Sunday, July 17, 2011

July 17, 2011 Bicycling in Washington DC

I'm at the National Drug Court Conference for a couple days.  Today after the conference finished up I decided to do something a little different.  I rented a beach cruiser bicylce to do some site seeing.  The beach cruiser they rented me was old, only had 1 gear, no hand breaks (its been a long time since I've had to pettle backwards to start, like little boy long time ago), and may have been a woman's bike.  But never the less, I was determined to do something different.

I left National Harbor and headed out on a white shale pathway, which eventually turned into a paved greenbelt.  I rode over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and entered Old Town Alexandria Virginia.  Old Town was very nice.  The buildings were historic and was exacted what I expected this area to look like.  Then, I decided that I would follow the greenbelt along the Potomic River towards Mount Vernon.  The Potomic River is beautiful.  I rode along through trees and through a wildlife preserve.  Wooden foot bridges weaved through marshes with lilly pads and willows.  Mount Vernon was nice.  It was neat to see where George Washington was born.

I will make a commen on beach cruisers.  Other than the seat being comfortable, I don't know why anyone would want to own one.  They are big and bulky.  The one gear thing doesn't make going up hills very enjoyable either.

But overall all it was a great excursion.

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