Welcome to my blog and my first post! So happy and grateful to have you here but I won’t get all sappy now, let’s hop straight into this post shall we? So this past weekend we traveled to the far away land of Washington D.C. to enjoy “Bloomaroo” at The Wharf. For those of you who may not know what Bloomaroo is, it’s a festival to celebrate the bloom of the cherry blossom trees surrounding the area. Just know that I was looking forward to this for weeks before-hand and was literally fantasizing of the great time we would have. The arrival of warm weather, dancing by the water to live music, great food options and some light-hearted shenanigans filled my heart. But little did we know the obstacles that awaited us. If someone would’ve warned me I definitely would’ve made better decisions that FOR SURE would’ve upgraded our experience. So here are my tips on how to enjoy (or survive) Bloomaroo!
1. If you want to drive…DON’T
You guys don’t know me well yet but just know Lil’ Tuesdaé likes to have her own wheels, (an anxiety thing, I’ll fill you in later) but when I say driving will kill your day I am not exaggerating. We spent what would normally be a hour and a half drive from Baltimore County to D.C. 3 HOURS and some change in traffic. Left around 12:30 (which I thought was early for an event that begins at 4 p.m.) and arrived and finally parked at 3.45 or such. Just getting out of Baltimore took up about 2 hours of that but it looked like smooth sailing when we finally got into The Wharf. I admit maybe I should have prepared and anticipated the commute time much better. I recommend not just relying on Google Maps since it always changes and isn’t totally accurate to predict your time of arrival. If I can stress anything, if you have the financial ability just come down the night before and stay at a hotel or if not, leave before noon for sure. We will be for certain doing that next year!
2. There is NO PARKING!, kinda
Now to the festival website’s credit it does tell you upfront that parking is extremely scarce so public transportation and ride share (uber, lyft, etc) are recommended. However, that doesn’t really become an option for those who live out of town is it? My philosophy, or delusion, was that we’d leave early enough to beat the flood of festival goers (LOL) to catch some street parking or the hotel parking straight along the wharf. There are 3 garages I believe with about a little under 1000 spaces collectively. Mind you around 1.5 million people show up every year for this festival, we’ll talk more about that in a minute. So obviously by time little ole me shows up these places are full. What I very much didn’t appreciate was when you drive to one garage entrance and you see it’s full, the attendant tells you to drive a little ways to the next garage because they have spaces. But when you go and fight through traffic, double parked cars and jay-walkers to arrive at said garage they give the same spiel. We did maybe an half hour of this before giving up, pulling our hair out and wasting gas going in circles to just choose the nearby L’Enfant Plaza parking for around $35. There are a crap ton of stairs btw. I highly suggest forgetting about hotel parking and go straight to the L’Enfant Plaza since the prices were the same anyway just a tad bit of a walk.
3. May as well pack a damn lunch
I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to but let me tell you, make those restaurant reservations well in advance (3 days prior at the least). Now us being women and never knowing what to eat is accurate 1000% but flubbed us royally when we got hungry. I think I was so stressed from driving that my appetite wouldn’t grow but we went to call around and see where we wanted to try out anyway. We actually started calling around right before we parked and all we got were “I’m sorry we currently aren’t taking anymore reservations” responses. Okay no big deal right? We’ll just walk in because for sure not everyone who makes a reservations keeps it or it’s no way they can turn away my adorable face right? “I’m so sorry but we just stopped taking walk-ins”. So now we’re wandering about in a sea of like fiftyhunnidleven people going from door to door seeking refuge. We see a spot where people are going in and aren’t looking frustrated or being turned away so we try there. I wish I got his name but there was a real cool man at the door of Whitlows who told us we can put our names down but it’s gonna be like an hour/hour and a half wait. We said “hey, it’s better than nothing.” So with our number and names down, we tried to explore a bit more of the festival. Yet I did wonder why they even took our names at all since the place was swamped but you’ll see.
