Be Excellent To Each Other

Going there shortly on holiday, mainly because it cost very little to add a few days there onto the trip! Anyone been there, and have any recommendations. Looks like several nice things to take piccys of, although undoubtedly i will forget my camera working right up until i need to leave for the airport..

The Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum is ace. Running round looking at the aeroplanes and the rockets made me feel like a little kid again.

EDIT: And what you can't do on the Lincoln Memorial, though I personally think he wouldn't have minded:

Also, the tour of the Capitol is worth doing.

Mrs P has been there and enthuses constantly about the place. Basically, most things you have heard of are well worth it.

To get a tour of the White House, you need to be up at 6am to be queuing to get a ticket. Tickets for the day are usually gone by 7.30am.

The Pentagon is apparently ace as well, but you get hustled through very quickly. Arlington Cemetery is brilliant.

Smithsonian is massive and a must-see.

Cheers all,
All sound fab ideas, although I don't know if I can deal with queueing for the white house. A few distant photos might do the trick, and a guide book the missus has, says you need to get tours arranged by your senator currently (!) so may be a no-go anyway.

i was really looking forward to the NASA museum but had a look online awhen I booked and it's strangely reminescent of Duxford, which is great, but went there too many times as a child. No spaceships there though!

I used to work in an office there, handy for shopping at the metrocentre, but the town centre of Washington itself is chav central...

Find out which day Steven Strasburg is pitching and get a ticket.

DC or State?

Washington DC? Ahh...

W a-s-h i-n-g t-o-n, baby, D.C.!
W a-s-h i-n-g t-o-n, baby, D.C.!

Washington, D.C.
It's paradise to me
It's not because it is the grand old seat
Of precious freedom and democracy
No, no, no
It's not the greenery turning gold in fall
The scenery circling the Mall
It's just that's where my baby lives
That's all.
Washington D.C.!
It's the greatest place to be
It's not the cherries everywhere in bloom
It's not the way they put folks on the moon
No, no, no
It's not the spectacles and pagaentry
The thousand things you've got to see
It's just that's where my baby waits for me

W a-s-h i-n-g t-o-n, baby D.C.!
W a-s-h i-n-g t-o-n, baby D.C.!

Washington, D.C.!
It fits me to a T
It's not the people doing something real
It's not the way the springtime makes you feel
No, no, no
It ain't no famous name on a golden plaque
That makes me ride that railroad track
It's my baby's kiss that keeps me coming back
It's my baby's kiss that keeps me coming back

Not been there.

DC, i now plan to disembark the plane whilst highkicking along to that song, chorus line stylee...

That's what I was thinking... Yeah DC is the best, cleanest, nicest city I have ever been to in my entire life. The metro is just out of this world and don't forget the museums. One of them has Enola Gay.

The Smithsonian museums are great -- I particularly liked the Freer and Sackler art gallery, but if you're only going to make it to one or two, hit up the American History Museum and the Air and Space Museum. Mt. Vernon out on the Potomac river is really gorgeous and definitely worth the small trip out of the city proper. The White House tour is good, but might take more time than it's worth. The various memorials are nice, easy, and quick -- but visit them in the evening because the days are hot as balls.

Food! Ray's The Steaks on the East River (so it's technically in Arlington, I'm pretty sure) is fantastic, but a little pricey. Vace is a fantastic and cheap pizza joint in the Cleavland Park area of town. There's also this janky little pub within a block or two of Dupont Circle that has a zillion beer bottles lining the walls and serves a bread and cheese thing that I would punch a nun for. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name, so just to be safe, go into every janky pub you see. Oh, and if you are hungry about the time you are in the Air and Space Museum, do not -- I repeat, DO NOT -- eat at the McDonalds/Boston Market foot court atrocity there unless you have the self control required to restrain yourself from stabbing children. I think they are excited to be in the Air and Space Museum and all jacked up on astronaut ice cream or something, but every time I've been there I've wanted to have my uterus removed.

Yeah, DC can be stifling in the summer. But I've happy memories of ambling aimlessly down the Mall in the early evening watching all the various amateur baseball games going on.

Georgetown is very pretty, if you need a contrast too.

I think the worst mistake I made when I first went over was to pick up the hire car from Union Station: easy to find, but meant that my first experience of driving over there was the lunchtime rushhour! I

And hello shoesonwrong!