Photo by Rag_Muffin.

Welcome to the official opening of tourist season, Washington. With today’s kickoff of the National Cherry Blossom Festival and the 44th annual Smithsonian Kite Festival, the streets of D.C. are sure to be filled with visitors from places outside our little bubble. Always remember: a little patience goes a long way. After all, these people come to our fair city from places where gun-free locker rooms are the norm and the top four candidates to challenge the Mayor probably don’t include a 100-loss baseball team and its big-headed lovable loser of a mascot. Plus, visitors to the District actually expect Metro to run without a hitch. Nothing brings strangers together like mutual frustration, right?

>> Speaking of frustrating topics to enlighten tourists about: how about D.C.’s lack of Congressional representation? Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton told Mark Plotkin that we’ll all get a look at the new D.C. voting rights bill in a couple of weeks.

>> This morning in food: PoP says that the much-loved Taylor Gourmet is expanding to Bethesda, while Frozen Tropics passes along a rumor on a potential Maine Avenue Fish Market seafood outpost on H Street. (Is it lunchtime yet?)

>> Elderly Prince George’s man makes the ultimate rally: paramedics summoned to the man’s home believe he is dead; when they were summoned back to the home thirty minutes later, he’s back among the ranks of the living.