Here are some pics to show you what my commute can look like. I tend to vary my route a bit, and to run errands on the way home. Right now, though, the sun rises around 5 am and sets a little after 9 pm, so my ride in and home don't actually look like this right now. In December, though, the sun rises around 8 or 9 am, and sets around 3:30 pm, so for much of the year, my commute does in fact mean "night" riding.

Quiet residential neighborhoods are generally better than main arterials:



The roads are bad in some of the hillier areas. Also, there are almost always clouds:



Sometimes I go downtown before returning home:



And I often "stop to smell the roses," except that sometimes this means stopping to enjoy a view of the water: