the fleet - all lined up and ready to go!
Here we are! riding the bus home from Union Station.
Aren't they cute? Don't we look like we're having SO MUCH FUN ALREADY!!!
So they got in on Thursday around noonish. The cherry trees had been blossoming for about two weeks already, which meant they were almost done, and the Weather Channel was forecasting "heavy rains" for that evening, starting mid-afternoon, which meant there was a high risk that this was our last chance to see them in full force, WHICH MEANT we had to take off right away. So we did. After a quick run up and down the 1300 block of Vermont Ave NW to make sure we all remembered how to shift and brake and steer, we headed off in the direction of the tidal basin. First stop though, every time: the White House (it's on the way). Hi George!
And then on to the cherry blossoms! Also, it was windy.
pretty though, hey?
mmhmm.
sure are.
After that, with the sky threatening to break open at any second, we whipped around to some other sites, including, but of course not limited to, the Lincoln Memorial. Hi Abe! Other sites included the Vietnam War Memorial, the reflecting pool, the WWII Memorial. We could've gone home and felt accomplished enough with these things, but of course we didn't, we risked bike and limb for a quick zip down Independence Ave to just get a little look at the Air and Space Museum... yeah, no, just to make sure it there...
A few seconds (ok, maybe like 5 minutes) after we got home, the skies did indeed break open. Dad took a nap. Mom and I went to Caribou. Obviously.
Did I also mention that we were dressed alike? That when we got dressed that morning, at different times in different time zones, we put on the same outfit? It kind of makes me wonder how frequently this does happen, except we never notice it because we never talk about our outfit choices on the phone... hm... maybe we should start... mom, what did you wear today?
After Caribou, Mom and I got back to the kitchen and got busy! We had a special birthday dinner (and dessert!) to prepare for a very special birthday boy. That blueberry pie has rainbow sprinkles! Wow! 52 is going to be so much fun!
To bed on the first day, the first, perfect day. Also, Mom has the best jammies ever.
Day 2: Dad spent about 6.5 hours at the National Air and Space Museum (I know, only??). Mom and I, undaunted by the Weather Channel's promises of 100% chance of rain, hopped on our trusty steeds and biked off in the direction of Alexandria, VA. I wore my new bike shirt. Pretty, hey?
Dad was totally excited about the museum. And mom had no idea how excited she'd be about Alexandria, though she looks pretty enthusiastic here.
So off we go, past Shanie's office, past the White House (not the same building), up along the reflecting pool, past the Lincoln Memorial (hi, Abe!) to the great big shiny bridge to Virginia, flanked by giant gold... things...
Mom liked them. I did too. But I think Mom liked them most of all. Don't worry, there will be more pictures of them later.
Halfway across the bridge, I stopped to point things out to Mom, fun things that you can see really well from the bridge, like Georgetown, and the National Cathedral, and the airport. While I was pointing things out, a bit of a commotion off to the side by the tidal basin caught our attention - turns out, there was a motorcade of some sort. Since Georgie was actually off in Eastern Europe somewhere, we took guesses as to who else it might have been... my guess is the Cookie Monster. It was a pretty substantial motorcade.
After that excitement, we somehow re-gathered ourselves and crossed the bridge, continuing on down to the water's edge, away from the highway, into the patches of daffodils and the willow trees with new leaves, and finally we stopped here, at the halfway mark: Gravelly Point.
It's my favorite spot to stop.
You may recognize it from some of my other albums
where I also took pictures of airplanes taking off
or, you know, parts of airplanes taking off.
Mom ended up enjoying it quite a bit as well, so much that we almost forgot how cold and miserable we were... nah, we weren't miserable! But we were definitely cold, I'm not going back on that one...
We spend a good bit of time on our first pass through, and finally we tore ourselves away to press on the last 5 miles to Alexandria before the rain hit. When they say 100% chance, they're usually pretty serious...
We cruised on past the most technically demanding portion of the ride (the airport stretch!) and stopped at a bench near the Washington Yacht Club, just beyond the airport.
And as we sat, a strange thing started happening, a strange light started to emerge from behind the tree... could it be...
the sun?? On a 100% chance of rain day? Maybe I was confused by what they meant by "rain." Because I was thinking "water from the sky." Or maybe I was confused by what they meant by "100%," because I was thinking... 100%...
