In the movie The American President the character of the U.S. President played by Michael Douglas says to a lobbyist in his office “Did you know that when the City Planners sat down to design Washington, D.C., their intention was to build a city that would intimidate and humble foreign heads of state?”
I can’t say that I was intimidated or humbled (except by the blisters on my feet) but on my 2nd visit to D.C. I can say that I came away quite impressed by the city and surrounding area. I had not visited D.C. in over 30 years and my first visit was when I was new to the ins and outs of travel and big cities. On this trip I was joined by my wife and since it was her first visit to D.C. I was able to revisit several things from my first trip and was also able to see quite a few new monuments, museums, and attractions. Cranes dotted the skyline and the Washington Monument was covered in scaffolding for repairs from a rare earthquake in August of 2012 and so I have no doubt that will mean that if I visit again there will be even more new things to see.
Visiting in spring during the annual blooming of the cherry blossom trees may be the ideal time to go but vacation schedules dictated that we visit in late June along with the summer hordes. The dog days of summer had not quite arrived but we caught a stretch of 4 days of 
increasing heat and humidity and by the final day it was so hot that I was willing to pay a taxi to drop us 10 blocks away at the entrance to the Metro rather than walk it rolling our suitcases. I wandered throughout the city doing my impression of Sidney Greenstreet in Casablanca, handkerchief in hand, constantly patting my brow to wipe off the perspiration running down my neck. I should have worn a fez.
The attractions in Washington DC are mostly accessible by public transportation and renting a car is not necessary unless you have plans to visit things like Gettysburg, Williamsburg or Annapolis. Hotels are rather expensive especially near the heart of the city. We were seeing $200+ rates for anything close and even looking out in Rosslyn, Silver Springs and Arlington the rates were pretty steep considering we weren’t going to be spending much time in our room. So we experimented with a website called AirBnB.com which specializes in hooking up travelers with people with rooms to rent. We ended up staying in a funky, artsy, bar and restaurant area called Adams Morgan and were in easy walking distance of another hopping neighborhood called U Street. A range of restaurants and bars of all types and price ranges were available and we ate very well without breaking the bank. Our accommodation was a 3rd floor walkup apartment that lacked many of the amenities you would find at a nice hotel but it was clean, safe, and had AC and Wi-Fi and only set us back $75 a night.
The Metro system is top-notch – clean, efficient, and seemingly safe. The Metro sports some of the deepest stations you’ll find anywhere and if you want to keep in shape just jog up those escalator stairs like the one pictured below. Once we figured how to get our Smart Card and how to load it with money we found that we only occasionally needed to grab a taxi – mainly to relieve our exhaustion. We didn’t really find ourselves in any situations that set off my internal danger alert system (I call it my Spidey Sense) and we walked around quite a bit at night taking night photos and riding the Metro.
Even with a stellar public transportation system you should expect to walk a lot to visit the sites. The distances are deceptive – even though you can easily see the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington Memorial it is still quite a bit of a trek to get from one spot to the other. Even on the map what appears reasonably close because it shows as only 5 blocks is in reality quite a hike because the blocks are long and the streets are wide. Additionally there are stairs to climb, lines to wait in, and museum floors to wander in awe. Comfortable shoes are a must and a little mole skin, Band-Aids, or an extra pair of socks may be in order. But all the walking is worth it because there is so much to see and do that you’ll be hard pressed to fit it all in during a week’s visit.
Our schedule didn’t afford us a week and so we poured over the list of things to do and see and tried to map it out so that we didn’t do a lot of unnecessary backtracking. In some cases being the photo nut that I am we visited sites by day and then also by night to capture some stunning night shots. So here are my recommendations….
On or near the National Mall where many of the sites are congregated don’t miss:
The Lincoln Memorial – beautiful by day, fabulous by night. Hugely popular and crowded at all hours. You would have to get up pretty early to get a photo without people in it.
The Vietnam Memorial – the anti-memorial memorial. The chosen design seems to reflect our ambivalence about a war that many didn’t want and one that we clearly didn’t win. The soldiers needed their due and deserved to be honored and so the etched roll call of names seems a moving tribute. Nearby is a bronze statue called the Three Soldiers and another statue honoring the Women of Vietnam for those looking for a less abstract memorial than The Wall.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial – especially cool by night.
The National World War II Memorial – good spot to soak your tired feet.
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial – also worth seeing at night and affords a nice view across the Tidal Basin to the Jefferson Memorial.
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial – well done memorial with statues, fountains and inspirational quotes. Worth a visit on your walk around the tidal basin.
The Jefferson Memorial – I’ve always liked the look of The Jefferson Memorial and the statue of TJ makes a striking impression. Again – nice at night too.
The Washington Monument – despite being shrouded in scaffolding the Washington Monument still rises above all the other monuments and is visable from so many angles and as a backdrop that it demands your attention. When the work is completed it will again become the monument that you need to get in line early to go up the elevator for a view across the city.
There are dozens of other statues and monuments but hey – you can’t see it all.
Now on to some of the many buildings on the must see Washington D.C. list.
The White House – Although there is not much to really see unless you get a tour, you should at least take a quick stroll by the White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. You can see the iconic shot of the façade and mingle with the protesters of the day at the very least.
The Capital Building – This is the crown jewel of the government buildings and its iconic appearance is sure to stir feelings (positive or negative) in even the most casual observer. You’ll likely realize, as I did when standing in front of the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore, that the Capital Building is indelibly etched into your mind from the thousands of times you have seen it on TV shows, movies, and in newspapers and magazines. For me it stirred feelings of pride and patriotism for a country which I love warts and all. In high season you may want to contact one of your state’s senators or house of representatives and reserve a time to visit the Capital but we found that after going through that hassle that we could have just showed up and walked in. We were there in high season but we arrived early on a weekday and were able to go in ahead of our scheduled entry time.
