It has been bitterly cold the past few days, but I knew today was supposed to be sunny and warm, so I made plans for a bike date. I got up early, shivered a little on my morning ride to the coffee shop to get some work done, and read and wrote and graded things until S. popped in to meet me. And told me it was warming up. Yay! I don’t often ride with other people (I’m kind of a loner), but S. promised I could be line leader, so I took her on the route–over to Guilford, take a right, fly down the hill, act like a car and take a left from the center lane onto Centre, take a right on red onto Fallsway, and follow the signs through Jonestown and Little Italy over to Bank Street for a straight shot to Patterson Park. It was downright perfect out there today, all the smell and feel of springtime, and it felt so good to pedal along freely. I snapped this picture just inside the park because there was just something lovely today about the rows of rows of houses that matched the rows and rows of just-coming-up daffodils around this tree in the foreground. Oh, that’s going to be pretty in a couple of weeks. Today, Baltimore is beautiful. We rode down to the water, watched ducks with all the anthropomorphism of Morgan Freeman watching those penguins, and then did a lap around the park before heading to Fells Point for lunch. Up the hill, pedal pedal, and it was time to get back to work, sure, but what a lovely way to spend an early Wednesday afternoon.