Pounding the Pavement (With Your Boots On)

The Heart of the City 2.5 miles

Laris and I met at 13th and U streets NW-- strategically located next to Metro and a Starbucks. Our plan was to walk straight up 13th, but we took one look at that hill and decided it'd be better to grab a little breakfast first. Nothing a quick detour over to the Florida Avenue Grill on 11th Street couldn't solve. Loving this urban hike thing.

A half-hour and a plate of biscuits and gravy later, we ascended 13th (Laris was panting the whole way) and stopped at Clifton Street, where we turned back toward the city for a sweeping view of downtown. We then zigzagged through Columbia Heights and Petworth, cutting east on Harvard Street, walking north for a stretch on 11th, crossing Georgia Avenue on Park Road and then hitting Otis Place.

We saw signs trumpeting black pride, a front yard that looked like an eclectic yard sale (except that nothing appeared to be for sale), a wrought-iron gate straight out of New Orleans and a morning soccer game just getting underway.

Some streets looked more inviting than others, but if we weren't intrigued by one, we just went up another. Before we knew it, we were walking uphill on Rock Creek Church Road, next to the U.S. Armed Forces Retirement Home's golf course, an odd site in the center of the city that I later discovered is a nine-hole course for residents of the home, though the public can join for a $450 annual fee.

At the gate of the complex of beautiful historic buildings, some of which date to the 1850s (Abraham Lincoln used one as a summer home), a veteran crossed in front of us, an American flag attached to the back of his wheelchair flapping in the wind.

Florida Avenue Grill

1100 Florida Ave. NW.

U.S. Armed Forces Retirement Home Rock Creek Church Road and Upshur Street NW.

President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers' Home Rock Creek Church Road and Upshur Street NW.

Open daily for tours. $12, ages 6 to 12 $5.http://www.lincolncottage.org.

Rock Creek Cemetery 1.5-mile loop

Arlington Cemetery gets all the publicity in the region, but this one is definitely worth a look. We entered through an ornate iron gate and immediately saw sculptures (including the statue commonly referred to as "Grief") and grave sites that looked like tiny versions of homes spread over 86 acres. From one vantage point, we could see row upon row of the small, white tombstones of veterans, laid out just like at Arlington.

Laris and I took a little risk and headed downhill toward the back of the cemetery, gambling that there would be an open gate on the far side. Wrong. We ended up making a wide circle through a maze of streets to get all the way back to the front gate: a total of 1.5 miles. But we didn't mind. The cemetery had a distinctly international feel with American graves followed by Russian ones, followed by stones with Chinese writing. This is where we saw a deer. The cemetery sits on some of the highest ground in the city, giving us a good look to the northwest at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. It was easy to imagine that there would be spectacular views when the leaves drop from the trees.