Touring by bike is a great way to see Washington, D.C.
June 4, 2010 (Susan Glaser, The Plain Dealer)

We wheeled by the Washington Monument, pedaled past 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., and rolled through the Roosevelt Memorial.

Touring by bike has become my new favorite way to see a city -- even a city like Washington, D.C., that I've seen many times before. It's more efficient and less tiring than walking, more intimate and less aggravating than driving.

During a three-hour bike tour in Washington last month, we stopped at 10 sites on or near the National Mall (including one I didn't even know existed). If I had forced my kids to walk so far in such a short time, with the temperature hovering above 90, the whining would have been nonstop.

Instead, we whizzed by the walkers dragging their feet from the World War II Memorial to the Washington Monument, zipped past the poor parents carrying their kids from the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial.

Along the way, we discovered a tidbit or two about our nation's capital that many residents may not even know -- for example, if you rub the nose of the Albert Einstein Memorial, you'll acquire some of his smarts.

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