Trip to Washington DC

[Dave Bonde]

I am taking my family (wife and 2 boys age 13 and 15) on a trip to Wasington DC the end of July. Right now I have reservations at the Hotel Harrington. We will be there 5 days. Anyone have input on the hotel (I can cancel the reservations if need be) or must sees - I know there are many but any input would be appreciated. We are driving so I will have a car. Thansk Dave

[Scott Shepherd]

Dave, check out this thread, it might get you started and you can build on it if you have more info or want more info.

http://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=128715&highlight=washington

[Nancy Laird]

Dave, don't miss Arlington, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, VietNam Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, and the World War II Memorial. Those are the "must see" places in D.C. If you have a car, Mount Vernon is a great trip, and if you have a full day, down to Charlottesville and a tour of Monticello is a REALLY great tour. When we lived there, the "tourist area" was serviced by a trolley-like tour vehicle; you could buy a ticket and get on and off the trolley at many different spots around the area and it went all the way over to Arlington. That is THE only way to try to get around in that section of D.C. Stay out of southeast--that is the "war zone" of D.C. A driving tour around Georgetown is pretty nice, but don't try to do it on a work day--if you can do a Saturday or Sunday, it's better.

Have a wonderful time. I have a friend who just spent a week up there and her descriptions of some of the things she did made me want to go back for a visit.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I would recommend a hotel that is close to a metro stop. Keep the car at the hotel. It's too much of a hastle to drive into DC. Many hotels offer shuttle service to the nearest metro stop, but it's even better if it's a short walk.

Within the Washington mall area, there are basically no restaurants. However, there are a lot of restaurants/shops in Georgetown (M Street) which is about a 15 minute walk from the Foggy Bottom metro stop on the orange/blue line.

Another nice place to visit is Old Town Alexandria on the other side of the Potomac River. Lot's of restaurants and shops too.

Many buildings have a cafeteria like the US Dept of Energy (Forrestal Building) on Independence Ave. Their cafeteria has direct access off the street to the second floor without going thru security at the ground level. Behind the Forrestal Building is L'Enfant Plaza where there are also some more hidden lunch restaurants below ground. The Smithsonian also has an accessible cafeteria for lunch.

It's a very exciting place to visit. You will experience all the views you see on TV news where reporters often stand like the White House front lawn and the Capitol Building. Nancy provided a nice list.

Lastly, make sure everyone is wearing good shoes!

Enjoy.
-Jeff :)

[Dan Mages]

First, call your reps in DC and ask if they can help with tours. They can often get you into tours without waiting in line. You should also ask for a tour of the capitol building. This will be done by an intern, but it beats dealing with a tour crowd of 40 people.

If you are going by car, try to make it out to the Air and Space museum annex near Dulles. Lots of really cool aircraft and spacecraft to drool over.

Dan

[Kent A Bathurst]

Lived in the DC area 3 times as a kid. Can tell you that the most attention-getting thing for me at the 13 - 15 age range was the Air & Space museum. Right there on the mall. The Dulles annex is fairly new - hope to get there someday.

[Eric DeSilva]

First, call your reps in DC and ask if they can help with tours. They can often get you into tours without waiting in line. You should also ask for a tour of the capitol building. This will be done by an intern, but it beats dealing with a tour crowd of 40 people.

If you are going by car, try to make it out to the Air and Space museum annex near Dulles. Lots of really cool aircraft and spacecraft to drool over.

Dan

Sadly, I don't think the Udvar Hazy (sp?) Annexe is metro accessible, but if you have a car, I'll second that it is worth a visit. The size of the building is staggering, which you don't really realize until you see the space shuttle in there. The original Air & Space Museum is also pretty phenomenal. I also like the National Museum of the American Indian, Natural History, and American History (affectionately known as the "Nation's Attic"). Not sure if you can keep teens interested in art, but the Hirshorn and the East Wing are also great.

I would also second using the metro to get around. It is easy to learn, air conditioned, very clean, and fast relative to a car during the day. Respect the native customs--if you don't want the ire of the regular metro users, the right side of the metro escalators is for standing, the left side for walking. Commuters can get irate if you stand on the left. Given that "parking" is one of DC's largest industries, parking tickets are expensive, and tend to double very quickly. The rules and regs on where you can park and when might as well be written in Mandarin--that coming from someone who lives here. If you do park on the street, remember you are in a major metro--keep anything valuable covered up.

