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Minor Deity |
Folks, I'm planning trip to Washington D.C. Any advise on local transportation? My hotel is very close to a metro station. Is metro the best way to get around if, say, I want to visit the Supreme Court, the National Archive Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Spy Museum? Any useful tip on local transportation that you might be so kind to share? Any one in the local are who might want to meet up, we can coordinate via private messaging. Thanks in advance! 
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Has Achieved Nirvana |
Metro is definitely the best way to get around, pre-COVID. I have no idea what to do in a COVID era. A lot of it is walkable, particularly the stuff around the Mall. The Spy Museum is a few blocks off the Mall. Be aware that the spaces in the Spy Museum are not as expansive with as much ceiling space as, say, in the Air and Space Museum. In a COVID era, it would feel tight and crowded to me. I don't know if they've placed restrictions on the number of people who can enter at any time. | |||
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| Serial origamist Has Achieved Nirvana  |
When I left DC in 1987, the Metro was *the* way to get around. It was a tad expensive and didn't run very frequently during off-peak hours. But compared to any alternative it was da bomb. You can spend a month or more working your way up one side of the mall then back down the other, and by the time you've gone full circle, they've changed stuff. My faves were History and Industry and "The Castle". But it sounds like you are looking more for art than artifacts. I didn't get into aviation until after I moved back to Seattle. Now, I would be spending an entire day at Air & Space, and going out to the Steven Udvar-Hazy hangar at Dulles. I lived in DC for six years and never made it up in the Washington Monument. I went three times and it was either just closing or there was an elevator stuck or for some other reason I didn't make it up.
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| Minor Deity |
Thanks, Quirt and PJ ... I did not consider 'The Castle' before but now I think I will add it to the list. This is the probably the 3rd trip my travel companions and I make to Washington DC, so basically just pickup off places that most of us missed in our previous trips (hence the many glaring omissions of tourist-famous sites). And yes, the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy hanger is on our list this time.
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| Serial origamist Has Achieved Nirvana |
Well, you didn’t ask for suggestions of places to go and things to see, but a couple of the more interesting places or my faves were: Fords Theater and the Petersen House Museum. The Petersen House was described as a boarding house, but more like was a slightly different sort of business that would have several “bedrooms”. Dumbarton Oaks which was the site where the meetings were held that formed the U.N. Lovely museum and gardens. Not super convenient to a Metro station, though, but a healthy walk from DuPont Circle (where that ping-pong pizza place is) or Foggy Bottom. Mount Vernon is a few miles south of the city. We used to ride our bicycles there from GWU. The zoo is great if you like zoos.
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| Has Achieved Nirvana |
Get Ethiopian food. I don't know the restaurants any more, it's been way too long, but when I lived there there were a lot of great Ethiopian restaurants, in Adams Morgan, Georgetown, etc. No place I've lived since had more than one. | |||
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Minor Deity |
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is spectacular if you can get out to it in the burbs..Well worth the trip.  Another fav of mine on the mall is the Botanical Gardens.
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| Pinta & the Santa Maria Has Achieved Nirvana  |
Ditto for the botanical gardens on the mall. There's another botanical gardens but it definitely requires a car to get to it. I think the Metro would be fine even during covid as long as you steer away from it during rush hour. I suppose times have changed, but when I was there the metro was pretty empty from around 10-3, and again after about 7. Weekends were noticeably less crowded as well. All of the Smithsonian museums on the mall are worth a stop, but Air & Space is super popular and the most likely to be crowded. I also really liked the National Portrait Gallery and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, where you learn all about how to make money. | |||
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| Serial origamist Has Achieved Nirvana |
If you go to the *other* botanical gardens - by RFK - there is a bonsai garden/museum. Ditto on Ethiopian food in Adams Morgan. Quirt said that Red Sea closed years ago. That’s where I first tasted Ethiopian food. I was hooked. (There are several Ethiopian restaurants in Seattle but the best one closed a few years ago.)
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| Minor Deity |
I think PJ and Nina are referring the National Arboretum. I was there recently (pre pandemic) for a funeral. I decided to stay in a hotel within walking distance of the Arboretum as I knew the person I had come to honor would have loved it.  The bonsai collection there is AMAZING! And they had a "beer garden" dedicated to all plants used to brew beer. The place was lovely....Out of the way but if you love plants, trees..worth the trip.
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