The transition to Daylight Savings Time is always a difficult one. Who wants to lose an hour, especially a precious weekend hour? Sure, you get an extra one on some distant fall weekend, but with that you also get nighttime starting at 3:30pm. Ok, maybe 4:30, but still… So, the saving grace of Daylight Savings Time is all that extra daylight. And what better way to make use of the 47 hour weekend than with more light and the lately elusive unbelievably beautiful weather?

I spent the weekend wandering aimlessly around the city with friends. There was a little bit of tour-guiding, as there was a visitor to the nation’s capital in our midst. I’m a big fan of taking new people around the city and showing them all the things that I think are cool about D.C. Instead of the strict Mall and Georgetown tour, I favor the “Did you Know…” style of tourist-handling. Such as “Did you know that Walter Reed has a Medical Museum that features the bullet that killed Abraham Lincoln and a hairball in the shape of a stomach” or “Did you know that there is a really cool housing project in SW that have houses with domes made out of aluminum provided by the Reynolds (Wrap) company.”

In addition to aimless wandering, I did the one thing I’ve been trying to get off my lazy bum to do, but I’ve let the cold weather hold me back. I broke out the bicycle. It’s been standing idle in my living room, sad, un-ridden. I pumped up the tires, put on my fancy shoes and got riding!

With all this walking and riding around on my bike in the city it seemed only right to delve into Scott Berg’s book Grand Avenues: The Story of the French Visionary Who Designed Washington, D.C.. Pierre Charles L’Enfant, the famous French-American whose name you can’t escape here in D.C., was appointed by George Washington to design the new federal capital. Although he now is well acknowledged in D.C. for his contribution to the city’s layout, there was a lot of fuss in between. Yes, this is where I make the joke about just how easy it is to navigate D.C.; if by easy, I mean wholly confusing and perplexing to someone who does not have a map of the city tattooed on the brain. But, if L’Enfant’s original artistic vision had been recognized the city’s sometimes mysterious roads may not have been so confusing. Well, maybe not exactly.

The story of this process, which he started in 1791, is wrought with drama and full of ego and intrigue. L’Enfant was frequently at odds with the city planning commissioners and was finally dismissed before anything was realized. His plan was published under another name and his original ideas were modified. And he never saw the acknowledgment he deserved. And Mr. Berg does quite a job drawing both the character of L’Enfant in a wonderful narrative style and captivating story of the founding of the capital city.

So with spring upon us and the city ripe and ready for gallivanting about in, there’s also some entertaining and smart writing out there to enliven your Sunday drives up and down the magisterial streets of D.C.