Since we moved to the DC area, Sven and I have talked about doing an early morning bike ride around the city. With the morning temps in the 60s, we decided that Saturday was the time to stop talking and start doing! We were up at 5' and downtown by 0730 (yes, the early morning arrival wasn't so early once we realized that we don't move all that quickly early on a Saturday!!). We were surprised by the amount of traffic getting into the city and even more surprised by the amount of foot-traffic once we got there. The whole idea behind the plan was to bike around the city without all of the tourists. So, although I wouldn't categorize DC as the city that never sleeps....I would say that it's the city that never sleeps IN!! The tourists were not swarming the streets, but who knew that the athletes would be? It was unreal how many people were out biking, jogging and rollerblading. It was great to see so many people out for such a great purpose, yet we still had a slight sense of defeat that we didn't have the city to ourselves. (OK, yes, we know that 0730 is not that early, however bear in mind that we still felt like it was 0500!!!) Nonetheless, we were happy to be out enjoying such a beautiful 'almost Autumn' morning, and we were able to cross off another item from our DC 'bucket list'.
The sun peeking through the trees with the Washington Monument in the background.
The Lincoln Memorial, some stair-runners and a WHOLE LOT of bugs. Yuck!
We rode from the Lincoln Memorial across the Arlington Memorial Bridge enroute to the Marine Corps Memorial. Below is a gift from the Netherlands to the US (now if only I could remember why.....).
This is the view from the Netherlands monument looking across the Potomac River towards DC. You can see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Capitol in the background.
These are for you, Dad.... the Marine Corps Monument.
Here we are riding back over the bridge. The tiny object to the left behind Sven is the Lincoln Memorial.
This photo is taken from the DC side of the Potomac looking towards Arlington National Cemetary (the white building on the hill is part of the cemetary). In my list of athletes, I forgot to include the crew rowers! It was awesome to see several shells racing up the river. I wasn't in crew long at the academy (those 0400 mornings plebe year were brutal), but I thoroughly enjoyed those moments out on the water.
What a great idea, right? Here were these stairs (yes, that's a road at the bottom of them) and lots of people were running them. The three of us joined in the 'fun' and enjoyed pretending we were hard-core for a little while. =) Nikolas beat us every time....however, he didn't always go all the way to to the top or bottom (or anywhere close...hee hee)!
"5 push-ups, Grandpa, I can do 5 now"
Alright, we're all warmed up and ready to go!
We made our way back from the Arlington Memorial Bridge and rode by the World War II Memorial. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the marker representing our future home (as I say with fingers crossed).
+Memorial.jpg)
Next we rode to the Washington Monument. This is the view from the monument back across to the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.
The sun is still pretty low in the sky.....it's hiding behind the monument.
Nikolas leaning on the Washington Monument.
So, the one photo shows the view from the monument back to the WWII Memorial and Lincoln Memorial. This photo shows the view of the Capitol in the opposite direction (and the line of people waiting to go to the top of the monument).
And our last stop to round off our bike ride around the Mall was the Capitol. The Capitol Reflecting Pool is in the foreground.
Now, wasn't that cheaper than flying to DC? You just got a pretty extensive tour of the city and you didn't even have to leave home!
