An Unexpected DC Adventure

This past weekend I went to DC to visit a few friends and during that visit I used the new bike share system that DC implemented about 3 months ago in December.   Capital Bikeshare is a replacement of the bike share that began in 2008, and now consists of over 1,100 bikes and 114 stations throughout DC and Northern Virginia.  Even though I personally struggled when I rented the bike the program is quite simple. There are daily, monthly and annual memberships. I opted for a daily membership, which allowed me access to any bike in the system for 24 hours for $5.  Then the first 30 mins of a rental are free, each additional 30 minutes are $1.50 and then after 90 mins, each additional 30 mins is $3. We had the bikes out for 1.5 hours or so, therefore it was $9.50 – with the $5 membership.  All it takes is a credit card (or a debit card that is able to hold $100) and then the machine spits out a receipt and a unlock code.  And you’re off. 

These are stock photos I found via Google Image Search (Not Mine)

So Kristin, Patrick, their friend Bis and I started at Eastern Market (a “few” blocks east of the Capitol) and ended up in Georgetown.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a cool map to indicate this, but you can click on the dailymile.com link below and hopefully see where we went. 

http://www.dailymile.com/people/Jerome9883/entries/6025083

Miles	Minutes	Speed	Calories Burned
6.4	60	6.4	722

Starting at Eastern Market we traveled southwest along South Carolina.  It was surprising how easy it was to bike on streets with no bike lanes.  But Eastern Market is set in the very ritzy, highly residential neighborhood of Capitol Hill.  So there was hardly any car traffic when we first started out. We continued on 4^th St. SE. south into the Navy Yard area. This area was extremely industrial as many ship building and Navy operations were located along the Anacostia in the mid 20^th century.  However, the Navy as dispersed their operation and did not need as much land, and the private factories closed down, there was a huge push for the redevelopment of this area in the mid 2000s.  In 2007, the Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement District was created to promote growth and implement a development plan that is currently about half finished.  The built out Navy Yard neighborhood is expected to contain 15 million square feet of office space, 1 million square feet of retail and approx. 8,700 housing units.  To give you reference that is approx. half of the office space in Philadelphia’s West Market CBD and approximately the equivalent of all the new residential construction in Center City since 2001.  Lesson being, when DC develops they go big.  Also notably they located the National’s ballpark in this neighborhood.

That was plannertastic – sorry.  We continued or trip along M St SE/SW and ended up at the Potomac.  We had seen on the bike share station’s map that there was a trail along the water. Apparently not as far South as we were, it was all boating clubs and seafood restaurants, err, almost like seafood shacks.  And there were cars lined up to find parking these places, they must be good.  However, they forgot about people walking or biking because the sidewalks were nonexistent in some places and Maine Ave. is a very large freeway street (actual planner term).  We did bike past this cool place, the Arena Stage. It was two stages that an architect cleverly combined with a cool outer pavilion.  Kristin said they were from Vancouver, I believe it. 

After biking past the seafood and freeways we finally made it to a trail and where the Mall begins around the Tidal Basin. It was really pretty and will be much more beautiful in the coming weeks as the cheery blossoms bloom. 

After walking our bikes across the Independence Ave. bridge on a very narrow sidewalk.  We stopped for a moment to figure out what was going on with a high school band dressed in very fancy blue revolutionary war uniforms and then continued along the south side of the Mall.  After almost going the wrong way and visiting the steps of the Lincoln Memorial we found the Rock Creek Trail.  It put us directly along the Potomac, behind the Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy Center and the Watergate Complex.  My friends learned in this stretch that I like to bike fast, as I made them stragglers.  Sorry guys.  The trail also afforded us amazing views of Georgetown (pictured) and Rosslyn, Virginia. 

After some difficulty finding bikeshare parking, our afternoon ended with delicious flatbreads from Mucnheez and some bargain shopping.  Shopping included a store closing sale at the Club Monaco there, perfect end.