Insider's Washington, D.C.

We lived in DC for 25 years. These are some of our favorite places that are off the beaten path.

Renoir’s Luncheon Of the Boating Party, the Philips Gallery, the painting that will make you forget every other art museum you have seen.

Forget the famous cherry blossoms. DC’s best flower displays are azaleas, especially Brighton Dam and McCrillis Gardens, both in Montgomery County, MD.

The best cherry-blossom view is from the restaurant on the top floor of the of the East Wing, National
Gallery of Art, where your table looks down on a garden of cherry trees from above the flowering canopy.

Bonsai Garden, the National Arboretum.

The Observation Deck at the Old Post Office Building tops the Washington Monument’s views. It’s more centrally located, crowd free, and you don’t have to peer out little portholes.

The Headquarters of the Society of the Cincinnati, Anderson House, is one of DC’s great old city mansions where you can see a lock of George Washington’s hair and his false teeth.

The Medical Museum, Walter Reed Army Hospital, has more gruesome displays than a Halloween haunted house, including a pickled leg with elephantiasis and the skin from the corpse of the Tattooed Man. Walter Reed is slated to close, so you might have to track down where the museum goes.

Washington has many statues, but the best is the tombstone by Daniel Chester French, who carved Lincoln invthe Lincoln Memorial, the Statue of Grief in Rock Creek Cemetery.

Fall foliage along Rock Creek Parkway. Caution: you will get lost trying to drive this road, and never, never try it during rush hour.

Everybody goes to the Vietnam War Memorial, but only the wise visit at night.

The real FDR Memorial. America’s greatest president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, left instructions on how he
wanted to be memorialized, should the nation deem it appropriate. He wanted a granite stone, exactly the size of the top of his desk, erected in the little park in front of the National Archives Building, at 9th and Pennsylvania Ave. It’s still there, hidden by the bushes.

The interior of the Old Executive Office Building, guided tours only.

Dunbarton Oaks and gardens.

Quick Tips:

If driving, DC has terrible traffic and expensive parking. Get a hotel near the Metro and abandon your car. Especially avoid driving during rush hour.

The “best buy” for lunch is at any of the cafeterias in government office buildings. All are welcome, but increased security may make it difficult to get into the building. I suggest writing your congressperson for advice or help before you leave home. Otherwise, Smithsonian members can eat at the fine cafeteria in the Natural History Museum – ask for directions inside the museum, you will never find it on your own – or there are open-to-all cafeterias in some of the Smithsonian museums on the Mall, or there are food courts in the Old Post Office Building and in Union Station.

Summer is hot and very humid. Fall and spring have the best weather. The best time to visit is around May 1, the azalea season.

The city bus also covers most tourist sights, and is the only practical way to get to Georgetown.

There are many Chinese restaurants serving excellent dim sum at lunch in Chinatown and around the city.

Best Way To Get Around:

Driving in DC is horrible, and parking is very expensive. Never drive during rush hour.

The popular tourist sights are served by a shuttle bus. Buy an all-day ticket and get on and off where you like.

Metro is the fastest way to get around. Pick a hotel near the Metro and leave your car.

Using Metro: Buy a Farecard at the machine at the station entrance. The turn style gates automatically subtract the cost of your trip from the value of the Farecard, so you can buy one ride or multiple ride tickets. Farecard in hand, insert the Farecard in the side of the turn style and don’t forget to retrieve it when it pops out of the top; you also need it to exit the system.

Three airports serve DC: Dulles, National, and Baltimore. Metro serves Dulles and National. There is frequent train service from Baltimore to Union Station and bus service to the major hotels. Train is faster and more comfortable. There is also a shuttle bus service between the airport and the closest Metro station.

Anderson House and Phillips Gallery are close together on Massachusetts Ave, about three blocks from the Dupont Circle Metro.

The “best buy” for lunch is at any of the cafeterias in government office buildings. All are
welcome, but increased security may make it difficult to get into the building. I suggest mailing
your Congress person for advice or help before you leave home. With the exceptions of lower
cost Rayburn Building Cafeteria, the HHH Building is the place to eat because of the location of
the cafeteria on the top floor of the building.

The cafeteria is located at the corner of the HHH Building closest to the US Capitol, and two
sides of the building are flanked by balconies with unprecedented views of the Mall and Capitol.
The other two buildings with viewing decks up in the air, the Washington Monument and the Old
Post Office Building, are at the far end of the Mall, and while they are higher, their greater
distance away from the Capitol gives them a less impressive view of this end of the Mall.

Not content with their $150,000 annual salary and $3,000,000 a year for “office expenses”,
Congress also uses our tax dollars to provide subsidized, tax free food for their lunch. No doubt
feeling a little guilty about another taxpayer rip off, Congress does make it possible for the
Average Joe to partake of the bounty, with conditions. The “best buy” for lunch is at any of the
cafeterias in government office buildings, and the best of these is the cafeteria in the House
Rayburn Office Building.. All are welcome, but increased security may make it difficult to get
into the building. I suggest mailing your Congress person for advice or help before you leave
home. The public cannot eat in at the Rayburn Office Building cafeteria between 11:30-1:00, or
some such.

