Tour de Vernon

The beginning of this weekend was really great and relaxed. I slept late on Saturday and spent the afternoon at the Newseum! The Newseum is a museum dedicated to news, which may seem strange, but it's so cool. They have a wing dedicated to Pulitzer Prize winning photographs and the stories behind them! It's a really interactive museum so it's easy to spend several hours there! They have six sections of the Berlin Wall and one of the watch towers used to guard the border between East and West Germany. It was kind of like the Holocaust Museum in that it was very humbling to see the oppression so many people have gone through and to realize how thankful I am for our country. I also loved the Sports Illustrated photographs section- it was cool to read about the personalities of the famous athletes pictured!

Sunday was just amazing. Allison Pace, her friends Amy Katherine, Daniel and I rode bikes to Mt. Vernon! Daniel had his own bike but Allison, AK, and I rented bikes from a place in Georgetown. When Allison, AK and I were walking over to pick up the bikes we were joking around about how we hoped they would have just some mountain bikes- not intense road bikes we would have to wear clips for, etc. I was already nervous about the 18 mile ride and knew that if I was going to try to ride a bike clipped in for the first time, it was going to be a long morning! We got to the rental place and the girl told us we could pick any bike-- any of the 7-speed cruisers! Needless to say, it took us a few hours to get to Mt. Vernon haha thankfully, the bikes did have hand-breaks, not pedal breaks. The Mt. Vernon Trail we took was a beautiful trail following most of the way down the Potomac River! The trail goes through Alexandria, woods, and some swampy areas so it was fun even just to see the area!

Allison, Me, and Amy Katherine happy to be at Mt. Vernon!

George and Martha's back porch... pretty sweet!

We left D.C. at about 10 am and got to Mt. Vernon around 1:30! We walked around the grounds for a while and went to Washington's tomb. We were going to take the Metrobus back but the bus only came every 30 minutes and could only take two bikes at a time so we rode 10 miles back to Alexandria and hopped on the Metro from there to return our bikes! I did learn a few things from the ride: 1. I have a new appreciation for cycling etiquette (such as the terms "passing", and "on your left") and 2. I really want a cycling jersey haha

Two quick anecdotes from the ride and I'll wrap up this super long post! First, the trail was packed and during the first 30 minutes or so we were getting passed by cycling teams non-stop. I heard a guy riding up behind me warn me he was passing and I tried to move to the right so he would have room. There wasn't much space for me to move so I apologized for not being able to move and he responded, "No worries! That's the great thing about this trail-- everybody can ride!" It may seem simple or cheesy but simply him saying that made me feel a lot better about enjoying the 3 hour cruise we were about to take! Second, about half-way to Mt. Vernon we passed a man going to town on a handcycle and he was wearing a jersey honoring veterans. It was so cool to see the determination in his face as he rode and easily kept up with the other cyclists... just another thing that makes me admire our troops and those who honor them!