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Things to do in DC (and the surrounding area)
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I recently moved to Gaithersburg, MD. It's been about a month so far, and I'm pretty close to settling down. I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for things to do/places to visit during my stay here (I'll be here for 1-2 years depending on how this internship pans out). I'm poor as shit at the moment, so relatively cheap stuff would be especially welcomed. I've been to the smithsonian and all the normal DC tourist spots, I think, but any suggestions for other museums and such would be nice as well.
I plan on visiting Williamsburg sometime in the future. The Maryland Renaissance Fair is coming up at the end of this month and I'm planning on going to that. I'm totally going to get myself a noble's hat. Maybe a wench too if they're cheap.
I plan on visiting Williamsburg sometime in the future. The Maryland Renaissance Fair is coming up at the end of this month and I'm planning on going to that. I'm totally going to get myself a noble's hat. Maybe a wench too if they're cheap.
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A few suggestions for DC:
If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend the Library of Congress. The building is just stunning, in my opinion. Also, the National Archives is also good. Original copies of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are there. Those are both free.
The Spy Museum is pretty cool, but it is not free.
Another thing you can do on a nice day is get the locations of some embassies and go check them out. Some of those buildings are pretty cool.
A few suggestions for Virginia:
There's another Smithsonian Air and Space museum over by Dulles. The museum itself is free, but the parking isn't. And it's out in the middle of nowhere. This would be a good one to go to with friends to subsidize the trip.
Arlington National Cemetery is free, and has some cool stuff. Grab a map though, because I wouldn't recommend just wandering aimlessly.
Not free is George Washington's home, Mount Vernon, but I recommend it if you have any interest in colonial / historical stuff.
All great suggestions. The museum near Dulles is called the Udvar-Hazey. If you have any interest in aircraft history, the $10 or whatever to park is well worth it. They have a space shuttle and an SR-71 spy plane: a.k.a. giant aircraft inside that you can get up close and personal with. There's a free shuttle from the Air & Space museum on the mall if you don't have a car or don't want to pay for parking.
Mount Vernon is actually free once a year, on Washington's birthday. No idea how crowded it is then, but there aren't a lot of tourists in February.
For outdoorsy stuff, Great Falls and Roosevelt Island are both very cool. There's free parking at Roosevelt Island off the northbound side of the GW Parkway. I think you might have to pay to park at Great Falls as it's a national park.
Also, this fall you should either take a day trip or camp overnight at Shenandoah Nat'l Park. Absolutely spectacular in the fall.
If you bike, there's all kinds of stuff to do: http://bikewashington.org
If you're into the outdoors, a parks pass is a good value at $50, and will get you into Shenandoah, both Great Falls parks (climbing on the VA side, hiking on the MD side), and I think also the beach parks Chincoteague and Assateague. If you're going to go backpacking in Shenandoah, I highly recommend the Overall Run loop because it includes several waterfalls, a fantastic overlook, and a swimming hole with two slides. Besides those parks, there's plenty of other hiking and climbing to do, especially if you take a weekend in WV. The Dolly Sods are fantastic and well worth the drive if you like backpacking.
Touring the wineries with a few friends is fun and not as expensive as it sounds. Tastings range from free to $5, most of the wine does not suck, and is generally not too expensive if you decide to pick up a bottle or 2. The scenery's nice around most of them, and you can bring some snacks and buy a bottle to share with your friends.
Harper's Ferry is a fantastic place to learn up your Civil War history, go tubing, and eat ice cream and fudge.
Great Country Farms is a fun place to go to pick seasonal fruits/vegetables, and pet fuzzy animals. It is pretty good for a date, especially if you can go home and make dinner with the veges you picked.
Have you been to the National Zoo? It's pretty goddamn spectacular, considering the admission price ($0.00).
Edit: was going to talk about all the biking, but beat'd
Edit edit: If you like wine, there are several vineyards in Maryland/Virgina that do free tastings. If you go on a pleasant day with a few friends you can have a picnic at the vineyards, which is pretty nice.
In the other direction from DC (ie, Frederick County), there's naturey stuff. Sugar Loaf Mountain is one of the more commonly known places to hike around there.
In any case though, most of the touristy and cheap stuff will be in D.C. or Virginia. Montgomery County in Maryland is basically just a giant suburb for people who want to work in D.C. but don't want to live there.
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LOTS of stuff to do if you're into the Civil War. Harpers Ferry, Gettysburg, and Antietam to name some of the bigger places and all 3 aren't too far away from where you live (1.5 - 2 hour drive to Gettysburg).
The family likes going to Catoctin national park up near the PA border if you want to hike. There's the Appalachian trail too.
For sightseeing get to Annapolis, Baltimore, Old Town Alexandria, Frederick and Ellicott City, MD.
Finally there's going to be some real nice oktoberfests coming up in October. The best one is probably in Shirlington, VA but Frederick has one too. Definitely go to Rennfest too and eat at least one damn crabcake and some crabs with Old Bay. You're in Maryland for goodness sake!
Annapolis is a nice, kind of sleepy little city that's not too far.
