With Sharon feeling under the weather, Jack and I wandered down the street for a quick breakfast and then headed for the National Mall. Sharon originally had been talking about renting bikes for the day. As we were walking, a bike went by with Capital Bikeshare written on the side. We stopped at bench and googled this company on the iPhone. There was rack with a kiosk where we could rent bikes less than a block away.
Jack and I rented two bikes. Over the next three plus hours, we probably covered more than 10 miles. We headed to the Vietnam Memorial and walked our bikes through the memorial. We continued up the mall to the Lincoln Memorial and then to Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. This is a very unusual memorial. It has different sections for each of FDR's four terms in office. After checking with a ranger, we walked our bikes through the lengthy memorial.
From there we headed to the Jefferson Memorial. There is a separate pond with another statue of Jefferson that we had not seen on Sunday. After stopping for a drink, we rode the bikes back along the Tidal Basin to the Martin Luther King Memorial. This is currently under construction and due to be dedicated at the end of August.
Crossing back to the National Mall at the World War II Memorial, we looped back by the Lincoln Memorial again and tried to find our way across the Key Bridge to get the Theodore Roosevelt Island. After a couple of dead ends, we were able to find a way up on to the bridge by going around the Kennedy Center. We rode across into Virginia and then walked our bikes across the foot bridge to the island and up to the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial. I am a fan of Teddy's and this was one of the sites that I wanted to see while we were here.
Riding our bikes back over the bridge and around to the Lincoln Memorial, we headed up the National Mall along the Reflecting Pond. We stopped for a drink just past the Washington Monument. At this point, we decided to ride all the way to the Capitol. We rode up one side, stopped for a couple of pictures and then rode back down the other side.
We then headed back to the hotel. There was a spot to return the bikes less than a block from the hotel.
Jack and I covered a lot of ground. It was a great way to experience the city.
The plan for the evening was to go to the Nationals versus Rockies Major League Baseball Game. With it raining heavily, we took the Metro to the game. We had some great seats two rows up just off the visitors dugout. We got there early enough that Jack had a chance to get a couple of autographs. Jack bought a Rockies hat before we left Sacramento. He was able to get Ubaldo Jimenez, Jonathan Herrera and one other player to sign it. In spite of the earlier rain, the weather was great during the game.
The Rockies won the game by the score of 3 to 2. Jason Werth looked horrible for the Nationals; he is batting .219 for the season. With two outs and runners on first and second in the top of the ninth, we got to see Jason Giambi pitch hit for the Rockies. He hit a deep fly out to centerfield.
After the game, we caught a cab near the Metro station and headed back to the hotel.
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