Price and food quality considered, the sales tax-free, taxpayer subsidized food at Rayburn is hands
down the best lunch in the city. The cafeteria is located at the far downhill end of the building,
and the far wall is all glass giving a wonderful, bet off centered, view of the Mall.

After lunch, upset your stomach by visiting the parking garage for this building. When I worked
across the street, several floors of the parking garage were used by the Dept. of Transportation to
conduct vehicle tests because Congress gave itself so much free parking space that couldn’t use it
all.

Not content with their $150,000 annual salary and $3,000,000 a year for “office expenses”,
Congress also uses our tax dollars to provide subsidized, tax free food for their lunch. No doubt
feeling a little guilty about another taxpayer rip off, Congress does make it possible for the
Average Joe to partake of the bounty, with conditions. Your Senator’s office will give you a pass
into the Senate Dining Room, good before 12:00 pm and after 1:00 pm, where you can chow
down on the same sales tax free, taxpayer subsidized food that Congress eats.

Senate Bean Soup is the most famous–-make that the only famous dish on the menu–-and I find it
rather tiresome, being basically navy beans cooked with overly salty ham.

Food quality is good cafeteria-style. Nothing brilliant, but nothing bad or that will offend. For
what you get, the price is more than right. It is a steal, which is what Congress had in mind all
along, Congress being the thief while you are the victim.

You can find a number of very negative reviews of Phillips Flagship Restaurant on the Internet, but why not? These disappointed diners went for a buffet. You do not go to Phillips for a buffet. You go to Phillips for what made them a famous small chain of restaurants around the Chesapeake Bay– fresh seafood from the Bay. That means you go to Phillips for Blue Crab, oysters, clams, scallops, flounder, and Rockfish. Mostly, you go to Phillips Flagship Restaurant for crab, and for crab, you must eat Phillips’ crab cakes. Crab cakes come in two ways. Crab Cake diner is two crab cakes served with veggies, salad, bread, and all that stuff. It’s easier on the budget and not as filling to opt for the alternative, a crab cake sandwich. 

The seas of America produce three types of edible crabs, Blue (east coast), King (Alaska), and Dungeness (west coast). Comparing Blue Crab to the other two is like comparing tenderloin to tough hamburger. Blue crab, and especially Phillip’s crab cakes, is one of the greatest dishes the country offers.

Bay Rockfish is a variety of stripped black sea bass that rivals Chilean Sea Bass in flavor, providing you get your Chilean Sea Bass fresh caught that morning. The weather, pollution, or over fishing periodically depletes the Rockfish population and Virginia and Maryland ban Rockfish fishing until the population recovers. A ban can last a decade.

Stuffed Shrimp or Stuffed Flounder are also worthwhile dishes. Jumbo shrimp or flounder are stuffed with crab meat. In either case, it makes a delightful combination. Crab Imperial is the third great crab dish. Basically, it is pile of crab drenched in butter and cream.

Phillips Flagship Restaurant is a monstrous place, which gives it somewhat of an assembly line feel. I’ve seen it swallow up six tour bus loads without blinking. Considering the size of the place, it works pretty well, except apparently for the buffet, which we never tried, nor would I even consider it with Crab Cakes on the menu.

The name, Phillips Flagship Restaurant, does not mean it is the flagship restaurant of the chain. That one is in Ocean City, MD. The Flagship was the original name of the restaurant, which was later acquired by Phillips. The Flagship was very popular, but not as good as Phillips, and I’d bet the new management kept some of the popular Flagship meals on the menu.

It bears repeating– stick to what Phillips Flagship Restaurant does best. If you are visiting the area, you must try crab, either crab cakes or Crab Imperial or Stuffed Shrimp or Stuffed Flounder.

If you want to try equally good crab in a more intimate setting than a restaurant serving hundreds, try Fred and Harry’s in Silver Spring at the intersection of University Blvd and Colesville Rd, or the Anchor Inn near the Wheaton Plaza Shopping Center in Wheaton/Silver Spring.

There is ample free parking in the large garage under the restaurant.

The Smithsonian In One Day.

We lived in Washington, D.C. for 25 years, and never managed to see all the Smithsonian, even though we spent more than 300 days there. It takes a week just to scratch the surface. Seeing the Smithsonian in one day is a joke, but if that’s all your schedule allows, here is how to see the high points in one day. This is a circle tour, so you can start anywhere on the route and go either direction. There is no chance of finishing the tour in one day if you wander around the museums until you stumble across the sights. You must either locate the route on the floor map when you enter, or ask a guard for directions.

Starting at the Air and Space Museum, see the Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo Space Capsule, and the Wright Brothers plane in the main hall. Then the space station and the diorama of a Moon walk, with a real spacesuit that walked on the Moon, complete with Moon dust on the knees. At the opposite end of the building is half the Enola Gay, the A-Bomb plane. On your way out the Mall exit, touch the Moon rock on display.