I'd personally skip Georgetown. It used to be a shopping mecca, but now I sort of feel like its overrated. Unless you are shopping for high end furniture, in which case Cade Alley is the place to go. G'town is also not very metro-friendly. And even on weekends, traffic is standstill.

The new Nationals stadium is nice--you might think about trying to catch a game--but pricey. I'm not a big monument guy, but I did like the FDR monument a lot in addition to the others mentioned.

I've never stayed at the Harrington, but it seems to be a very popular tourist hotel. It is close to several metro stations, including metro center, at which you can get on any color metro line. You are close to Penn Quarter, which has some great restaurants, as well as a the corridor around 14th street near the National Press Club, which has some cheaper food court-like places.

[Dave Bonde]

Thanks everyone for the great information, I really appreciate it. Dave

[Nathan Palenski]

For ~$7 you can get a metro day pass which is good after 9:00 or 9:30. It usually saves you $5+ a person if you ride the metro to more than one stop. Its well worth its price if you're going to see the city via metro.

For ~$28 a person you can get tickets for the tour bus that takes you around arlington cemetary. A guide tells you all kinds of interesting facts and it stops at the Arlington House (Robert E Lee's house), eternal flame (JFK's grave) and the unknown soldiers tomb. There tour buses every 15 minutes which you can jump on and off of as you need.

Also included in that price is a seat on sightseeing buses that go across the Potomac and stop at most all the major attractions. I've lived here all my life and always learn something new from the tour guides. These buses run the circuit about every 45 mins which you can also get on and off of at your leisure. I think this tour only runs until about 4:30 in the afternoon but we had no trouble seeing everything we wanted to the last time I rode it.

Of the memorials definately go see Lincoln, FDR, WWII and the Vietnam wall. All are worth it and reletively close together. I'd go a second day to the mall and see all the smithsonian museums. You'll need a day or two just to breeze through these much less if you want to spend some real time there and see everything.

At least one day you should go down to chinatown (gallery place/chinatown stop on the yellow line) and have lunch. There's a place named Tony Cheng's which is mongolian barbecue downstairs and chinese upstairs. Both are fantastic. There's also an irish pub there named Fado which is also fantastic.


Enjoy your trip and as was said before, stay out of south east. You'd probably do best to just stay in south west since there's not much for a tourist to see elsewhere.

[Mike Cruz]

First of all, take the Metro into DC. Secondly, unless you have some special contacts, it is unlikely that you will get into the Washington Monument in July. I believe you have to get tickets something like a year in advance, wait in a horrificly long line, and sweat sweat sweat.

I had a friend in from Belgium 2 winters ago, and this is what I did with her... (she wasn't interested in spending TOO much time in DC, so I gave her the quick tour, not that I could have done a whole lot more than that):

We took the Metro into the closest stop to the White House. Saw it from the front, then the back (this is the view you may most associate with the White house...with a lot of lawn in front of it). We then walked over to the Lincoln Memorial (one end of the mall). We walked down the mall to Washington Monument (went right in...it was February...no line!). There is a memorial between the two, but I forgot what it is off hand. Then we ate lunch at the Post Office Pavillion. Nothing really fancy, but she had never seen a food court before...so it was neat for her. Then back over to the Air and Space Museum for a quick walk through, and an IMAX movie. Then, down to the Capitol Building for a photo op in front of it. Back on the Metro and off to home. The whole thing took about 4-5 hours.

Now, you could spend almost a DAY in each museum! If that is your sort of thing... There is a museum for everyone.

Arlington Cemetary is amazing. My father is buried there. If you do go visit it, you might be lucky enough to witness a ceremony. The horse draw casket, the 21 gun salute...the honor.

If you want to spend the time...a couple of days in the city, you can walk by the DOJ, and all the "official" buildings. They all just blur together for me, but it interests some.

Good luck. Enjoy your trip!

[David Nelson1]

Dave,
Besides all the sights, the one thing that IMO you can't pass up on is the Md Blue Crab. If your here on a weekend I wouldn't have a second thought of riding down dragging ya'll out to a good crab shack!

Your in a good place for all the sights. I googled the location of the hotel you will be staying, lotta good things to go look @ within walking distance.

[Kent A Bathurst]

.....the one thing that IMO you can't pass up on is the Md Blue Crab........


