"This is wonderful," she said, looking out at waters dotted by dozens of paddle boats.
Ted and Linda Kelley, who drove in from Harrisburg, Pa., for the day, said they were a tad disappointed that the trees had not yet peaked. But the sun, they said, more than compensated.
"It's just been so raunchy," said Linda Kelley, 67, a retired nurse. "You look at everyone's face, and they're all smiling."
The most fortunate, perhaps, were those who worked outdoors. Gilbert Baker, 49, a National Park Service gardener, spent the morning with two colleagues tilling soil in Lafayette Square to plant tulips.
"You got to deal with cold and rain other times of the year," he said. "The sun is our reward."
At the edge of Farragut Square, Jessica Bawsel, 18, and several colleagues from the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation sat behind a row of tables administering stress tests.
The warm weather, Bawsel said, did not slow the line of people requesting the test, which involved answering such questions as, "What are your insecurities?" and "Is there anything you want to improve in your life?"
"Everybody has stress," she insisted, her smile suggesting that she was not one of them.
Chris Soda, 27, a bike messenger from Mount Pleasant, declared himself stress-free as he blew by.
"The rain and sleet are gone," he said. "This is good."