Cross the Mall to the East Wing, National Gallery of Art. Go up the stairs and turn right, noting the Calder Mobile above. Go down the stairs and through the tunnel connecting the National Gallery buildings, then up by stairs or elevator to the main floor to the main Impressionist galleries. The National Gallery has so many Impressionist paintings that there are usually 2-3 shows on display. Ask staff how to find Renoir’s "Girl With a Watering Can" to get to the four rooms with the best Renoir, van Gogh, and Monet.

Back to the Rotunda ("Winged Mercury" on the fountain is the best preserved ancient Greek work in the world) and out to the Mall. Turn right to the Natural History Museum to see Dinosaur Hall, the Hope Diamond, the Coral Reef, and the Blue Whale.

Back on the Mall, go right to the Museum of American History. Check when the Star Spangled Banner will be displayed. This is the real thing, that flew amid "bombs bursting in air" and after more than 200 years, it’s fragile and kept in the dark most of the time. Split up. Ladies go see the First Ladies Inaugural Gowns and the White House China. Men go see the Antique Cars and railroad engines. Set a time to rendezvous back at the entrance. Cross the Mall. If you have time, cut across to the Holocaust Museum. Otherwise, go to the Freer Gallery’s Peacock Room. Back on the Mall, go right to funny looking building (Arts & Industry) next to "The Castle" for a quick look at the 1876 Centennial Display.

Back on the Mall, go right and walk through the outdoor sculpture garden in front of the Hirshhorn.

Time left? Return to your favorite for more.

Daniel Chester French’s brooding statue of seated Lincoln inside the Lincoln Memorial (best at night) may be the most recognized sculpture in Washington, D.C., but the Statue of Grief by Augustus St. Gaudens in Rock Creek Cemetery is by far the greater work. Grief is best reached from the Cemetery’s entrance on North Capitol St. (as North Capitol St. is the dividing street between DC addressees NW and NE, it has no directional suffix). Coming from downtown, just before you reach the cemetery at the top of a hill whose climb starts about where you can see the Shrine Church at Catholic University to the right, is, on the left, the Old Sailors’ Home, built for homeless WWI vets.

If there is an attendant on duty at the gates to the cemetery, he can tell you how to find to Grief. Otherwise, do what we did the first time we went to see Grief and nobody was home. Start driving around, looking for a tomb with a statue of a shrowded lady on top, a statue that stops you in your tracks, a statue that is one of the world’s great works of art. With that preparation, you will know Grief when you see her. Park and walk over to the grave for a close look. Or, to to identify what you are seeking in advance, go to www.homestead.com/hereibe/Adams.html for photos.

The Historian Henry Adams commissioned the tomb for his wife after her suicide. The setting was designed by Stanford White, America’s most famous architect at the time, and St Gaudens executed  Adam’s request for a symbol of the "intellectual acceptance of the inevitable." St Gaudens posed a man draped in a blanket for the model. At first, Adams was not pleased with work, but he later came around. Henry Adams died in 1918 and is buried under Grief beside his wife, but only name "Adams" appears on the tomb.

"The Adams Memorial" as it was originally known, attracted art critics and visitors from around the world, who debated loud and long the meaning of the work. Eventually, agreement was reached on the deception of grief, and the tomb is now generally known as ‘the Statue of Grief’, surely the greatest little known sight in Washington, D.C., and well worth a visit, especially for art lovers and those who wish to put down their friends and relatives, ‘What? You went to Washington, D.C. and you didn’t see the Statue of Grief?’ Good grief! I’m inclined to think Grief has the greatest impact on a blustery autumn day, when the trees wear their fall colors.

If you get the directions to Grief beforehand, this trip can probably be made by bus, but car or taxi is the way to go.

The Smithsonian, begun with a gift from Englishman James Smithson whose tomb is in the lobby of "the Castle", is almost beyond the grasp of the mind. Operating 19 museums with 24 million visitors a year and a collection of more than 135,000,000 objects, no one ever has or ever will see it all. We lived in Washington for 25 years, and never managed to see it all, even though we spent more than 300 days there. This poses a problem for the visitor– you do not "see" the Smithsonian. You see some of it, a very small some of it. Visiting the Smithsonian is always a question of picking and choosing.

The main museums line the Mall between the US Capitol and the Washington Monument. They share the Mall with the National Gallery of Art and the Hirshhorn Gallery which are technically not part of the Smithsonian, but everyone thinks of them as belonging because of their location. The Smithsonian’s Mall museums are Arts & Industries; Freer Gallery of Oriental Art, Air & Space, African Art, American History and Technology, American Indian, Natural History, and "the Castle", the original museum.

Elsewhere in the Washington DC area are Anacostia Community Museum, Renwick Gallery, the National Zoo, Postal Museum, and the American Art and Portrait Gallery. There are branches of the Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport, where you can see a Concord supersonic jet, and the remarkable SR-71"Blackbird", a spy plane created 40 years ago that is still the world’s fastest production airplane. For reasons I no longer remember, fuel leaks out all over the wings until it reaches a speed where air pressure tightens up the fuel tanks. Most of the Air & Space collection is located near Andrews AFB in Suitland, MD, in monster complex of hangers where restoration work is also done. Although closed to the public, the complex is occasionally opened, generally on a weekend in September, and it is well worth a visit if you are in town. The entire history of flight is stored away here. This is where we first saw the Enola Gay during years of restoration work that proceeded its appearance at the museum on the Mall, but on the
Mall, only about 40% of the plane is displayed. We saw the entire airplane.