I mean, it was still cold, and it wasn't exactly a sunny day, except for the 30 seconds when I could see my shadow... but it sure wasn't 100% raining... as I understand the term, of course...
Home free in Alexandria, we parked our bikes, covered the seats with plastic bags (for the "rain"), and set about looking for a good place for lunch and taking goofy pictures with stuff.
Cardboard cutouts of politicians in baseballs caps can be a real crown pleaser...
... depending on who the politician is, I suppose...
After spending some time at an awesome art gallery making friends with our favorite artists, we decided to eat lunch (yeah, we were pretty hungry) at the shrimps/tall people place, which proved to be a marvelous decision.
I got the shrimp salad in a pineapple. It was delicious, and it matched my awesome new biking shirt. Another good decision.
On such a roll of good decisions already, we went ahead with a hot fudge sundae for dessert - what better on a cold rainy day than some ice cream? But, of course, it was delicious in every way. ... well, except the cold part, I guess. But you take the bad with the good.
I had been fully intending to walk our bikes through the 100% rain to the metro station about a mile away from Old Town Alexandria and ride the train back into town. But when we came out of the restaurant, maybe a little bit freezing, it wasn't raining. And Mom was maybe a little bit chomping at the bit... so.... we got back on our bikes... and we rode.
And we didn't stop until we got to Gravelly Point again, where now the planes were not taking off over our heads, but LANDING!!! Which meant they were a LOT closer to the ground as they went over our heads!
Like, a lot a lot.
And you could see them coming from a long way off...
... around the trees...
...turning the corner with the Potomac in sight...
... waving at the Wash Mon...
... lining it up for the landing...
... dropping the landing gear...
... and comin' on in.
After watching a few planes come on in, Mom decided she was bored with the project of just getting a good shot of a plane, and that we should move on to the more advanced project of the "money shot" - us with the plane in the background. We actually had a really good first shot, except Mom is saying "Go!" instead of smiling, so we had to try again...
but the next time, we missed...
and the next time...
... and maybe the next...
We finally got another good one (remember, there's a good bit of time between planes here...) so we decided we'd had enough of planes for the day (well, I decided it) and got back on our bikes, back past the daffodils and willows, back to the bridge.
Back in DC, Mom got curious about what the bridges said at the bottom of the shiny gold statues, so we looped back around the Lincoln Memorial and used my 16x digital zoom to investigate. The big ones had said "Valor" and "Sacrifice." This one said "Music and Harvest." Oh.
And this one said "Aspiration and Literature." Alright then.
Mom thought this was super. Also, doesn't she look SO AWESOME in her red helmet??
After all our good quality airplane time, we thought we'd better go check in on Dad and the Air and Space Museum. He was all aglow with the excitement of the Apollo 11 command module, for example, among many, many other things.
In all of his excitement, he had forgotten to eat lunch, but we reminded him, and he got himself a salad while Mom and I threw back about 14 lemonades each and talked about OUR fun times with airplanes. Dad continued to be aglow through the whole salad-lemonade-storytelling experience, as is clear in this picture.
He wasn't ready to leave the museum yet, but Mom and I sure were, so after we hit the bathrooms, we left him in the gift shop and told him to call after he closed it down. (PS though, Mom and I took more picture of airplanes that day than he did!)
We made our way across the mall to the National Museum of Natural History, or, as I like to call it, the Nat Muse Nat Hist (for obvious reasons). Mom liked the dinosaurs. We also looked at the pretty photography exhibit. Yay, Nat Muse Nat Hist!
And from there, finally, we turned our bikes in the direction of... home? no! Caribou! I got the best drink ever, and so did Mom, though they were different drinks... hm...
Muffin in hand, she's ready for another 22 miles, right?
Good, because here we are, day 3, and I think we did about 17... yikes. First it was up to Jolt-n-Bolt, my fave coffee shop, and then all the way down to Eastern Market (pictured).
We each got a crepe. They were incredible. We did not share.
We also did not leave a tip for the crepe man; however, if we had wanted to, we would've had to sort our tip by denomination into the nicely marked plastic cups... really, do we really have to sort our tips? And are you REALLY expecting a tip involving a $20 bill? REALLY?