YEAH, BUDDY!! Dave B - do not pass up DN1's generous offer. You will not regret it - a local fella that will drag y'all to an official newsprint-for-tablecloth-crabs-piled-high-roll-of-paper-towels-and-a-Bud crab shack. Not one a' them tourist spots. In my tours there as a kid my folks would take us from NoVA over to MD for just that treat. Get as messy as you like, kids, and the folks can't say doodly-squat, 'cause they are doing the same.

Nothing like 'em. Fresh Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs!! None a' them Left Coast imposters (dungeness, king, whatever-the-heck) - the real deal.

At the same time - DN1 - soft shells are available, yes? I could eat them crabs 2x per day for 2 weeks and not have enough. I'll be on the Lower Potomac in a coupla weeks. Croaker, Perch, and Stripers often have a job-action and boycott my bait, but the local seafood store always has "fresh this morning" blue + softshells. Yum.

[David Nelson1]

YEAH, BUDDY!! Dave B - do not pass up DN1's generous offer. You will not regret it - a local fella that will drag y'all to an official newsprint-for-tablecloth-crabs-piled-high-roll-of-paper-towels-and-a-Bud crab shack. Not one a' them tourist spots. In my tours there as a kid my folks would take us from NoVA over to MD for just that treat. Get as messy as you like, kids, and the folks can't say doodly-squat, 'cause they are doing the same.

Nothing like 'em. Fresh Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs!! None a' them Left Coast imposters (dungeness, king, whatever-the-heck) - the real deal.

At the same time - DN1 - soft shells are available, yes? I could eat them crabs 2x per day for 2 weeks and not have enough. I'll be on the Lower Potomac in a coupla weeks. Croaker, Perch, and Stripers often have a job-action and boycott my bait, but the local seafood store always has "fresh this morning" blue + softshells. Yum.

I'll extend the offer to you as well. Just give me a heads up so I can clear my calendar.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I'll extend the offer to you as well. Just give me a heads up so I can clear my calendar.

'preciate the offer, David - But I'll be on the wrong bank - Northern Neck, not far from Warsaw/Montross VA. Takes forever to get to your part of the world.

The punch line, though - the MD state line is the MLW line on the southern bank of the Potomac. So, coupla miles from my friends' house is a bar called The Tavern. Parking lot on dry land, boardwalk out across the shore, and the bar is on pilings over the Potomac, so it is in MD. Planning on losing a dozen or so MD Keno games while I'm in the area.

[David Nelson1]

'preciate the offer, David - But I'll be on the wrong bank - Northern Neck, not far from Warsaw/Montross VA. Takes forever to get to your part of the world.

The punch line, though - the MD state line is the MLW line on the southern bank of the Potomac. So, coupla miles from my friends' house is a bar called The Tavern. Parking lot on dry land, boardwalk out across the shore, and the bar is on pilings over the Potomac, so it is in MD. Planning on losing a dozen or so MD Keno games while I'm in the area.

LOL well have fun with it I'm still a few dollars ahead of the game. Your right it would take a while.

[Dave Bonde]

[QUOTE=David Nelson1;1444745]Dave,
Besides all the sights, the one thing that IMO you can't pass up on is the Md Blue Crab. If your here on a weekend I wouldn't have a second thought of riding down dragging ya'll out to a good crab shack!

Your in a good place for all the sights. I googled the location of the hotel you will be staying, lotta good things to go look @ within walking distance.[/QUOTE

Thanks David - I would take you up on your offer but I am the only one in my family that likes seafood.:mad:

Dave

[Darius Ferlas]

The big and famous places were already suggested and all of the are very much worth a visit.

I used to work in Baltimore a few years back so from my end I might add Ellicott City and the lovely railway station of yonder years, now a museum. If you do decide to have a little better than average lunch or dinner then a relatively short drive to Baltimore's Marina might be a good idea, even if the rest of the city didn't strike me as that friendly. Saint Paul's Church is there too, the one with the legend of Desiderate attached to its name.

[David Nelson1]

[QUOTE=David Nelson1;1444745]Dave,
Besides all the sights, the one thing that IMO you can't pass up on is the Md Blue Crab. If your here on a weekend I wouldn't have a second thought of riding down dragging ya'll out to a good crab shack!

Your in a good place for all the sights. I googled the location of the hotel you will be staying, lotta good things to go look @ within walking distance.[/QUOTE

Thanks David - I would take you up on your offer but I am the only one in my family that likes seafood.:mad:

Dave

Very well then sir! Hope ya have a great time.