For an overview of the highlights of the Mall museums, see my review, "The Smithsonian in One Day."

I found the Museum of Natural History to be the best of the Smithsonian Museums. Enter from the Mall into the Rotunda, where one of the largest known elephants is on display. The top sights include Dinosaur Hall; the Hope Diamond (the world’s largest diamond) and other spectacular jewels; the world’s first living coral reef in an aquarium, and, what with global warming killing all the coral in Nature, soon to be the only place to see a coral reef; and the Blue Whale (in the room behind the coral reef display), a life sized model of the largest animal ever. Dinosaur Hall has a monster Brontosaurus, but you will be amazed by the size of the Blue Whale in comparison.

Arrive at the Hope Diamond by the Hall of Minerals, as interesting collection of minerals of the world, and leave by the other entrance to the room where the jewels are to see the world’s largest intact meteorite. The museum also has a number of dioramas depicting scenes of wildlife from around the world. These are pretty good. The collection of stuffed birds is a mind boggling display of the variety of nature– who knew there so many birds? The mounted display of Butterflies is remarkable, especially the ones with psychedelic wings.

There are several galleries of native New World culture– dioramas, totem poles, Aztec calendars, Indian handicrafts, etc. Parents can dump, er, leave their kids at the insect petting zoo while they explore the museum, but the zoo is worth a quick look for everyone.

Opposite the Rotunda entrance is a flight of stair and an escalator going down to the Constitution Ave. Entrance. At the bottom of the stairs is an impressive stuffed Tiger mounted in a leaping position. The lower level entrance lobby features rotating displays that are almost always of interest. The best display the Smithsonian ever had was a large room in the Natural History Museum called "Splendors of Nature".  After decades on display, they replaced it, the biggest mistake the Federal government ever made. A small part of "Splendors of Nature" remains on display in this lobby.

The Smithsonian Members’ Dining Room is also on this floor. If you subscribe to the Smithsonian Magazine, you are a member. Bring your membership card(or the address label from a copy of The Smithsonian Magazine) for admission to the Member’s Dining room for lunch(from the Constitution Ave. entrance, bear right past the escalator to the Auditorium lobby, and right again the Dining Room). This is some of the best food available on the Mall, and the only buffet all-you-can-eat lunch. It is especially crowded on Sundays. It’s not immediately apparent, but there are two identical serving lines on the long counter, one starting at each end and meeting in the middle.

Officially bearing the name The National Medical Museum, the Army Medical Museum at Walter Reed Army Hospital is Washington, D.C. most morbidly fascinating spot, even topping A Lincoln’s bloody death shirt on display in the basement of Ford’s Theater. This place will give you the creepy crawlies, and then it turns out to be the most educational museum we have ever seen. You learn a lot here.

Before color photography and color printing, the best way to teach doctors about medical problems was to show them a victim. As victims were not always available in the nearest hospital when needed, the body parts of dead victims were put on display in places like the Walter Reed Museum to enlighten the medical profession. Very sensible. Very historic. Very gruesome, but a lot of fun. This place is not for the squeamish.

The Museum started during the Civil War a to help train Army doctors by showing the student doctors what a broken bone that was shatter by cannon fire looks like by showing them a broken bone shattered by cannon fire from the arm of a dead or amputee soldier. There are cases of bones with gunshot wounds on display.

Did you see the movie the Elephant Man, about a victim of elephantiasis? When he died, they cut off his leg, pickled it, and put it on display in the Army Medical Museum to show doctors what a severe case looked like.

Tattoos are popular today, but it is hard to beat "the Tattooed Man" on display at Walter Reed. One must hope this happened after he was dead, but they split his skin from stem to stern, peeled it off his body, tanned it into human leather to preserve it, and spread it out on the wall at Walter Reed. Cool stuff.

Walter Reed was the US Army doctor who figured out that Yellow Fever was transmitted by mosquitoes. His discovery saved countless lives.

Walter Reed Army Hospital is at the intersection of 16th St NW and Alaska Ave NW, almost at the point pointing north that a map of Washington, D.C. makes. Lots of buses run out 16th St NW from downtown.

We never fully appreciated the Phillip Gallery, a small art gallery lost in the shadow of the National Gallery of Art in its hometown until we moved to Utah. Eight years after leaving Washington, D.C., an exhibition of 50 paintings from the Phillips came to Phoenix. We went and were blown away by how good it was compared the art we had seen over the last eight years in Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City– The Philips is a superb art collection.

Actually, we drove 820 miles to Phoenix to see only one of the 50 Phillips paintings on display, Renoir’s ‘The Luncheon of the Boating Party’, the world’s greatest painting. Renoir painted it in 1881. Duncan Phillips bought it in Paris in 1925 for $125,000 1925 dollars, which makes it, everything considered, the world’s most expensive work of art. Phillips took it home and hung it beside the fireplace. When he died, what was left of his considerable fortune endowed the Gallery, where the undisputed star is The Luncheon of the Boating Party.

