I know that Sheri used to live in the DC area and that others have been on recent DC vacations, so I thought I'd ask for suggestions, recommendations. We're planning a DC trip for July.

Do you have hotels that you recommend? Is it better to stay in DC, or stay in a suburb and take a train into the city? We know we want to go the Smithsonian, possibly a White House tour, DH wants to also go to Baltimore to see the Poe House and Museum. Are there any other "Must Sees"?

Dawn

We walked about that every day too. I thought dd was going to keel over a few of the days but she made it ; )

We took the metro twice - once from Arlington Cemetery to L'Enfant (we had already walked 8 miles by then and there was no way Cori was going to walk back to the mall) and once when we went out to the ball game because we were told not to walk in that neighborhood.

We were about a 15 minute walk to the Lincoln Memorial side of the Mall and no one minded too much. We're restaurant people though so it was important to us to have a good selection of places to eat at night.

quote:

Originally posted by Brie:
We stayed at the Embassy Suites adjacent to Georgetown and loved the location. There were so many restaurants within an easy walk and it wasn't too bad of a walk to the National Mall.

It is about a 2-2.5 mile walk to the mall. We walked 12-15 miles a day (in the heat and humidity) staying RIGHT on the mall... my family would have pitched a fit if I put them in a hotel a 2 mile walk just to get to the mall.

Of course, the mall is about 2.5 miles long... if I remember correctly. It is about a mile from the Washington monument to the Lincoln memorial. And about 1.5 miles from the Washington monument to the Capitol building.

quote:

We stayed at the Embassy Suites adjacent to Georgetown and loved the location. There were so many restaurants within an easy walk...

There were not many restaurants near L'Enfant, but it didn't really bother us. We are not really HUGE restaurant people. And we were too tired to go out at night and ready to fall asleep at 8-9pm... and we usually got room service.

It took us about 3 days to figure out lunch restaurants in DC. There is really no place to eat on the Mall... except in the museums. We would ask people on the street and they would recommend a hot dog stand (we REALLY wanted to sit down and have some AC) or a government building cafeteria (but not having government badges... those were of NO use to us).

Our first day... we ended up near Geo. Washington University... thinking that their MUST be restaurants near the university. Nope. You can end up in neighborhoods with NO restaurants for blocks and blocks and miles.

They keep all of the delis (and fast food) up back behind the White House sort of...

quote:

Originally posted by Sheri in Reho:
Denise and her family were there in July, I think, but I don't think they minded it as much as it bothers me.

I lived in Houston for 3 years. DC is NOTHING compared to Houston.

dh grew up in Philly. He didn't care for the humidity very much. But he likes DC over Hawaii... since DC does have that (brrrrrr...) AC cranked up. Also, most places here don't have AC... we don't have AC at home... so we are sort of used to it being 80-90 in the summer... but not as humid as DC.

ds is young and skinny. That is good in DC in the summer.

quote:

Are there any other "Must Sees"?

The Monuments Night Tour.

Printing and Engraving - where money is printed is a very good tour. We liked the Capitol and Printing better than the White House. The White house was "self guided" and they didn't have docents for the tour. They had mean secret service people. However, things have hopefully changed. (Note to self... email Michelle Obama and tell Laura Bush's white house sucked and I hope hers is better...)

I also REALLY liked Mt. Vernon.

And I have to say some of our favorite things were the Modern Museums.

We USUALLY ended up there because we needed a bathroom and/or something to eat and to spend 15 mins in some AC. But we would end up staying 1-2 hours. We are not really "museum" people... but we would be blown away by the weird and freaky things that the human mind can come up with.

We LOVED DC for a vacation. It is our all time favorite family vacation thus far.

We stayed at the L'Enfant Plaza

http://www.lenfantplazahotel.com/

We were REALLY happy with the location. My sil recommended it, as it is on top of a main metro station. We seldom used the metro... and ended up walking 12-15 miles a day (bring good shoes!). But it was nice to have the Metro right there. We did use it 2-3 times... and to get from the air port into DC.

My family was happy with it, as we were two blocks from the Air and Space museum and every morning we would run over there to be first in line for the flight simulators.

I also did not want to be in the suburbs as my dh and ds are NOT morning people. And we were dealing with jet lag. And I didn't want the "free breakfast" thing. My family would have insisted on going to breakfast about 10:30am... and we would have gotten out of the hotel about 2pm. And then would have had to mess around with Metro.

We were VERY happy with the location. We put fruit and milk in the fridge and had cereal in the room in the morning... and started our day.

