Disneygrl71
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 2, 2014
We just got back from 6 nights at Kimpton Madera at Dupont Circle. We weren't in DC for the food- we left the hotel around 10:30 each day and didn't return until around 7- so after a rest, we ate pretty close to our hotel on 4 nights: 2 at the Front Page and 2 at James Hoban's (Irish). Food at both was very good, especially the chicken pie at HOban's. Prices were pretty average for DC- not cheap, but not scary.
Touring- use the Metro as much as possible. DC traffic is awful (and I grew up driving in Boston), as is parking, and it's expensive to park! The DC Metro is easy to navigate, and even the bus system is pretty straight-forward (but slow... there's that whole traffic thing, LOL!). Stay off the HO/HO buses during the day- you'l spend more time waiting for a bus/sitting in traffic than it's worth. Also note that the Circulator bus is a great deal, takes your metro card, but doesn't circulate as frequently as we'd hoped. One bus tour worth mentioning is the Monuments by Moonlight tour. I'd forgotten the huge scope of DC. This gives you a narrated drive by of the city in the evening, when both the traffic and heat are reduced. You pass all the biggies, all illuminated because it's night time. There're also 3 stops on this tour, at the Lincoln (so Lincoln, Viet Nam wall, and Korean War Memorial), Iwo Jima, and MLK/FDR memorials. Viet Nam Wall and FDR memorials are better in daytime, IMO, but we really enjoyed this trolley tour.
Don't overdo! We found 2-3 hours per museum to be enough, even if you go back at another time to finish up/do more in each museum. Get the timed tickets for the African American history museum- we were there 2 hours and could have stayed twice as long. Same with Holocaust Museum. We had timed tickets for 12:45 for the permanent exhibit and they shooed us out at closing. I was confused about this museum. The timed ticket is only for the permanent exhibit, which you WANT TO DO. However, you can go to the museum at any time and see the other exhibits- there's one aimed towards elementary-aged kids, one about the Cambodian genocide, etc. The timed ticket is only for the major Holocaust exhibit. It was moving, for sure... should be done.
We spent 5 hours at the Capitol. We had a tour through our Senator's office, so with a personal guide, and that took longer than the public tour. THEN we had tickets to the Senate and House galleries, and both were in session, so we stayed and watched a vote in the Senate. It was cool- but we'd planned only being there for 2 hours, so had to rethink the afternoon!
Mount Vernon was great! Take the yellow metro line to Huntington and then the bus (101?) to Mt.V. Just remember that if you go on a Sunday, the bus only operates once an hour. That was a looooooong 58 minute wait- we just missed it! We ended up with about 2 hours at Mt. V and it wasn't long enough for us- we could easily have been there 4 hours or longer. ALSO... if you go on the weekend, check and make sure the yellow line is running. When we were there, it was shut down for construction on Sundays within DC, only running between Reagan/DCA and Huntington (where you need to go for the Mt.V bus). We wasted a good hour underground, waiting for the yellow line, then learning it wasn't running in the city and having to backtrack onto the blue line and then to DCA to get the yellow line.
Arlington National Cemetery took longer than we'd anticipated, too. We spent quite awhile at the Kennedy grave sites (this was important to us), about 45 minutes at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers, and we also toured the mansion. BEST view of DC!! We didnt' get out at any of the other tram stops, but it still took us maybe 3 hours to view the sites and the reception center.
Here's how we spent our time. Note that I am 61, DH is 56, but he had extensive knee reconstruction last spring and his pace/stamina is still dictated by his knee, so we don't move too quickly!
Day 1- On the 7am bus from Bangor to Boston. Fly to BWI, train to Union Station, metro to our hotel. Checked in at 6pm, unpacked, caught our breath. Dinner, walk around the neighborhood.
Day 2- 10am Capitol tour. Left here around 3, starving. Walked over to Oyamel, had lunch, walked over to Air/Space Museum. We were there from 5-7:15, then walked to Union Station for our Monument Tour, which took from 8-11. On our stops, we got out and saw the FDR&MLK, Lincoln&Korean War memorial, and Iwo Jima. We saw a LOT on the Monument Tour, and the driver ("Honest Abe") was full of information and stories! Note that the metro stops running at 11:30.
