A Father’s Day bike ride to the Reflecting Pool?

Good morning, DMV! It’s Tuesday, June 23.

For Father’s Day, my family went on a bike ride. Our original plan was to go downtown. I thought we could go to the National Mall, check out the algae-paint-hydrogen peroxide stew in the Reflecting Pool. But just before we left home, we decided to avoid the news and head north on the Rock Creek Trail instead.

And a good thing! We could have been arrested. We could have seen the dead duckling. That would have been a Father’s Day fail.

My recent visits to the National Mall have been a fiasco. Large sections were fenced off for construction and preparation ahead of events celebrating the U.S. semiquincentennial — the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

So my family and I rode up Rock Creek Trail. We usually try to get to Lake Needwood or Lake Frank, but each time, we succumb to hunger and fatigue.

We rode north on Beach Drive then the bike trail up past the horse stables, playgrounds and sports fields. As we passed teams playing soccer, I shouted, “World Cup!” We cheered them on.

We biked under I-495 and the towering spires of the Mormon temple, which my family has dubbed the golf temple because the first time my daughter saw it, it reminded her of my mom’s many golf trophies.

In North Bethesda, we fueled up on Indian food then made our way back home.

It was the perfect Sunday afternoon ride, a good 26 miles in total and thankfully drama-free.

Please consider supporting my work with a one-time, monthly or yearly donation to help keep me going. Do you know anyone who would enjoy reading me? Forward this to them to help me grow. For newcomers: To subscribe, click here.

Eileen Schramm, 68, of Silver Spring, sent in this lovely bloom she captured earlier this month.

“The hydrangeas were here when I bought my house almost (gulp!) 27 years ago. We have been arguing about bloom color ever since. I do all you are supposed to, to get them to blue. They regularly thwart me by blooming obnoxiously [Pepto-Bismol] pink,” she wrote in her submission.

“This year there is more blue, yay! with a few compromisers. I found this undecided one romantically lovely.”

“Just wanted to share this photo of beautiful flowers with you!” Harper Sutherland wrote in a brief email to me.

Share your recent photos of life in the DMV here.

🚲