Skyline Drive would be a pretty easy weekend trip, or the Appalachian Trail.
The Chesapeake Bay has some nice beaches and beach-front towns... or there's Chincoteague for a day/weekend trip.
Another poster mentioned breweries - Old Dominion brewery in Ashburn VA is pretty darn good, or at least they were when I lived there 4 years ago. They used to do a weekend beer festival every summer that was a fantastic way to kill time - 40+ breweries from all over all out in a big field. Not sure if they still do those, but if they do it's super fun.
I've heard very good things about the Nationals' new ballpark, so were I you I would go see a cheap ball game at some point (the team sucks, so this should be easy). Same thing goes for Camden Yards in Baltimore, where the Orioles play. Also in Baltimore the inner harbor is fun to walk around and the Aquarium is easily the best I've ever been in - big as hell with tons of interesting exhibits. They do charge for admission however.
On the sports front you can probably get Wizards or Capitals (basketball and hockey, respectively, which I mention in case you don't follow sports much) tickets during their seasons. Redskins tickets are expensive as hell and hard to get and the stadium experience is kind of a nightmare so I don't recommend that unless you can somehow score them super cheap.
Check out the Cherry Blossoms when the bloom, it's pretty spectacular (already past this year, and fyi there will be tons of people).
If you do go down to Williamsburg be prepared for it to not be super exciting (I went to W&M so I'm familiar with the area) - it is pretty interesting if you're a history buff though. Also while there if you like beer I recommend stopping at the Green Leafe Cafe - excellent selection of beers and pretty good pub/bar food. I would avoid going on Thursday or Friday nights during the school year.
There's a lot to do in the DC area, I'll post more if I think of it.
Eastern Market on a Saturday Morning.
I should have been more specific CyberJackal; yea, I meant the National Mall and its surrounding area. My family and I took one of those day-long bus tours around DC, which covered most of the popular places. It was a pretty superficial look at a lot of them though, so I'll probably end up going back to them anyway. The library of congress looked absolutely spectacular inside. I don't know much about architecture, but it was pretty damn cool nonetheless. Also need to check out Arlington Cemetary; haven't been there yet. Is it worth the trip?
I definitely intend to check out the spy museum after seeing it featured on The Colbert Report. For those interested in checking out the Newseum, you can get 50% off the admission price by mentioning WTOP through August (http://wtop.com/?sid=1717503&nid=58).
The Dullus Museum sounds cool, I really enjoyed the Smithsonian Air and Space in DC.
Man, a lot of these places seem like great date spots. Also, free admission to a zoo? Awesome.
What kind of board games Darkewolfe? Like, scrabble? Or DnD-type stuff?
Sorry I couldn't address everything, but I definitely added most of the recommendations to my list. Thanks again, and feel free to add anything else that you might think of.
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Regardless of your own religion (or lack thereof) the National Cathedral is an amazing building (last of the hand-built cathedrals!) and has free tours. Take the Gargoyle tour. Hint: There's a Darth Vadar gargoyle (seriously).
The National Building Museum is off the mall but is free and wonderful and on the Metro (Judiciary Square). Also a stone's throw from China Town, although it's so built up and commercialized that there's not much "China" left in it.
Carderock on the Maryland side of the Potomac just outside the Beltway is the primary local climbing spot. If you climb check it out (there are classes too), and if not just take your dog, on-leash, and follow the walking path down to the bottom of the cliffs where you can watch folks climbing. If you do climb, Sportrock is a great indoor gym not too far from you.
Rock Creek Park is huge and there are plenty of places to let your dog run. Just make sure she comes back when called. Some are deeply wooded w/ lots of deer. So if she's the kind of dog who gets a whiff and is off running, you might want to find someplace else.
Pick up a copy of the Washingtonian Magazine's annual Cheap Eats issue. 100 reasonably priced places to eat in and around the city, including a bunch in Gaithersburg, Rockville, and Wheaton.
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Wait until fall for Arlington Cemetery, just because you will fry in the summer heat if you take Metro. Library of Congress has exhibits as well as the awesome architecture.
There is enough foresty areas around, in the Germantown/Gaithersburg area.
With a dog, for quick trips near Gaithersburg is Seneca Creek State Park up Clopper Rd (I'm guessing you you know this one already). And Black Hill Regional Park has a dog park (continue on Clopper through Germantown to Boyds). This: http://www.senecatrail.info/ parallels Seneca Creek and I don't know the dog rules there.
This is an excellent point.
But to answer the question of whether it's worth the trip, I believe so. Though there's really not that much to the trip... It's on the Metro and admission is free. To expand on what I said earlier though, you should really plan your trip here. It's almost entirely outdoors, so weather is an issue. Also, the cemetery is enormous, and there are little monuments to various wars and events scattered all over. Will they all be worth checking out? Maybe not. What you think is worth checking out is up to you.
That said, the real highlights for me were the JFK grave site, the Tomb of the Unknowns, and the Arlington House.
