Completed: 4. Use Capital Bikeshare
I wasn’t planning to complete this goal when I did, but I’m slowly learning that spontaneous moments can be fun. This is a big deal for me because I’m the type of person who needs to plan ahead and think through my daily schedule a billion times, but Lyssa challenged me to be more flexible this year (another goal). She’s been forcing me out of my comfort zone with surprise, last minute plans at random times. Completing this goal was a result of one of those spontaneous, surprise trips.
We usually go to separate gyms on Saturdays, meet at our favorite local coffeehouse, order one medium red eye and two bacon and egg breakfast sandwiches, eat them, then go home and go on with our day. This is our Saturday routine. I love our routine.
However, this past week, she surprised me as I was leaving the gym. She pulled up to my car and told me to get into hers, that she had already picked up coffee and sandwiches, and that we were going to go to the Lincoln Memorial to eat them instead of our local spot. Despite the fact that it wasn’t the typical routine that I look forward to every Saturday, I couldn’t have been happier with the detour.
While eating, I happened to see a Capital Bikeshare station next to us and said, “why don’t we rent a bike and ride around today while we’re here?” So we finished our breakfast and picked up some bikes.
It costs $8 to rent a bike for the day, which I thought was expensive given that we were only on them for 60 minutes, but the experience was well worth the $16. Lyssa and I spent the next hour riding around the National Mall. I love DC so much and when I’m in the city, it’s usually for work, so taking in downtown as a tourist is always fun. I’ve lived in this area for most of my life, but I’m always in awe of the historical sights.
Compared to walking around the Mall, which I’ve done a billion times, riding a bike was much more convenient. We started off at the Lincoln Memorial, biked to the MLK Memorial, FDR Memorial, then swung around the WW2 Memorial, and returned our bikes at the location of our pick-up. What’s great about the bike share program is that there are seemingly plenty of stations for those going farther distances around the city.
It was a great day!
-Kris