[Ray Bell]

I have only been there once, but found it amazing. So much history. Besides walking around all of the places already mentioned, I took a 1/2 day ride on one of the tour buses. It was well worth it, as the drivers point out a lot of interesting sites along the way. I think the only site not mentioned yet is the National Cathedral.

[Scott Shepherd]

'preciate the offer, David - But I'll be on the wrong bank - Northern Neck, not far from Warsaw/Montross VA. Takes forever to get to your part of the world.

There is a seafood restaurant near Montross that's right on the water as well. It's called Horn Harbor House. It's not too far from several other "shacks" that are on the water, down in Reedville. It's been a couple of years since I was there, but I recall it being very good and fresh. I'm sure the crabs are excellent there this time of the year.

[Kent A Bathurst]

There is a seafood restaurant near Montross that's right on the water as well. It's called Horn Harbor House. It's not too far from several other "shacks" that are on the water, down in Reedville. It's been a couple of years since I was there, but I recall it being very good and fresh. I'm sure the crabs are excellent there this time of the year.

Yeah - we buy ours at Faunce's seafood, and cook 'em up at the house.

Plus - the house is on a sheltered "creek" - 1/2 mile wide tidal estuary - with hundreds of crab pots. I've often though about going down to the end of the dock, hollering at a crab man, and buying from him right there. Might have to try that this trip.

[Mike Cruz]

C'mon Kent. Get some fried chicken for lunch on the first day you are there. Save those savory bones with grissel. And throw a couple of crab pots in yourself! If you have a dock, you have your own crabs! Do it, man!

[Kent A Bathurst]

C'mon Kent. Get some fried chicken for lunch on the first day you are there. Save those savory bones with grissel. And throw a couple of crab pots in yourself! If you have a dock, you have your own crabs! Do it, man!

Tried it - my friend's house's dock is only at 3' MLW - they have a crab trap - no self respecting crab is in water that shallow (but small croakers and large sea cats have no self respect, unfortunately). They do have a buncha floating-rig-thingies that they use to farm oysters, tho - few hundred seeds in each year, three year cycle, started three years ago, oysters are already on the July 4th menu!!!

[Mark Berenbrok]

Get the book titled "The Unofficial Guide to Washington DC." It's worth its weight in gold. Many suggestions about planning and what different age groups find interesting. My sons were about the same age as yours when we went a few years ago.

The metro in Washington is the best thing since sliced bread.

[Myk Rian]

First, call your reps in DC and ask if they can help with tours. They can often get you into tours without waiting in line. You should also ask for a tour of the capitol building. This will be done by an intern, but it beats dealing with a tour crowd of 40 people.
+1 on that. We had a personal tour of the capital building. It was absolutely wonderful. We did have to make the reservation several months in advance though.
We also toured the White House, but you need to set that up 6 months or more ahead.
We walked for MILES and MILES. Damn.
Take a kite and fly it at the Washington Monument park.
It was closed for rehab at the time, but we wanted to tour the Ford theater.
The Lincoln and Jefferson memorials are awe inspiring.
Library of Congress
Supreme Court building

[Ray Bell]

"We walked for MILES and MILES. Damn".

Not only will you walk miles, and miles, there are thousands of marble stairs to climb. It is worth it though, just so much history.

[bob svoboda]

I give the Metro an A+ Haven't seen the Holocaust Museum mentioned-It was one of the most educational (and moving) of my DC experiences.

[David Nelson1]

So, I take it you had a great time in DC I take it.

[Phil Thien]

I would recommend a hotel that is close to a metro stop. Keep the car at the hotel. It's too much of a hastle to drive into DC. Many hotels offer shuttle service to the nearest metro stop, but it's even better if it's a short walk.
-Jeff :)

I agree.

For inexpensive, I like One Washington Circle Hotel. On the flip side of the block (and price range) is the Ritz.

Across the street is the George Washington University Hospital. Can be a little noisy (sirens) at night, but you're so tired it doesn't matter. And if you're dead tired, you're right next to a world-class hospital.

And more importantly, GWU station (subway) is right there, too.

And lots of good food around.

While the One Washington Circle Hotel isn't fancy, they do have a kitchenette in the suites. Which is a nice way to stuff food into the kids in the mornings and evenings without having to spend a fortune on food.

And they have a reasonable price on parking.

And things in Foggy Bottom are pretty safe at night.

Of course, it has been six years since I was there. So things may have changed. I'll defer to the locals.