After a week of immersing myself in shopping for a mortgage and making plans to buy our first house (just outside Burlington, VT , where I'll be starting residency in June), my dreams of tending the perennials and painting the door of a cute little farm house were dashed when the seller rejected our offer on Wednesday night. Buying a house is much more complicated than I had thought! Since I tend to dwell on disappointments a bit too much, I was glad that I had no classes and an appointment for a haircut in DC the next day so that I could take advantage of the heat wave by spending the day wandering around the capital city! {Cherry Blossoms at the DC Tidal Basin} After waking up at 5:30 am to ride with Chris from Baltimore (where we live) to Clinton , MD (where he works), I hopped on the Metro and headed toward the National Mall. I got off at the Smithsonian stop and followed the groups of tourists wearing sneakers and carrying cameras to the Tidal Basin. The che...