3rd'd for the Udvar-Hazy, it's a great place. I used to live 5 miles away from it. Like all the Smithsonians, it's an awesome place - the level of detail and craftsmanship that the aircraft have been restored to is amazing. The centerpiece SR-71A is not to be missed, and arguably, that's not even really the best that museum has to offer...
Parking's expensive though - it's $15 (up from the $12 when it opened). However, entrance to the museum (like all the Smithsonians) is free. It does have an IMAX (tickets run about $12.50 for a feature film). There are free walking tours, which I highly recommend. Although the quality of the tours can vary, a lot of the docents are really good, and know a lot of interesting facts and anecdotes about the exhbits that can make it worthwhile (occasionally, you might get a dead fish leading the tour, but that's the exception - don't let it discourage you from going on the tours, you can always break off from the group and try another tour with a different docent later).
The Air & Space in DC proper had started renovating exhibits when I left the area, leaving the museum on the mall (easily my favorite prior to the Udvar-Hazy opening) a little bare. I suspect that a good deal of that construction has been completed though, so if you enjoy aerospace, both museums are a must-see. You could spend a good portion of a day in either.
The Air and Space on the mall had a sweet installation of several UAVs on the west end last time I was there. Those things are scary/awesome. There wasn't too much construction going on.
True that. If you are down there on the Mall and going to get lunch, the cafeteria in the Museum of the American Indian is incredibly diverse and tasty. And the Botanic Gardens right next door are pretty cool.
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All the war memorials are worth a visit on Memorial Day. The WWII and Vietnam memorials are covered with flowers, other things left in memory of the deceased, and short biographies people type up about their lost relatives and friends. Not as many that I can remember on the Korean War memorial, but still some.
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The Botanic Garden is most definitely worth the time, mostly for the indoor plantings. I have heard many good things about the National Arboretum (which is huge, not on the mall and much lesser known). That might be worth checking out if the OP is into that kind of thing.
Rock Creek Park.
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Anyway, DC stuff:
Food
Ray's Hell Burger (Arlington)
Ben's Chili Bowl - american (U St and 14th)
Matchbox - pizza (Chinatown)
Tomate - italian (Dupont Circle)
Regional Food and Drink/RFD - american, tons of beer (Chinatown)
Vapiano - italian (Chinatown or Dupont Circle)
The Commissary - american (Logan Circle)
Drinks/Nightlife
Brickskellar (Dupont Circle)
The Reef (Adams Morgan)
Tom Tom's (Adams Morgan)
Gordon Biersch (Chinatown)
Asylum (Adams Morgan, 50 cent Miller High Life on Saturdays!)
Hawk & Dove (Capitol Hill)
Bullfeathers (Capitol Hill)
18th Amendment (Capitol Hill)
Outdoors
Theodore Roosevelt Island
Great Falls Park (Virginia side and Maryland side)
Rock Creek Park
The Awakening at the southern end of East Potomac Park
The Mall/The Tidal Basin
Memorials and Monuments
Obviously stuff like GW, Jefferson, Lincoln, Capitol Building, etc.
FDR Memorial (Tidal Basin)
Arlington Cemetary
Korean War Memorial
Vietnam Memorial
The National Archives
The National Botanical Gardens
That's just off the top of my head
If you save up a bit of cash for a long weekend there is a Six Flags in Baltimore but I never really had a great experience there. I usually went to King's Dominion down about an hour and a half south of DC in Doswell VA which was always a good time. It's not Disney World or anything but theres tons of great coasters and even has a free water park on the inside of the park in the summer. I'd suggest going around Halloween when they flip the entire theme park with all kinds of halloween attractions.
Also around Halloween I'd suggest going out to a local farm and picking yourself a pumpkin. I went to a few places the 5 years I lived there and it was always a nice experience to walk around in the brisk air and maybe take a hay ride with some friends. Its a good way to get out of the city and the buzz of traffic before Christmas hits.
This will set you back a little bit but if you ever went to one as a kid you'll love going to the Medieval Times they have in MD. Maybe get a few friends together and go have dinner while people joust and sword fight right in front of you, man thats what I'd be doing this weekend if I still lived there.
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This is a good birthday idea. They have birthday registrations which involve cake and photos. It's pricey, so you'll have to plan ahead.
Hard Times Cafe makes some good chili for when it gets cold out and they have a location in Gaithersburg. Good restaurants/pubs are Dogfish Head (in Gaithersburg) and if you're willing to make the drive Du Claw (check the website for best location for you, none are that close though). I DO NOT recommend Gordon Biersch, at least I've had many poor experiences with the one in Rockville.
If you want to have a fancier, special occasion, meal The Melting Pot is great.
Cheap food, Pho 75 off Rockville Pike (355) near Montgomery College is good deal and delicious.
As for sightseeing any of the Smithsonians are worth a visit and there's also the National Zoo. Taking a day to walk around and see the monuments is worthwhile, just make sure you have some comfy shoes as it takes longer to walk around than you would initially think. Great Falls is a nice park as is Brookside Gardens. Next spring something to remember would be the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC.
Six Flags is okay but Kings Dominion is the better of the two amusement parks in the area.