Sep 4 - 7, 1999 Last updated: 12/15/01 1:30pm CT
September 4, 1999 through September 7, 1999 we went to Washington, D.C. for our anniversary. We waited until the last minute to decide where we were going. I signed up for the last minute airfare e-mail deals that the major airlines operate. Every week, different cities are on sale for round trip prices that rival normal one way ticket prices. You never know which cities will be available until the Wednesday before the weekend (AA now gives you a week). DC came up a winner. We had done some preliminary research on a couple of cities, so we weren’t totally winging it.
We stayed at the Capitol Hilton, three blocks north of the White House, and about a block and a half in two directions to a subway station. This is an older building, so the rooms were on the small side, but very clean. One day as we were leaving our hotel, we heard loud sirens and saw many black vehicles, (limos, SUVs) speeding down the street. We saw guys in suits with large automatic weapons hanging out of the windows of the SUVs. The locals didn’t even give it a second look, when all we could do was stare.
DC is one of those cities where you probably don’t want to rent a car. Everything you’ll want to see is within walking distance, or at least walking distance from the subway. We flew into Reagan National Airport and took the subway to the hotel. (If you fly into Dulles, you’ll need a car or a taxi). The subway trains were clean and efficient. The cars seemed wider than most other subway cars I’d been on. And the floors were carpeted, yes, it was an ugly burnt orange, but carpeted. One thing to be aware of is the ticketing system. You get a paper “card” with a stored value on it. You run the card through the turnstyle and it deducts the appropriate fare. These “cards” are very flimsy. If you get them wet, they will not work.
The Mall, a large open space connecting all of the major monuments, is about 2.5 to 3 miles across, so bring good walking shoes. It rained heavy one day (there was a hurricane passing through) and my feet were soaked, leading to blisters. (This was before our Alaska trip when we had the appropriate rain gear).
Sites that we saw on The Mall include:
- Capitol Building
- National Museum of American History
- Washington Monument
- National Air and Space Museum
- Smithsonian Institution
- National Museum of Natural History
- Memorial to the Signers of the Declaration of Independence
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- FDR Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Jefferson Memorial
Things we saw that were slightly off The Mall:
- The White House
- National Archives (home of the Constitution and other historical documents)
- Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Bureau of Engraving and Printing (where they print money and stamps)
- Ford’s Theatre (and across the street, the house where Lincoln died)
We also took the subway to Arlington National Cemetery, which is across the Potomac River in Virginia.
None of the restaurants were cheap. Most food was average, but some recommendations are:
- Kinkead’s, Pennsylvania Ave & 20th St, near the campus of the George Washington University. Not cheap but great seafood. Denise had the monkfish and I still regret not getting it after tasting hers.
- Capitol Grill, Pennsylvania Ave & 6th St. We went for lunch and had huge burgers (also not cheap) and onion strings. Yummy.
- Capitol Hilton, 16th & K St. NW, at the bar, Heath frozen yogurt in a praline cup.
As far as museums go, the collection of buildings that make up the Smithsonian didn’t impress us as much as we had thought. Don’t get me wrong, the Smithsonian is quite large and impressive. It’s just that Chicago’s museums are pretty good too. The most impressive to us was probably the Museum of American History. It contains artifacts related to the history of the United States, like the huge flag that inspired the Star-Spangled Banner (which we saw while they work on repairing it – no pictures allowed), and items used by Presidents, like George Washington’s uniform, the hat worn by Lincoln the night of his assassination, and Clinton’s saxophone (I didn’t say everything was important, just used).
This is a great place for a long weekend vacation. You’ll need more than 3 days if you plan on spending any serious amount of time in ALL the museums. We are pretty speedy people, but we didn’t feel like we missed anything in the sites listed above. (We did skip some museums, not listed above). There is so much to see, everything is close by, and you get a real sense of history.