea house, tra structure in japanese architecture, and it's where the japanese tea ceremonies take place. you're going to pop out a triangle. >> reporter: plenty of people there to give guidance? >> sure. >> reporter: i got you. like that. what is the national building -- seventh year you've done the family day. that was a great idea. you plan a lot of things. is it one of the things you look forward to? >> we love our partnership. it's a great way to celebrate the nature in our city and

japanese arts and design. so we're excited. >> reporter: it's a great way to celebrate how beautiful, wonderful this city is. >> it is. >> reporter: the nation is celebrating spring with us. you do it with your family this weekend. we'll have more live from the tidal basin after the break. stay with us. you're watching fox 5 morning news. ♪   

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♪ welcome back to fox 5 morning news. if you're wondering what the answer is to the trivia question of the day, what port is the trees come into? well, the answer is seattle. that's where they came into way back when 100 years ago when the first cherry trees arrived. obviously what a sensation it has caused. i have to say, i have done a lot of cherry blossom

festivals, but this one might go down as the best. at least it's starting out as the best. it is absolutely a picturesque, picture perfect morning here. there have been lots of people coming down to take pictures and enjoy the scene in and around the tidal basin. this really is a wonderful time. the festival getting into full swing. it lasts for five weeks. literally is something for everyone each and every day, all for your family. come down here, do bring your patience, you'll need to obviously find parking. put on good walking shoes. come out and enjoy. the other thing i really noticed about this year is because the blossoms have bloomed so early, a lot of tourists probably are coming in the weeks to come. but there's been a lot of locals that have been able to come out and enjoy this absolutely beautiful setting here. now is the time for you and your family to come on down. bring your c