Regrettably, the Gallery eventually built an addition so they could display more of Philips’ collection, including a special room on the top floor designed specifically to display The Luncheon, and they removed it from the wall by the fireplace, but after you see it in its new home, return to the Musci Room at the between the bottom of the stairs and the entrance, face the fireplace, and imagine the paining hanging on the wall just to the left of the fireplace, partially hidden in the shadow of the stairs.

Now I’ll spell it out– the Phillips Gallery should be your first stop in visiting the many museums in Washington, D.C., even if you walk through the whole thing, it won’t take long, but your purpose in coming is to see the world’s greatest painting. Yes, we’ve seen The Night Watch, Leonardos, a couple Vermeers, rooms full of Peter Breugle, all 12 of Monet’s "Rouen Cathedral" series, and none hold a candle to The Luncheon of the Boating Party.

The Phillips also includes works by El Greco, Degas, van Gogh, Cezanne, Klee, Mondrian, and a bunch of lesser Impressionists.

The Phillip is fairly convenient to Metro. Outbound on the Red Line (traveling from Metro Center toward Bethesda & the National Zoo) exit at the Dupont Circle Station, which has the world’s third longest escalator (#1, a Metro station in Virginia, # 2, Moscow). When you get off an outbound train, go in the same direction the train is traveling to get to the closest exit. At the top of the escalator, bear left to Massachusetts Ave, and walk away from Dupont Circle to the Phillips, on the right side of Massachusetts Ave at the corner of 21st. St NW. The entrance is a few step to the right on 21st St.

On the way back to Dupont Circle Metro, don’t miss Anderson House Museum.

From Dupont Circle Metro Station: Take the N2, N3, N4, or N6 bus to the corner of Massachusetts and Wisconsin Avenues. Walk north (continue outbound, the direction the bus was going) on Wisconsin one-half block to the Cathedral. Driving: it’s ½ block north of the intersection of Mass & Wisc Aves NW on Wisconsin Ave. Plenty of parking on neighborhood streets or in the Cathedral’s underground garage, or take a chance on scoring one of the parking
spaces near the transept door

Construction of the Cathedral, perhaps the now the world’s youngest Gothic church, was begun September 29, 1907 and finished September 29, 1990. Washington National Cathedral is the sixth largest church in the world, second largest in the United States. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., preached his last Sunday sermon at the Cathedral. More than 150 people are interred in the Cathedral, including President Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller.

A visit to the Cathedral should include a tour of the interior and exterior (be sue to note the notable Gargoyles), the gardens (go out the transept door on the right facing the Alter and cross the street), and the Bell Tower observation deck.

The Cathedral sits on the highest point in Washington, D.C., and the bell tower, open for visits for the view, is the highest structure in the city. The view is impressive, but a bit too far away from the Mall area to be able to make out much detail.

Pick up a self-guided tour brochure, or take a guided tour.

Explorer’s Hall Museum on the ground floor of one of the National Geographic’s several buildings taking up half the block bounded by M&L and 16th & 17th Streets NW, is, as you might expect, superbly done, featuring blow ups of the best National Geographic pictures, films, and artifacts.

The smallness of the museum, relative to Washington, D.C. other museums is the problem. We lived in Washington, D.C. for 25 years and never saw all the Smithsonian, so how are you going to do it a week or so and then get the Explorer’s Hall? Also, Explorer’s Hall is a bit off the beaten path, so a visit requires some travel time. You can justify the trip by combining Explorer’s Hall with some other sights in the area. Take Metro to Faragut West Station. Walk 1½ blocks to see Decatur House, home of Commodore Stephen Decatur, a hero of the war of 1812 who was later killed in famous duel, on the corner of Lafayette Park, on H St NW. Cross H St and go one block to see St John’s Church, Washington, D.C. oldest church, where at least every President from George Washington to Bill Clinton attended services. Have a seat in the Presidential pew.

Then go out 16th St NW to the Mayflower (Renaissance) Hotel. Walk straight ahead, all the way through the building, taking a look at the Grand Ballroom, the setting of countless Inaugural Balls, to 17th St NW, turn left to Explorer’s Hall. Note– in the summer, you will welcome the chance to walk a block in air-conditioning.

From Explorer’s Hall, continue out 17th St NW for a short block to Rhode Island Ave, NW. Turn left to St Matthew’s Cathedral, where Pres. Kennedy’s funeral was held. From St Matthew’s continue on Rhode Island to Connecticut Ave. NW to Dupont Circle Metro (right turn) or Faragut North Metro, left turn, both about equal distance.

Option: Arrive at Metro Station Faragut North and skip Decatur House and St John’s Church

Option: combine this tour with a visit to the Phillips’ Gallery(see review of) and Anderson House (review forthcoming).

It’s not easy to see Washington, D.C., from on high. No building is allowed to be taller than the dome of the Capitol, and no flights are allowed over the city– Congress doesn’t care if a plane falls out of the sky on your house, but it won’t allow it on theirs. Aerial views are not easy to come by, but they can be found. The most famous, and one of the worst, is the view from the top of the Washington, D.C. Monument. The problem with this view, aside from crowds and long waits, is that the widows are very small and the location is poor. Skip the Monument and do some of the better alternatives.

