Second Annual Cherry Blossom Ride

On a gorgeous, blue morning, 12 members and one guest of the Lake Barcroft Bike Club set out for the 26 mile round trip to see our nation's capital's best show of the spring, the Japanese Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin.

With myself in the lead and Jerry Mendenhall as the sweep, our group enjoyed the cool breeze as we made our way up Beachway and over to the Four Mile Run and W&OD Trails. Here are some photos of our group along the way.

Newt, Lloyd, John and Linda meet up at Bluemont Park

Ellen checks her phone before departure

Jerry and Lloyd 

Newt and Mike installing a wheel on Andrea's bike

Stopping at Gravelly Point, near Reagan Airport, is always a thrill.

Ride leader, Larry (photo by Newt)

Planes swooping directly overhead toward their landing

Guest biker Mark

Arriving in front of the Jefferson Memorial, the group stops to take in the scene and for photos.

Mike, Lloyd, Jerry, Newt, Andrea, Gail and Jim

Blossoms just past peak

Enjoying the scene

Mark and Newt, left, Gail and Cindy, right

View over the Tidal Basin

Visitors enjoying the scene

Cindy, Gail and Larry (photo by Newt)

John and Linda 

Tourists with great hats

The group shot: back row: Larry, Lloyd, Andrea, Mark, Newt, Gail and Jim
Front row: Mike, Jerry, Cindy and Ellen. (Not pictured here: John and Linda) 

After enjoying our morning and the beautiful scene, riders took off for the return trip. Newt, Mark and I lingered a bit and visited the Martin Luther King Memorial before heading back. On the way, a surprise: the Bolivian community was holding it's annual Carnival de Oruro along Four Mile Run Drive. Based on a 2,000+ year-old religious and cultural tradition in Bolivia, the parade featured music and colorful folk dancers from different areas of Bolivia. 

With all this Bolivian culture, we stopped at Cafe Sazon at the plaza at 4704 Columbia Pike, where the bike trail crosses, for an excellent Bolivian lunch. Highly recommended for both food and service. 

Reviews are in and everyone reported a great day for biking and a fun outing.

The next ride of the Lake Barcroft Bike Club will be posted soon.

Opening Season Ride to Vienna, Virginia

The Lake Barcroft Bike Club's first ride of 2014 on Saturday, originally bound for Buzz Bakery in Alexandria, diverted to Vienna, Virginia instead, for a fun but challenging, chilly and windy morning ride. 

Our hearty three person contingent included Rick Uritus, recumbent bike aficionado Bill Cook and me. The newly constructed, but very unwieldy detour on the Four Mile Run Trail (just before the Mount Vernon Trail) led me to make this last minute change to our itinerary. Unfortunately that detour will continue into the summer, and bike riders will need to face it if they want to enjoy rides south into Old Town and on to Mount Vernon. But maneuvering that detour on a recumbent bike would be difficult.

We set out at 8:30 a.m. and faced a tiring and chilly headwind as we pedaled west to the W&OD Trail, through Falls Church and Dunn Loring and then on to Vienna. 

Bill and Rick at Bluemont Park

Despite the relentless wind we finally made it to Vienna under a bright blue sky and warmed up with coffee and bagel sandwiches at Caffe Amouri, a great little local coffee shop on Church Street. Check our their website here: http://www.caffeamouri.com/ .

Rick, Bill and Larry outside Caffe Amouri

On Bill's recommendation we then headed over to the Pure Pasty Company,                         http://www.purepasty.com/, to pick up some Cornish pasties (pronounced "pass-tees") to take home. These baked gems wrapped in a wonderful pie crust are traditional meat and vegetable pies, somewhat like empanadas but with a lot more filling. The wives and mothers of tin miners in Cornwall would make them for their hardworking husbands and sons to help them get through the day. Easy to carry even on a bike, they make a satisfying meal today as well.

Loaded down with our pasties, we headed east down the W&OD trail, with the wind at our backs on the return ride, for a well-earned afternoon of relaxation and Cornish pasties.

Next week, the 2nd Annual Cherry Blossom Ride. Check your email for details.