Mainers celebrate Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C.

WASHINGTON – This town is infested with tourists, worse than anything seen on Mount Desert in August. Some 700,000 people have descended on the capital from across the country and around the world to take part in the 71st annual National Cherry Blossom Festival.

One of the best places to see the cherry trees and their blossoms is the Tidal Basin, which sits beside the Jefferson Memorial and is within walking distance of many of the Smithsonian museums and the Washington Monument. The banks of the large pool are lined with thousands of the trees.

The trees themselves are short, no taller than 20 feet and about as wide. Before the blossoms bloom, they are pink buds. After they open up into the five-leaf flowers they gradually turn white and fall to the ground within a few days.

During the two-week festival, which is set to wrap up Sunday, there are more tourists than cherry trees lining the Tidal Basin. Some of the tourists are pushing baby carriages, others are snapping pictures and some are taking advantage of the 50 paddle boats that are for rent there, running them into the dock and getting a duck’s-eye view of the blossoms.

American families blend with Japanese ones and their next-generation video cameras. The cherry trees – 3,000 of them – were a gift from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo in 1912.

According to the festival’s Web site, the United States reciprocated in 1915, giving Japan flowering dogwood trees. In 1965, Lady Bird Johnson, the president’s wife, accepted 3,800 more cherry trees.

The two weeks of the festival are sprinkled with events, from a Japanese lantern-lighting festival to a parade and the crowning of a Cherry Blossom Queen.

The queen is chosen from the princesses. Each state is eligible to send a princess, but in reality only states with active state societies in Washington name a princess. This year, Maine, which has one of the most vibrant state societies with some 1,000 members in Washington and around the country, has picked Melissa C. Danforth of the Berwicks in York County as the Maine Cherry Blossom Princess.

The 24-year-old lives in Washington, working in the executive office of the president as deputy associate director of the Office of Strategic Initiatives.

Danforth did not want to talk too much about her experiences working for the president, but she did say that her long title meant she worked on presidential events and that it was a great experience.

The princess graduated from Northeastern University in Boston in 2004 with a degree in political science. At Northeastern, Danforth was showered with honors and got her first experiences in politics working for a Massachusetts Senate member and as a research assistant to a health committee in the Irish National Parliament in Dublin.

Danforth said she was chosen to be the princess after submitting an application with biographical information, a resume and an essay.

“It’s very exciting,” Danforth said. “I’ve known a variety of past Cherry Blossom Princesses from other states, and their experiences really led me to pursue the possibility.”

Dee Dee Thibodeau Fusco, who was Maine’s Cherry Blossom Princess in 1981, attended the Maine State Society’s dinner in honor of Danforth on Wednesday at the Officers’ Club in Fort Myer, Va.

“She’s a fabulous representative,” Fusco said of the new princess. “She’s intelligent, well-spoken and clearly represents the state of Maine in a good way.”

During the dinner, Danforth was presented with a commemorative plate, a mug and a flower. More than 40 people were there, most from Maine but with a small contingent from the Massachusetts State Society, which piggybacked onto Maine’s event because their society did not have enough members to host its own.

There was a raffle with such Maine prizes as a six-pack of Poland Spring water, a can of B & M Brown Bread and a bag of red-eye beans.

Wayne Hanson, a Bangor native whose mother, Myrna, wrote for the Bangor Daily News at one time, said the Maine State Society puts on a number of other events throughout the year. In May there is a lobster dinner and a day to clean up Maine sites at Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania. In December members lay out wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery thanks to a gift of more than 4,000 wreaths donated by Morrill Worcester of Harrington each of the past 14 years.

Chris Fortier, a 26-year-old Aroostook County native who is a Virginia contract lawyer, enjoys the society’s gatherings, especially this week’s dinner.

“It’s a fantastic event to honor the state of Maine and the accomplishments its peoples have brought,” he said.