If you are flying to Washington, D.C. use National Airport (DCA) which is on the banks of the Potomac River. Arrivals and departures approach by flying over the river, and the approach from the north goes right over the Lincoln Memorial with a memorable view of the White House, The Mall, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and the Capitol. I like the night view of the illuminated buildings, but first timers should probably try for daylight to see it all. For arrivals, sit on the left side of the plane facing the pilot. Depart sitting on the right.

The Old Post Office Building Bell Tower is not as high as the Washington, D.C. Memorial but its better location about midway along the Mall, bigger widows, and lack of crowds makes it a top choice.

The cafeteria in the Hubert H Humphry Building at the end of the Mall nearest the Capitol at Independence Ave & SW is on the top floor. There is a roof terrace on the sides facing the Mall and the Smithsonian Museums and the Rayburn House Office Building. This is the only aerial view of this end of official Washington, D.C., and it’s a good one. Have lunch there too if you can score one of the few outdoor tables.

The observation deck in the Bell Tower of the Washington National Cathedral is the highest view point in the city, but it is a good ways out from the Mall, limiting the view. The last good high view point is from the CNN Studios across the Potomac in near Rossyln, VA. Higher than any place downtown, CNN has a good long view of the Mall area from not too far away.

The President lives at the White House and sometimes visits the Capitol, but there are other places in Washington associated with Presidents.

Presidential Churches: Across Lafayette Park from the White House stands St John’s Church, claiming every President has attended services here. The Presidential pew is down front, marked with a small brass plaque. Out 16th St. NW from Lafayette Park, a block or two north of the traffic circle, is a Methodist Church where Clinton and Carter regularly attended. Reagan made his one token appearance at church during his eight years in office here. St Mathews Cathedral on Rhode Island Ave. NW near Connecticut Ave. NW is where Pres. Kennedy’s funeral was held. The Washington National Cathedral: G. W. Bush made his impressive speech honoring the 9-11 victims here. Some Presidents such as Woodrow Wilson are buried here. Many attended services here. G. W. Bush gave his impressive post 9-11 speech here, in the same place where Leonard Bernstein conducted the "Mass for Peace" during the Vietnam War.

Presidential Inaugural Ballrooms. The Grand Ballroom at the Mayflower/Capitol Hilton Hotel, 16th St NW between K & L St NW has been the official location of Inaugural balls since the hotel was built. Many earlier Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, held their ball in the ballroom located in one corner of the top floor of the National Portrait Gallery. In the late last century, Inaugural balling expanded greatly so that all those big donors to the campaign, like G. W. Bush’s "good friend", "Kenney Boy" Lay, the thief who was Enron’s CEO, could come to the dance. The National Building Museum is chief among the auxiliary ballrooms, guaranteeing a Presidential appearance to those who paid enough.

The ballrooms at the National Portrait Gallery and the National Building Museum are open to the pubic (The National Building Museum ballroom is the main floor of the museum, sans exhibits). Part of an operating grand hotel, the Mayflower ballroom is used for many functions, but is usually possible to get at least a peak, if not a walk around inside. Enter the hotel from 16th St NW, go straight through the lobby and start down the long corridor. About half way down on the right are a series of identical doors, the doors opening into the Grand Ballroom.

On 21st St NW between L & I Sts. NW is the school Chelsea Clinton attended. Walking by at recess, we saw a bunch of kids playing in the small ‘yard’ with guys in dark suits and sunglasses standing in each corner.

The President’s Box at the Kennedy Center. The President rarely attends and his tickets are usually given to White House staff, but sometimes at the last minute, seats are sold to the public. Yes, we have parked our rears on the red Presidential velvet for a concert. If the President does attend, the anti-room connecting the box to the foyer is packed with Secret Service agents.

The visitor to Washington D.C.’s best chance of seeing the President of the United States is when he travels by car to some event in Washington. This is not a common occurrence, but it does happen several times a year. There some chance of seeing the President pass by in the Presidential limousine, but you have to be ready for it because the President drives around town at 40-50 mph and never stops. Once you have seen the traffic in Washington, D.C., you will wonder how that can be, and how that comes about is perhaps the most interesting part of seeing a Presidential drive-by. What I’ll tell you here is how to spot the pending approach of the President or Vice President or a visiting Head of State in time to be ready to see the passage.

The prologue to the President’s passing is the signal that the President is coming. It unfolds like this. Like clock work, police cars arrive in the middle of every intersection on the President’s route. A car load of cops get out and stand in the middle of all the cross street. All the traffic lights in every direction turn red at the same time, and poof! The street is suddenly empty.

A wedge shaped formation of motorcycle cops, a dozen or more, with lights flashing roar down the deserted street, and just behind them comes the Presidential party, first 1-2 SUVs of Secret Service Agents, then the two big black Presidential limos, with the President usually in the second, followed up by several more SUVs of Secret Service, assistants, and the press. The parade appears in a flash, and in flash it is gone. The cops get back in their cop cars, drive off, the traffic lights go back to changing from red to green, and the street again becomes traffic clogged. Sic transit gloria.