The tour of the Capital is worthwhile and afterwards you can take a tunnel over to the Library of Congress and view the beautiful interior of that building as well. And don’t forget to visit one of the best fountains in D.C. on the way out of the Library of Congress – the Court of Neptune Fountain – which appears to be somewhat modeled after the Trevi Fountain in Rome though on a smaller and less grand scale.
Nearby the Capital Building and the Library of Congress are the marble columns, beautiful statues and the façade of the Supreme Court Building. Here you may find news crews and protestors milling about if the Court is in session and especially if it is one of the days where they will be handing down a decision.
Contemplation of Justice
The longest line we experienced was at the National Archives and it would behoove you to arrive early or late to avoid a long wait. The National Archives contains 3 biggies in the Pantheon of American documents – The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. In addition it houses a copy of the Magna Carta, the Louisiana Purchase Treaty and the Emancipation Proclamation – so lots of history there.
One of the beautiful things about Washington D.C. is that many of its outstanding museums are free of charge and others that aren’t typically have a free day at least once a month. We woke to a torrential downpour one morning and so a quick trip to the CVS Drugstore for an umbrella and off we went to wait out the storm inside one of the many museum options. You could ask 100 people which Washington D.C. museum is their favorite and I suspect that rather than a consensus I suspect answers would be split between the National Air & Space Museum, The National Museum of Natural History, The National Museum of American History and the National Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden.
That doesn’t even include other worthwhile art museum options such as The National Portrait Gallery, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, and the Renwick Gallery. It also doesn’t include other specialty museums such as the United States Holocaust Museum, the International Spy Museum, the Museum of African Art, the Museum of the American Indian and the Newseum.
Depending on your time and interests you’ll want to pick and choose from this embarrassment of cultural riches. Our schedule only included time for three of these gems.
The Air & Space Museum includes notable items such as the plane flown by the Wright Brothers, Lindberg’s Spirit of St. Louis, and a plethora of rockets, capsules and space stations as well.
The American History Museum includes such precious items as the original Star Spangled Banner, Julia Child’s Kitchen, the wax figures of past first ladies dressed in ballroom gowns, the John Bull Locomotive, the Model T, and the Greensboro Lunch counter from the Woolworth’s where 4 black students protested by sitting at the “White’s Only” lunch counter.
At the Museum of Natural History you will find the Hope Diamond along with a stunning collection of gems, dinosaur bones including a fully assembled T. Rex, animals from land and sea preserved by expert taxidermists including a full-sized replica of an African elephant and a blue whale.
In addition to all the attractions it is worthwhile to get out and visit some of Washington’s many diverse neighborhoods: The Adams Morgan area centered at 18th and Columbia, has a laid back, funky vibe. Row houses and apartment buildings co-exist with an assortment of watering holes and restaurants anchored by the always fun Madam’s Organ. The Capital Bikeshare bicycles seen in the foreground below are an excellent way to get around and allow you hop on hop off privileges that are a real bargain especially if you are able to keep your rides to under 30 minutes. I did find that bikes can disappear during peak hours (such as commuters grabbing bikes in outlying neighborhoods to ride their jobs in the center of D.C.) so plan accordingly.
The U Street Corridor runs through the Shaw neighborhood and was once coined the “Black Broadway” by singer Pearl Bailey during it’s heyday in the 1920’s when it’s clubs and theaters rivaled the cultural significance of New York’s Harlem neighborhood. Violence came to the area when it was the epicenter of the D.C. riots in the turbulent late 60’s and later crime as the neighborhood declined. The completion of the U Street Metro stop and the rejuvenation of nearby neighborhoods started a revival of the areas theaters and clubs and today it is a vibrant nightlife spot. Since 1958 Ben’s Chili Bowl has been a neighborhood institution serving locals, politicians, and celebrities tasty chili dogs and milkshakes.
The city of Arlington is a quick Metro ride under the Potomac from D.C. and contains a couple of significant sites that should be on your Washington D.C. itinerary. Arlington National Cemetery has been a military burial ground since the civil war and contains an untold number of heroes that have sacrified their lives in the name of our freedom and security. You can’t helped but be moved by the sheer number of row upon row of white headstones against the rolling hills of well manicured green, green grass. You can walk the extensive grounds or if it is 80 degrees and 90% humidity you can pay for the open air trolley to get you to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guard ceremony which happens at either 30 or 60 minute intervals depending on the time of the year. Other stops include the Kennedy gravesites (John, Jackie, Robert and Ted), the Arlington House, the Mast of the USS Maine memorial and the gravesite of Audie Murphy one of the most decorated soldier in U.S. history.
About 10 – 15 minutes from the Arlington Cemetery Metro stop via a walking path you can visit the Marine Corp memorial also known as the Iwo Jima Memorial. The scene of 6 marines raising the flag at Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima during WWII is an iconic one that can bring a tear to your eye.
Marine Corps (Iwo Jima).
So what did we miss on our four day visit that you might want to put on your list? For one, we missed several top notch art museums – the National Gallery of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Renwick Gallery, and the Freer Gallery of Art among others. We also missed the climbing to the top of the Old Post Office, visiting the National Cathedral, the Holocaust Museum, the International Spy Museum, Newseum, and the Pandas at the National Zoo. Also on some people’s radar would be trips to nearby Mount Vernon or Gettysburg or maybe a visit to a baseball, basketball or football game to watch the local pro team.
Looks like another visit may be in my future.