Day 3- We had 12:45 timed ticket for the Holocaust Museum. WE'd planned to be up and out early, but it didn't happen. Travel and full day on day 2 caught up to us! We left the metro station near the Holocaust Museum at 11:30 to be faced with a farmer's market- fresh produce as well as food vendors. We had lunch here (there are tables/shade set up), then went to the museum. They closed us out promptly at 5:30. Wlaked over to the Circulator stop and took it out to the FDR, which we wanted to see again, in the daylight. Spent an hour wandering around, reading, resting. Walked through the MLK again, then over to the WWII memorial. The sky was clouding over, it was about 7pm, so we went back to the hotel for supper and the evening.
Day 4- Got started about 10:30. Took the metro to Arlington National Cemetery. Did the tram tour, spent about 3 hours. Walked the mile back into DC (ends up at the Lincoln), had lunch, walked the Viet Nam wall. That was cool, and we helped a vet find the name of his buddy who never made it home. Sad, moving... I am a child of the era, so have friends and relatives who were in Nam. We were tired, so wandered the mall a bit and then headed back to the hotel, had dinner, drinks at the outdoor cafe after eating.
Day 5- Tried to get to Mt. Vernon earlier than we did (see above)! We ate lunch once we got there at 2:30 (mess up with the metro, hour wait for the bus, not willing to pay $35 for a cab), then had 2 hours to tour and another hour to see the education center. Wish we'd had more time- there was a lot we didn't get to. It was about 8pm when we got back to the hotel, had dinner.
Day 6- We were at the Art Museum from 10-1, had lunch there, walked up the mall and briefly through part of the Natural History Museum (about 30 mins) and then over to the African-American history museum. These timed tickets were impossible to get- I couldn't get admission until 3:15. We spent the 2 hours there and could have spent 4. Waited out a rainstorm under the edge of the museum (they mean it when they say they close at 5:30), then over to the White House for a glimpse. CAn't get too close... not sure it was worth the walk when we were tired, but we did it! We were back to the hotel around 7:30, had dinner, packed for our next-morning departure...TO ORLANDO!!!
Honestly it doesn't look like much written down, but we were busy all the time. We DID pace ourselves, so not commando-disney-style touring, and it was HOT, so we didn't move as quickly as we'd hoped. We also needed time for DH to rest/elevate/ice his knee regularly. I tried to balance it so we didn't spend too many hours in one museum. There was a lot we didn't see... meaning we can go back and still have a good time, see new things, be amazed!!
Awesome trip report!
We are flying into BWI also, but I'm planning to take Lyft to our hotel since we will have bags, etc.
We are really excited for Mount Vernon, we paid extra for the premium tour
. Last year my youngest was in 2nd grade and he finally understood who Lincoln was so seeing the memorial resonated better with him. We also visited Ford's Theatre and he "sort of" got it. For us it's a driving trip but if I had to spend money on plane tickets I would probably wait. It's awesome though, I really enjoy the trip!
When he goes to the library every week he's allowed to check out 2 books and they almost always consist of something related to Washington, Lincoln, the Revolutionary War or Civil War. He cracks me up! We went to Boston when he had just turned 6 and he LOVED walking the Freedom Trail and visiting a couple of the sites. My other son was not quite 4 at the time and needless to say he didn't enjoy it. But because he sees how much his brother is interested, he finds some interest in it too, now.
He has a true passion for it. That's why I'm not TOO concerned if we don't see everything because I know this won't be our last trip - they'll all be going with their 8th grade class as well and possibly another family trip when the baby is old enough to understand.
But what we realized quickly is that some/most of the museums set the air conditioning levels to arctic chill. This feels great for the first 30 minutes but then you start to get cold, and then you start to get really cold and tired and the kids start to whine .... So by the second day we all carried light jackets with us. We were constantly taking them on and off but we were all very very happy to have them. (fyi - we live in southern FL, I'm used to heat and overly a/c buildings, but for some reason the a/c in the museums really got to all of us)