Dad has spend the morning at the the OTHER Air and Space Museum... who knew there was anOTHER! (He did). But shortly after noon, he came home and joined us for round two on the bikes - a ride up to a very special DC landmark... HELLER's Bakery!
(PS, do we look awesome in our sunners or WHAT!)
So exciting!!
Heller's was an all around thrilling experience, not surprisingly. We chose a diverse selection of desserts from a wide range of options: Dad got the baklava, Mom got a chocolate éclair, and I got the German chocolate cake, and they all proved to be outstanding and beyond. Also, there were accordion players. Well done, Hellers, well done.
We were proud to have our family name on this fine bakery, and we shamelessly encourage you to make the pilgrimage (preferably by bike) up to Mt. Pleasant (yes, you can walk the 16th St hill, not that we did) to try it out for yourself.
Mmm, yeah, I could use a little Heller's right now, come to think of it...
From there, we went to my office downtown (so glamorous) before heading (way back over) to Martha's.
Also, we checked in with the sisters, all without removing our kick-ass helmet/sunners. Awesome.
On our way to Martha's, we swung a bit south for a nice view of the National Mall...
... and the Capitol Building. (with a pretty blue sky for 100% chance of rain again, hey? silly weather people) ;)
Then we went to Martha's! Mom and Dad were so happy to see her, and also, they bonded instantly with the newest member of Martha's family: Annie the Dog.
She is pretty cute
She even posed for a picture with us! What a puppy! And isn't Martha so cute!
From there, we had a big roomie-dinner-night with the fam at the ever-popular Ben's Chili Bowl.
Megan came too, because she's like a roomie. She and I enjoyed a strawberry shake, and also, each other.
David, Luke, and Jill enjoyed their meals as well, and I think maybe David enjoyed his the most.
Mom got a tuna sandwich! Don't tell Ben!!
Day 4: it actually did rain. We made the (very very very) hard decision to leave our bikes at home and metro/walk (not jog) for the day.
We made two big stops: the first was Arlington Cemetary
where JFK was burried
Along with Jackie O
Arlington Cemetery is right across the river from DC - you can actually see it from where Mom and I biked across the bridge (Arlington Memorial Bridge, right, makes sense)
so there are some nice views of the Mall
(we were glad we had chosen not to bike... but it was still kind of sad... the cemetery, also, was pretty sad...)
Bobbie K is also buried at Arlington
along with vets from every war America was involved in.
The Navy Memorial is also here, with a statue of this famous scene from Iwo Jima in WWII.
And then the Netherlands also sent some bells and tulips.
That was sure nice of them.
From here we got back on the metro and rode from Arlington National Cemetery up to the Woodley Park - Zoo/Adam's Morgan metro stop. Mom totally loved the incredibly gigantic escalator... :-\ gee, I guess we were really far underground...
But she was happy once we (got a good Starbucks lunch in our bellies and) made it to the zoo!
yep, there we are.
(We also got lattes, of course)
Dad skipped out on the lattes and got something else instead...
a souvenir bucket of popcorn! WOW!
We went looking for the pandas, but again, they weren't outside...
but the inside part WAS open, so we went to check them out there.
The were eating.
All of them.
We were eating too, but we had to be kind of secretive about it, since eating in the panda house was not allowed! Omg we are such rebels.
But you know, if the pandas get to eat, it's only fair.
Yay, we saw the giant pandas!
We also saw the elephants
and Mom spent some time looking at the giant creepy rodent thing, much to everyone else's total confusion.
The zoo had pretty trees.
and lions
and tigers
and other tigers (oh my!)
and... another lion. Ok.
(this is pretty self explanatory, hey?)
Last picture of the trip is farewell to the zoo. From here, the end of the trip began as we walked the long stretch back through Adam's Morgan to my house, and Mom and Dad packed up, and we all walked to the metro where they took the green line to Greenbelt and the bus to BWI and I did not. Instead, I returned the two borrowed bikes and came home to do laundry... and totally crashed. I mean, I knew we'd have tons of fun, but I didn't know they'd KEEP UP so well! Like biking 50 miles in 3 days and walking 7 or 8 the next isn't HARD... I'm going to have to hit the gym before they come again... hm, and I'm definitely going to have to hit up Heller's... yeah... I wonder if they're open.......