The Vice President and visiting heads of state travel in a smaller version of this, figure only three motorcycle cops, two SUVs, and one limo. The car carrying a visiting head of state will almost always fly a small national flag on the front fender. The President’s car flies a small American flag on one front fender and a small blue flag with the Great Seal of the United States of America on the other.

Like I said, the chances of seeing a Presidential passage are slim, but it is fascinating to see it unfold if you get lucky, so keep an eye out for the signs of the Prologue.

The Frenchman Pierre L’Enfant (literally, Peter the Child) designed Washington, D.C.’s street system. Apparently he was drunk at the time. Here is how it works (?). First, there is a directional system with Capitol building as the zero point. The Capitol is directionally centered, facing west (or east, depending which side you think is the front). Anyhow, if you draw four lines at right angles from the Capitol following the four points of the compass, the city is divided into four segments which are named for their compass location in relation to the Capitol– NE, NW, SE, and SW. Most places of interest to tourists are found in NW. With a few exceptions close to the Mall or to the Capitol, stay out of SE, a very dangerous neighborhood.

Next, L’Enfant imposed a grid street system on the compass quadrants. Streets running north-south were
sequentially named with numbers, with 1st St. being the north-south street closest to the Capitol that did not dead end at the Capitol. Applying the compass grid, there are two 1st Streets, 1st NW, and 1st NE. The White House is at 16th St NW, 16 blocks west and to the north of the Capitol.

L’Enfant named the grid streets running east-west according to the alphabet. First come streets with letter names, like C St SW. Upon reaching the end of the alphabet, street names start over alphabetically with one syllable words. Then come a set of alphabet two syllable words, and lastly, three syllable street names. Some people claim to be able to understand even the three syllable streets. We lived there for 25 years, I never got it.

But wait! There’s more! Next L’Enfant laid out 13 avenues named after the 13 original colonies running at angles to the number/alphabet street grid. This is why Washington, D.C. has intersections where as many as six streets cross. The Avenues tend to radiate outward from the Capitol and the White House, but that is not information that will help you get around. It only helps explain the confusion. If you know what you are doing, the avenues serve as short cuts, but if you trying to follow one of the letter or number streets, odds are that sooner or later, an avenue will cut across your path and throw you off course.

The White House faces Pennsylvania Ave. A line extended straight out the front door of the White House is an extension of 16th St NW. Thus, the address of the White House is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, a location north and west of the Capitol building on Pennsylvania Avenue where it intersects 16th St. NW. This ‘logic’ can be applied to all addresses within the city limits.

Finally, just to confuse matters, the first four streets running east-west from the Capitol were given other historical names, Madison and Jefferson for the two inside the Mall, and Constitution Ave. and Independence Ave. for the two streets defining the north and south boundaries of the Mall.

Some of Washington, D.C’s finest sightseeing comes after dark, when the major buildings and monuments are illuminated. Night time sightseeing around the Mall has the added benefit of being able to drive, find close parking, and free parking.

Three sights should not be missed at night. Indeed, these three are at their best after dark. 1) The Vietnam Memorial. Park on Constitution Ave. at the Memorial. Note the sight lines of the "Wall," with one side pointing toward the illuminated Washington Monument, the other pointing at the lighted Lincoln Memorial. A truly memorable view.

2) The Lincoln Memorial. Walk over from the Vietnam Memorial, climb the steps and gaze on Daniel Chester French’s great sculpture of the brooding, seated Lincoln. As impressive as this in the daylight, the Memorial’s night time lighting adds an ethereal quality to the scene. As you leave, pause and take in the view down the Mall to the Capitol.

3) The Capitol. Park free on any of the streets bordering the Capitol grounds. Approach by the east front, walk around the exterior to the west terrace and take in the view of the Mall and the city.

After the Lincoln Memorial, drive by the Washington Monument, up 17th St NW past Constitution Hall, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Old Executive Office Building, turn right on H Street to see the front of the White House, then down Pennsylvania Ave. to the Capitol, and then back toward the White House on Constitution Ave. The Korean War Memorial becomes spooky at night, and then head to the Jefferson Memorial.

Out from downtown, the Shrine Church at Catholic University and the Washington National Cathedral are also impressive.

If you are confident driving around Washington, D.C., , drive the Ohio Drive loop around the peninsula sticking out into the Potomac River for the views of the city scape.

We never felt any concern about personal safety in making night visits to these places. Washington, D.C., has 17 different police agencies, and they concentrate their patrols on the government buildings that surround the Mall. Who knows for sure, but there may be more cops around here at night than tourists.

This bears repeating: for seeing the monumental architecture of the nation’s capital, the scene after dark is far better than daylight viewing. This is Washington, D.C., at its best, and there is no traffic to speak of.

