travel
Take a direct flight to The National Cherry Blossom Festival
F
By Rebekah Sanderlin
or years people in Fayetteville dutifully
made the five hour drive up I-95 to Washington, DC, for work, fun, or sometimes just to
catch an international flight. You could fly to
DC, but doing so would require a layover in Atlanta or Charlotte, which made flying no faster than driving. All of that
changed in 2012, when daily, non-stop flights to Dulles Airport from Fayetteville became a reality. Now United Airlines
operates three daily, one-hour-and-twenty-minutes-long,
flights between our city and our nation���s capitol. A recent
search showed the cost for roundtrip airfare to be about $175.
Of course, many will still choose to drive, and some may
opt to enter DC by train. If you book your Amtrak tickets
from the Washington.org website, you���ll get a 30 percent discount on companion fares. Trains leave from the Hay Street
station downtown and arrive at Washington���s Union Station,
a beautiful and historic depot that is, itself, a tourist attraction.
However you get to Washington, spring is one of the prettiest times to visit and The National Cherry Blossom Festival,
which takes place from March 20 through April 14, is well
worth your time.
The Festival
Every year since 1927, The National Cherry Blossom Festival has celebrated spring in DC and Japan���s 1912 gift of
the cherry blossom trees, which are meant to symbolize the
enduring friendship between our two nations. The Festival
includes more than 150 daily cultural events, which are primarily free and open to the public. You can find a full listing
of events on nationalcherryblossomfestival.org, where you���ll
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