Also be sure to contact your Congress person. We had tickets for a tour of the engraving place where money is printed (those tickets were for 8am, our first day... which was 5am our time... and I'd had food poisoning [or what I've now found out to be an allergic reaction to crab] the night before...). We also had tix for a tour of the White House and the Capitol.

Thanks for all of the suggestions and advice.

@Sheri, we are actually driving to DC so we will have a car.

Not overly fond of heat and humidity, but not unaccustomed to it after living in Atlanta and I always layer in the summer. I HAVE to carry a cardigan or light weight jacket with me since I freeze inside buildings.

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by Sheri in Reho:

quote:

Originally posted by Brie:
the National Zoo (we spent over an hour just watching the pandas)

I may be wrong, but I think I read or saw on the news sometime in the past year that China took the pandas back and they're no longer at the National Zoo. Just so you know not to talk that up to Alec or would go just for that, Dawn.

I think you're right Sheri, because the same thing happened to the pandas in Atlanta. Luckily, we saw pandas at the Atlanta zoo and were even able to see a new born panda.

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by Brie:
the National Zoo (we spent over an hour just watching the pandas)

I may be wrong, but I think I read or saw on the news sometime in the past year that China took the pandas back and they're no longer at the National Zoo. Just so you know not to talk that up to Alec or would go just for that, Dawn.

We went last summer in July and I will echo dressing in layers because there was a huge difference in air temperature and air conditioned museums and restaurants!

We stayed at the Embassy Suites adjacent to Georgetown and loved the location. There were so many restaurants within an easy walk and it wasn't too bad of a walk to the National Mall.

My highlights were:

the WWII memorial

the National Botanic Gardens

the Air and Space Annex (we liked it better
than Air and Space on the Mall)

the National Zoo (we spent over an hour just watching the pandas)

the changing of the guards at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington

We also saw all the major monuments (BEAUTIFUL at a night), the National Archives (get there early if you go because the line starts before the building opens), the Capitol, the National Art museum and we caught a baseball game too.

If you have time, we had an amazing day at Annapolis.

We were unable to get a white house tour despite contacting our senator 6 months in advance. That was a disappointment.

Overall, we had an amazing time and it was a wonderful vacation.

Our best food find on the Mall was the cafeteria at the American Indian museum. Worth leaving whatever museum you are in to go eat there and then go back to where you were. Here's the link to the current menu: http://www.nmai.si.edu/visitor.../2010spring_menu.pdf

P.S. I'm with Francie about the heat in July. July and August are the worst months in DC. Very hot and humid. Denise and her family were there in July, I think, but I don't think they minded it as much as it bothers me. Layering is a great idea though...some of the buildings can be freezing and then outside is hot, so a layering approach will be your best bet.

P.P.S. If you want to take a Metro (subway) ride out to the burbs, Alexandria, the town where I lived, is historic and has a really charming Old Town area with lots of shopping and restaurants.

I believe that Denise was very happy with the hotel they stayed in, which was right in the heart of Smithsonian Museum and monument territory downtown.

When she was initially planning her trip, I pitched her the idea of an Embassy Suites in Crystal City which is very close to the city but still in the burbs. I have never stayed there but know of it from living in the area.

In DC, Alec will no doubt love the Air & Space Museum. All the Smithsonians are within a few blocks of one another. The Vietnam and Korean War memorials are not far from one another, which are both not far from the Lincoln and Washington Memorials. Not saying it's not a lot of walking (cuz it is) but they are all in a similar area of the city.

Denise, her family and I took an evening tour of the city that I really enjoyed...seeing the monuments at night has always been a fave of mine anyway and I didn't know that tour existed until she came, so it was great for me, too. Great photo ops on that tour (with a flash of course).

Are you going to rent a car to drive to Baltimore or get there some other way? It's about 45 mins to an hour from DC to Baltimore. I'm with Francie...I love the Inner Harbor there and their aquarium is fantastic. Baltimore is a very different city than DC...older and a little rough around the edges (except around Inner Harbor), but with a charm all its own (they call it Charm City, in fact). One thing I did that I enjoyed was to take a ride across the harbor and it drops you off at 2 or 3 locations where you can sightsee or shop and get back on the boat.

The aquarium in Baltimore is awesome. And the harbor is cool too.

My parents keep a boat in Annapolis during the summer. It is a great town with lots of good restaurants, historic sites and fun shopping.

We lived in DC when I was 6-7. We didn't do a lot of the site seeing things since we were living there. But I do love the Natural History part of the Smithsonian. The Hirschorn Art museum is cool too.

If you could find a way to get out on the water for a bit, the Chesapeake Bay is just lovely.

And on another note, the weather in July is fairly hot and humid. Sweltering might be the correct word. I recommend lots of layers for balancing the outdoor temp with the icy cold museum air.