Ken Nelson

Location: Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.

Day 19 pictures
All trip pictures

Sorry for the delay in posting. Been busy til late each night and just was too tired to post.

For some reason when I stay in a hotel, like here in Dupont Circle, I get up around 6 AM. In the RV, I’ve been sleeping in til 8 or 9.  I woke up at 6 and took advantage of the fairly decent weather to do what I call my “Postcard Ride”.  This is where I take my bike all through the places folks would see in a trip to D.C.

Starting from Dupont Circle I take Q street over to 16th street and bounce down a few blocks to Lafayette Park behind the White House:

Then I roll down 17th past the Treasury and Mayflower Hotels and over to the Ellipse in front of the White House. Here is the Washington Monument and the original Smithsonian Building as seen from the left front of the White House.

and the Oval Office side of the White House:

Then past the Natural History museum up to the mall and head towards the capitol on the pea gravel path. Here is the original Smithsonian Building from the Mall

And looking up the Mall, the Capitol Building:

I then pedal up the Mall, and take a shot back towards the Washington Monument from the Grant Memorial:

That’s Grant on the horse looking towards the monument.  Then I power up the hill on the Independence Avenue side of the Capitol. It is still early and only security is there:

 

One pedestrian is walking to work, so I beg a picture off her:

A for effort, but but a better composition would be closer to me and with the entire rotunda shown. But that is what you get for forgetting your gorilla tri-pod….

From there I shoot down the Mall behind the Native American museum, Air and Space, and the modern art thing I went to once and thought ridiculous.  A bit later I’m at the Tidal Basin gazing at the Jefferson Memorial:

Then over to the WWII memorial:

I’m ambivalent about the design of this monument. I realize they had a tough thing to cover – a war that almost everyone was in almost everywhere. But the committee effect shines though with generic listings of theaters and stars representing 1,000 dead each. I’m not dissing the sacrifice, just that the memorial doesn’t evoke feelings like the Vietnam or the Korea memorials.

Then off to the Lincoln Memorial

and the Vietnam Memorial:

If you know about it there is a path along the river from Hanes Point over to Georgetown. You can get to it behind the Lincoln Memorial and the Memorial Bridge:

Along the way you pass the historic Watergate Complex:

It is mainly apartments but has some offices. The Howard Johnsons where the businessman called to report a break-in at the Watergate is now a GWU annex. Early risers like myself are busy on the Potomac. Here a rower works hard on the Potomac across from the high rises of Rosslyn in VA.

And here is another in front of the Kennedy Center:

Then I cut up from the waterfront up 31’st street to verify our favorite desert place is still in business – and it is. Cafe La Ruche – you can’t go wrong on dessert any time or a breakfast or weekend brunch:

I then cut over on the C&O Canal – a lovely walking / bike route that goes for miles from Georgetown out along the Potomac River:

Then I cut up the Rock Creek Park shortcut from M street to P street:

It looks serene now, but late at night coming home from dinner in Georgetown it is a bit scary.

Then back on P street to Dupont Circle, where things are picking up as 7:30 rolls around.

Total time… about 1:15 minutes. 12 miles ridden.