I'm going to be in D.C. 18-20th, my and my brothers fathers day gift to my dad.


Aside from the obvious walking by the whitehouse, going to smithsonian, the monuments, etc...is there anything I wouldn't think of or see on a traditional tourist type tour?

we havent booked any specific tours yet, wondering if there's anything that the typical tourist misses that you really were glad you saw.

anyway we can't get into the whitehouse cuzz you have to request passes 6 months in advance thanks to 9-11.

<----never been to d.c. before

National Zoo
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/default.cfm

Jefferson Memorial - away from the Mall at the Tidal Basin

Einstein Monument - hidden away in a corner by the Mall, is a 3.5 times larger than life copper bas relief of Einstein with the stars mapped out on the ground. Very cool little nook, nice for a few minutes

Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum - http://www.mnh.si.edu/

Camelot - Excellent high end strip club

Also the National Air and Space Museum, FBI, National Gallery of Art, National Geographic Society and Bureau of Engraving & Printing are in DC

If you have a car Annapolis is only 30 or so miles away as is Baltimore

Caution - DC is a very funky town to try to get around. Easy to get lost
Also some sections of DC I would not recommend

What kind of things do you enjoy? What would you like to see while there?

Depends on how many days you are actually in DC for...

The monuments are not really all that close to each other and parking can be a bitch...

So, give yourself at least one full day of walking for trhe monuments...

If you are also going to visit Arlington, give yourself a day for that...

The smithsonian is more than one building, many different parts.. You could spend several weeks just on the smithsonian....

If that does not give you enough, you can always take the "underside" tour, you know... Visit the watergate to see where deepthroat passed all his/her info on. Visit Georgetown to see where Monica lived at, thaen of course you could go walk around in the parks to see if there are any bodies laying around that a senator or someone might have left... Lets see, oh yeah, don't miss the spot across from the capitol where Dan Quayle used to go tyo buy his cocaine.. Then of course there is the Vince Foster suicide spot.... Lots to do in D.C.


:yowsa:


info on sightseeing DC: http://www.si.edu/visit/sightseeing.htm

More :Welcome to the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex and research organization. Composed of 14 museums and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and 2 museums in New York City, the Smithsonian's exhibitions offer visitors a glimpse into its vast collection numbering over 142 million objects.

http://www.si.edu/visit/



Last edited by sarettah at Jun 7 2004, 03:42 PM

and there's always .......

.... Ford's Theater :papow:



and for the freaky there's Walter Reed Museum
When I went there as a child there were fetus in jars with brains coming out of their heads and other interesting abnormalities as well as a preserved human leg that had elephantiasis

National Art gallery,
a MUST for art lovers

:blink:

National Gallery of Art

Most people don't realize it, but the National Gallery of Art is not part of the Smithsonian complex. Housing one of the world's foremost collections of Western painting, sculpture, and graphic arts, spanning from the Middle Ages through the 20th century, the National Gallery has a dual personality. The original West Building, designed by John Russell Pope (architect of the Jefferson Memorial and the National Archives), is a neoclassic marble masterpiece with a domed rotunda over a colonnaded fountain and high-ceilinged corridors leading to delightful garden courts.

The West Building: On the main floor of the West Building, about 1,000 paintings are always on display. To the left (as you enter off the Mall) is the Art Information Room, housing the Micro Gallery, where those so inclined can design their own tours of the permanent collection and enhance their knowledge of art via user-friendly computers.

Continuing to the left of the rotunda are galleries of 13th- through 18th-century Italian paintings and sculpture, including what is generally considered the finest Renaissance collection outside Italy; here you'll see the only painting by Leonardo da Vinci housed outside Europe: Ginevra de'Benci. Paintings by El Greco, Ribera, and Velázquez highlight the Spanish galleries; Grünewald, Dürer, Holbein, and Cranach can be seen in the German; Van Eyck, Bosch, and Rubens in the Flemish; and Vermeer, Steen, and Rembrandt in the Dutch. To the right of the rotunda, galleries display 18th- and 19th-century French paintings (including one of the world's greatest Impressionist collections), paintings by Goya, works of late 18th- and 19th-century Americans--such as Cole, Stuart, Copley, Homer, Whistler, and Sargent--and of somewhat earlier British artists, such as Constable, Turner, and Gainsborough. Room decor reflects the period and country of the art shown: Travertine marble adorns the Italian gallery, and somber oak panels define the Dutch galleries.