So we’re vibing, drinking our little pink drinks and watching the live music at one of the stages next to the “bloomed out” mini coopers (I have a thang for mini coopers btw,*sighs ) when my phone rings and it’s the host saying our table is ready. Mind you we have only been at the stages for maybe 25 minutes and just got our drinks that you inconveniently cannot take outside of that area. She only had a white wine and I a “pink vodka something overpriced” and chugged it afraid they would give our seats away if we took too long. The vodka wasn’t even the issue, it was the brain freeze from the ice but anyway…we arrive and get seated outside close enough to the crowds to do some people watching feeling impressed by how short the wait actually was. Whitlows isn’t anything fancy but I think the menu was decent for a casual day out. I again wasn’t that hungry so we decided to split a meal and landed on the “Who Dat Pasta” while I intended to order another drink to chase the one I just downed, naturally. Don’t judge me. After a bit our waitress comes over and immediatley the man next to us tries to steal her I guess because they were sitting there longer but I wasn’t having none of that. He excused himself and turned around in shame lol So yea.. the pasta right? Nope! She proceeds to tell us the kitchen is swamped and is only making items from the back page ya’ll, all fried foods. And the strawberry Margarita I wanted…nope.
They didn’t have anymore flavors so everything had to be plain. You see now why the wait was so short? So wings and fries it is! Came all the way from Baltimore, home of the chicken boxes to get what…chicken smh. I must say we got half lemon pepper and half old bay but high key they all tasted the same LOL but were juicy and delicious so there’s that. The people and fit watching was a big plus for me too, free entertainment. Basically you guys, make reservations well in advance since this festival is no joke and even still plan to eat early to make sure you have a wide selection of food items to choose from, no shade to Whitlow’s.
4. What to get into
There are an okay amount of activities to enjoy I suppose but …naw I’m lying. There were some things for the kids like face painting and kites with some small booths offering haiku creation which I almost did stand in that line for but it was too chaotic for me. Let me tell you the festival hours 4 – 8 pm go by FAST. There is a lot going on around you at all times but nothing that really felt like it needed my participation if that makes sense. Much to look at but not to do. Just drink and dance mostly. Also I’m disappointed by how early it ends. I felt like as soon as you get a groove going it was over even though the night was young. You spend all day in traffic, then find parking, then struggle finding somewhere to eat, wait to order (hopefully just not the back page of the menu), get served by what feels like only 1 of 2 waitresses, eat, pay the bill and leave, just to maybe have 2 hours left. Then you spend time going up and down trying to find where to settle and maybe listen to a band. And forget about getting a drink at a bar. Those poor bartenders at Hyatt House were going through HELL I tell you! I thank ya’ll so much for your sacrifice lol The Blue Hawaiian was lovely I must say but the wait…not so much even though I understand the circumstances. All in all I just want *sigh, more ya know.
We sat and conversed for a bit on their 2nd story deck which is lovely as hell (besides all the kids ,smh really killed everyone’s buzz) Then it felt like what else is there? If not fighting for a bartender’s attention, what else is there? There was a cute little dance party with a dj and some guys break dancing I think, that was a vibe. As soon as we got into a groove the fireworks began. They were beautiful of course and we saw as much as we could standing at only 4’11 and 5’1 respectively, but when it was over and you see bands packing up and people leaving, it all felt like a blur. I was already very emotional about something personal (in a good way) and for some reason the fireworks triggered it. I wasn’t ready to leave. I felt like Mr. Bemis. I thought there was time now. If I could make any suggestion it would be for them to extend the hours a bit. Not just for party animals like me lol, but for late comer’s dying in traffic to get there so that they can enjoy more of the Wharf too. Also some adult only zones would be PERFECT. They had a bar every 2 inches yet I have to worry about little Jonny screaming in my ear, blasting a tablet to the max, or knocking over my drink. Like pick a vibe ya’ll, family friendly or grown and sexy.
Overall
Overall, I had a decent experience at Bloomaroo 2025 even with the setbacks. I finally achieved getting my crabs from Jessie’s even though that was a hassle too smh *rolls eyes. The customer service was….interesting lol Yet if you ask me I would still very much recommend coming down every year to take part in the festivities. Hopefully they will better accommodate the growing number of visitors better, maybe even making it 2 days instead of one. Like I said before, if possible please book a hotel as to avoid getting there late in the day. If not at the Wharf itself, maybe somewhere further and use uber to get back and forth. The first time I went to the Wharf we stayed at The Motto, used uber and were just fine. Wear comfy shoes, wear something cute if you can, and watch the cherry blossom’s bloom.