The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts occupies a majestic setting on the banks of the Potomac River between the infamous WaterGate Condo-Hotel and the original Watergate, a river dock at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. While the site presents a magnificent view when seen from the river, it also makes the Kennedy Center the most difficult of the world’s major performing arts venues to get to. You will suffer trying to go to the Kennedy Center, either for a visit, or even worse, to attend a concert. If you are driving yourself, you will fail to arrive on your first three attempts. Use them as learning experiences, and there is a good chance you will make it on try # 4.

If you are going to try it, here’s how. From the north: drive down Rock Creek/Potomac Parkway past the Watergate condo complex, then take the first left. Turn right at the far end of the Kennedy Center, drive the length of the building in front, then take all possible right turns into the parking garage. Or, drive SW down New Hampshire Ave from Washington Circle (where New Hampshire and Pennsylvania Aves and six other streets intersect) to the end of New Hampshire across the street from the Kennedy Center. Proceed straight ahead, a slight angle to the left, drive the length of the building in front, then take all possible right turns into the parking garage. Good luck.

From the south or east: Go west on Independence Ave. and bear right when it dead-ends at the Potomac River. Stay to the right and go under two overpasses, loop by the backside of the Lincoln Memorial taking the first right branch back down to the river bank. Go under the big expressway overpass, then take the first right into the parking garage. Do not try to read street names. Eventually you will come to signs along the road pointing the way to the Kennedy Center. Good luck.

By Metro. Forget it. The closest station is six long city blocks away. We used to take Metro to concerts replacing an hour at the gym with the walk for our daily exercise. If your legs are up to it, it’s the Foggy Bottom Metro Station, then south west on New Hampshire Ave. Notice as you leave the station, the George Washington University Medical Center at the corner of Washington Circle and New Hampshire Ave. This is where a team of Emergency Room doctors saved President Reagan’s life after he was shot by Hinckley near the Hilton Hotel. Ironically, the medical team that saved Reagan’s life was part of a program Reagan had just legislated out of existence a few weeks before the program saved his life. Had the doctors followed their President’s example, they would have let him die. Shut down inner city medical care. That’s how Reagan provided moral leadership for the nation.

By bus on Virginia Ave. MetroBus provides the closest public transportation stop at the intersection with New Hampshire Ave., at the corner of the WaterGate complex. Best bet: taxi, but the way fares are structured, it is an expensive ride.

Once you arrive for a visit, free tours are offered during the day, or you can wander around yourself. The tour has a sometime advantage of going into the concert halls if there are no rehearsals going on. On your own? Do this: nothing beats arriving at one of the two front doors on the side of the building facing the city, not the river. Passing into the Kennedy Center, you enter into either The Hall of States or the parallel Hall of Nations. Both halls are the length of football field or so, 4-5 stories high, with polished marble walls, and a red carpet underfoot. The sides of the Hall of Nations display flags of all the countries of the world. The Hall of States has the 50 state flags. This is a grand passage, and may justify the effort it takes to get here.

At the far end of the Halls, the Grand Foyer runs the entire length of the building, facing the Potomac River. In the center of the Grand Foyer is the famous bust of Pres. Kennedy. Doors along the Grand Foyer open out on the River Terrace. Go out for a look at the River. Back inside, with your back to the river, go down the Grand Foyer to your right to furthest flag Hall. Head up that hall toward the front door to the elevators about half way down the Hall, and go up as high as you can. At both ends of the Hall up here are doors to the roof terraces, one overlooking the city, the other the
river. There are also two decent, reasonably priced restaurants on this floor, one a cafeteria, the other a more expensive dining. room.

There are two box offices, one in each of the flag halls, near the intersection with the Grand Foyer. When you leave by the front door, cross the street and walk down the sidewalk slanting across the yard to see the statue of Don Quixote.

The Kennedy Center has six theaters, ranging in size from the 2,200 seat opera house and concert hall to the intimate Eisenhower Theater and the A.F.I. (American Film Institute) Theater that shows classic Hollywood films. And the large hall on the top floor can be divided into two smallish concert venues.

If you drive yourself to an evening concert, be warned that there will be a huge traffic jam at the exit of the Kennedy Center Parking Garage afterwards. A better bet for evening parking is the less expensive parking garage under the apartment building at the corner of 23rd & G St. NW– walk two blocks down G St NW toward the WaterGate and just after crossing the bridge over the expressway, turn left on the sidewalk that runs across the Kennedy Center’s front yard, passing the cool statue of Don Quixote on the way. There is also a chance of finding free evening on street parking across 21st from this building. To up your chances, arrive early for dinner at one of the Kennedy Center restaurants. But if you want to arrive in style for a concert at the Kennedy Center, rent a limo and a tux.

The Concert Hall, home of the National Symphony Orchestra, is a pleasant room of cream and red with striking chandeliers, a gift of Denmark. Originally, the Concert Hall’s acoustics were mediocre at best. The hall was recently reconstructed to try to improve them, but that was after we lived in DC. Reports from friends are that it helped, but this still is no Musikverein. We found the top balcony center was the best place to sit.

The Opera House, whose extensive red decor, gives it the appearance of an 18th Century Denver bordello, has better acoustics. The single large chandelier was a gift from Austria. We like the box seats, but anywhere was good.