Down a flight of stairs are prints and drawings, 15th- through 20th-century sculpture (with many pieces by Daumier, Degas, and Rodin), American naive 18th- and 19th-century paintings, Chinese porcelains, small Renaissance bronzes, 16th-century Flemish tapestries, and 18th-century decorative arts.

The National Gallery Sculpture Garden, just across Seventh Street from the West Wing, opened to the public in May 1999. The park takes up 2 city blocks and features open lawns; a central pool with a spouting fountain (the pool turns into an ice rink in winter); an exquisite glassed-in pavilion housing a cafe; 17 sculptures by renowned artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Ellsworth Kelly (and Scott Burton, whose Six-Part Seating you're welcome to sit upon); and informally landscaped shrubs, trees, and plants. It continues to be a hit, especially in warm weather, when people sit on the wide rim of the pool and dangle their feet in the water while they eat their lunch.

The East Building: Hard to miss outside the building is Frank Stella's giant sculpture, newly installed at the corner of Third Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Called "Prince of Homburg," the aluminum and fiberglass creation is more than 30 feet high, weighs 10 tons, and moves with the wind.

Inside this wing is a showcase for the museum's collection of 20th-century art, including works by Picasso, Miró, Matisse, Pollock, and Rothko; this is also the home of the art history research center. Always on display are the massive aluminum Calder mobile dangling under a seven-story skylight and an exhibit called Small French Paintings, which I love.

Altogether, you should allow at least a leisurely 2 hours to see everything here.

4th St. and Constitution Ave. NW, on the north side of the Mall (between 3rd and 7th sts. NW)202/737-4215 www.nga.gov
Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 11am-6pm

http://www.travelto-washingtondc.com/06_at...itinerary.shtml

Use the menu on the left to read about what might interest you

thanks you three for the list of goodies


i'd say there's enough in this thread already to last the whole trip!

serge I do enjoy art so we'll try to check out the National Art gallery.


I'll share the listed stuff in this thread with my pops and brother and we'll see which ones we all want to see.

of coures, they will be pictures apleanty come the 21st

:)

I never miss it when I go to DC...

LOTS of goodies which would make the Old World proud...

http://www.nga.gov/collection/adoration.htm

very helpful link, and sarretahs too


there's more to see than i'd imagined. 3 days probably aint enough! but we all have to get back to work, except my unemployed programmer college grad brother

deffinately a site to see.

I gotta save that file for when I can't fall asleep, that guys voice could put a person in a coma! :)

Steve, just use time wisely,
you can't cover all grounds, so make the best of it while you are there.

tip:
do NOT rent a car,
taxies are easier to use and more practical.
Walking on foot is another good option-
you'll always see more this way

Steve - you have 3 days and could easily take 3 weeks

We haven't even started in on dining and nightlife

Lots of excellent culinary experiences to be had in DC

will do serge, I've heard they have some crazy traffic and can be hard to navigate.

yea 3 days won't be enough to see everything I want, so the three of us will go through a list of these and the main attractions and decide which ones we all want to see.

too bad i'm not 21 till july 3, won't be able to get drunk with any senators, or strippers that have banged senators.

Steve - you won't see Senators out at strip clubs, maybe some low profile aids and such but no one with a rep to protect


Edit - crazy traffic is an understatement (look at the bridge by the Lincoln Memorial around 4:00 PM for the definition of gridlock). DC is not set up in a grid
You do have letter streets and number streets but they do not run in any logical fashion

another interesting thing about DC is the architecture. You will see amazing architecture. You'll see beautiful buildings from the 18th, 19th and 20th century all in the same block



Last edited by Vick at Jun 7 2004, 04:14 PM

I bet! i'm guessing we'll be wanting to do mostly casual dining, but, i should probably make a rez at some place thats famous for something.

Probably not. But I hear colin powell puts on a wig and fake nose and heads to Club Oval Oriface

I like to go to the Treasury building and watch them print money.

It gives me a stiffy.

yea i'd like to do that tour if it doesn't take tooo long. would be fun but not a huge priority, i've got some cash layin' around here and get stiffies from watching my girlfriend undress .

I would definatly take a night and go to the inner harbour in baltimore while I was there it is well worth it!

also, all of the civil war, and revolutonary war history places such as battfileds, and settlements along the rivers are great experience too...
not the party scene however still very fascinating to understand the history..... they are scattered all over virginia, and several are close to DC