This is a copy and paste of a post I made earlier this year:
We began a 25 day road trip in DC back in 2005 to celebrate a friend's 50th (dh and me; her and her husband). The only reason we started there was because Virgin fly there (and we needed to fly with them), we'd already visited NYC 3 times previously, and we felt Boston was too far north to start a road trip which was to end in Florida. Our expectations were fairly low, but we were blown away and Matt and I are always saying how much we'd love to go back.
It's all low-rise and, because it's a manufactured city, so cleverly laid out. We stayed at the Hay-Adams which overlooks Lafayette Square and the White House and we really couldn't have picked a better spot (whenever you see news reporters with the White House in the background, they're standing on the roof terrace of the Hay-Adams). After checking in, we went for a walk "around the block" and it's amazing how close you can get to the White House.
We stayed 3 nights and everything was a joy. Of the Mall museums, we started with the Smithsonian Castle (which is effectively the visitor centre for all of them) and then went on to the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of American History. I wish we'd had time to do them all. We didn't want to queue to climb the Washington Memorial, but we got very close to it and also got numerous photos of it from all around the capital.
Naturally we did the Lincoln Memorial, walking via the World War II Memorial and taking in the Vietnam Memorial. We walked the entire Tidal Basin which includes the Roosevelt Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. We were lucky enough to visit whilst the cherry blossom was in bloom and, thanks to the jet-lag, we were out early and had the entire place almost to ourselves. We even saw Dubb-Yahs motorcade passing by.
We took a trip out to George Town which reminded me of England (Clifton in Bristol to be precise). We ended up in a great little bar. I can't remember what it was called, but I think it may have been part of a chain.
The surprise highlight for me was Arlington Cemetery. If it had been my choice, we wouldn't have bothered. We'd walked around 12 miles already that day and were pretty shattered, but the friend we were with is a big Civil War buff, so he was keen to go. Words can't describe the effect it had on me. Well, on all four of us. Tears are pricking the backs of my eyes just thinking about it and for so many reasons, not just the obvious. It's a truly awe-inspiring place.
Much of DC is walkable, although that did mean we ended up doing a lot of walking. We took the metro to Arlington Cemetery and got a cab to George Town, but walked everywhere else.
Surprisingly, given that we're big foodies, we didn't eat anywhere particularly memorable. It was the first three nights of our trip and we pretty much wore ourselves out with sight-seeing, so we stuck mainly with the options at the hotel. For breakfast we ate in the main dining room which overlooks the White House (well, it would be churlish not to) and, in the evenings, we hot-footed it to the basement "Off The Record" bar which is where White House staff hang out (hence the name). The award-winning bartender entertained us with tales of visits by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown (amongst others) and both the burgers and the cocktails were top-notch. I liked it because it was patronised by people "of an age" (my age ), rather than the hip, young, beautiful crowd.
P.S. I've just remembered that we also visited Union Station. Whilst it's similar in many ways to Grand Central Station and is well worth visiting, unlike GSC, it's not an essential sight-seeing destination in my view.
P.P.S. We're also huge West Wing fans - in fact I'd go as far as to say it's my favourite TV series of all time - and we're currently watching it for about the third time. However, the tour of the White House (which has to be booked in advance) doesn't include the West Wing and from what I read before our visit, I wasn't inspired to do the tour.
