What is there to do at Washington DC?

[Ostrinski]

I'm going there with my grandparents in a few weeks. I'm a museum/monument/anything history kinda guy.

[Ostrinski]

should also say in instead of at. im a dumbass.

[B5C]

I'm a museum/monument/anything history kinda guy.
Lucky you. DC has TONS of them. :D

Go find some museum that give you an interest you the most if you are doing a day trip.

[Jimmie Higgins]

The Smithsonian. Skip the "Air and Space" part as it's usually packed with kids and it's not that interesting IMO. The history and art is just a huge scattershot of things, but it's all free (and was much much less crowded when I went there)!!! I was there a couple of years ago and I was kinda like, "Oh, just walk into a building and see historic art and shit; don't have to worry about paying, don't have to stress that you're wasting money if you get tired half-way through... more like the way things should be."

[ellipsis]

The national botanic garden is pretty sweet as well. But there are more free museums than you'll have time to visit. You can also take the FBI tour, they have an awesome room full of guns to look at.

[Rafiq]

The museum of natural history is a definite must-see, though other than that, once you get there I think you'll know exactly what you're going to want to do because all of the cool shit is within walk able distance.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

The Smithsonian. Skip the "Air and Space" part as it's usually packed with kids and it's not that interesting IMO. The history and art is just a huge scattershot of things, but it's all free (and was much much less crowded when I went there)!!! I was there a couple of years ago and I was kinda like, "Oh, just walk into a building and see historic art and shit; don't have to worry about paying, don't have to stress that you're wasting money if you get tired half-way through... more like the way things should be."

Also skip the Koch Brother's Hall. lol that one

[Os Cangaceiros]

I've been to the Air & Space museum (IIRC) and it's not bad.

I've visited probably every DC landmark because I once went on a school trip and that's all we did for about a week, was hit up landmarks. Don't have many memories of that trip, except getting pelted by hailstones that were the size of large marbles in Arlington Cemetery.

[skitty]

I'm going there with my grandparents in a few weeks. I'm a museum/monument/anything history kinda guy.I'd say the Mall is a must, see Lincoln and others. Arlington, Tomb of the Unknowns and Custis-Lee mansion. Don't know what you mean by a few weeks; but you could try for the cherry blossoms. Check with your senators/reps for tickets or passes to things.

[Red Commissar]

There's a part of the air and space museum that's located outside of DC, just south of Dulles. It has larger aircraft as well as a recent addition of the space shuttle discovery. If you want to see some equipment check out there.

What's convenient for tourists is that mostly everything worth seeing in DC is located around the "National Mall", including the Smithsonian museums. There are both natural history and american history there. The national mall is bounded by the Lincoln Monument at the west, the capitol building on the east (Supreme Court and Library of Congress are behind it), and Washington Monument in the center. The White House is north of the Washington Monument if you want to see it. The national archives is northish of the capitol, which has the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights on display. Expect patriotic wank.

There are some private museums too you could look at, one for news media and another for spies though I never went to them because it was not things I was interested in. Ford Theater and the house where Lincoln croaked after getting shot are within walking distance of the national mall too. The Korean and Vietnam memorials are near one another in the Mall, along with the more recent WWII memorial. More patriotic wank. For an amusing detour, check out the neglected WWI memorial. Jefferson Memorial is more out of the way, but the building is interesting.

There are some art museums too as well as two cultural art ones, African American and Native American.

If you want to get a really good view of Washington D.C., go up to Arlington Cemetary and head on to the Lee house at the top. From the hill there's the grave marker of the planner of D.C.'s original draft plan, Pierre Charles L'Enfant, and you can get a very nice view of the city there.

There are also George Washington's house just south of DC over at Mt. Vernon, expect patriotic wank.

If you like scenery there's a lot of stuff in the Virginia communites outside DC, the tourist trap being Great Falls.

[subcp]

Ride the Metro- probably the nicest (imo) public transit system in the US (you can get to Chinatown in a very short time), the spy museum and the national gallery are all great.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Also skip the Koch Brother's Hall. lol that oneLOL. I went to one of the big museums in NYC (which I had to pay for:glare:) and the Dinosaur exhibit was sponsored by the Koch Bros. "No, we just want to access to these national park lands to survey under ground for Dinosaur bones and get rid of all that crude oil that gets in the way".

All the bigest billionaire privitizers give tons of shit to "public" art and science institutions. Brode in Los Angeles wants to privitize schools and museums - and he's also gives tons of his privite art collection to the LA County Museum.

[Red Commissar]

LOL. I went to one of the big museums in NYC (which I had to pay for:glare:) and the Dinosaur exhibit was sponsored by the Koch Bros. "No, we just want to access to these national park lands to survey under ground for Dinosaur bones and get rid of all that crude oil that gets in the way".

All the bigest billionaire privitizers give tons of shit to "public" art and science institutions. Brode in Los Angeles wants to privitize schools and museums - and he's also gives tons of his privite art collection to the LA County Museum.

Yeah, these museums are getting so strapped for funding they'd accept anyone with a big enough wallet to help them. Over here in Texas Ross Perot recently opened a big natural science museum in his name and with his money :glare:

[homegrown terror]

go at the beginning of the month, the first friday of every month they have "First Friday" (imagine that) in dupont circle where all the independent art galleries have their openings at the same time. walk down the street, stop into each one, take in the art (and a free glass of rotgut wine) and by the end of the night you'll have seen some awesome works, hung out with great people, and probably become pleasantly trashed, all for the price of a Metro pass.

also, check out a show at the Black Cat or the U-Turn. they tend to always have great local bands there.

the smithsonians, as others have mentioned, are ALWAYS a must-see. skip the A&S unless you REALLY like airplanes, but make sure to go to the Hirshhorn Gallery and Natural History museums. the International Spy Museum is also well worth your time, although it's not run by the smithsonian and therefore it does charge admission.

finally, you HAVE to go to the national zoo. i've never seen such a wonderful zoo in my life, and you can skip out on the crowds if you bypass the panda exhibit (if you really wanna see black-and-white bears, watch winnie the pooh on an old TV!)

if you've got the time, travel two hours north and check out the baltimore aquarium as well.

[ellipsis]

Also if u can go to bars, chech out the brick scheler, it has the most bottled beers available of any bar in the country.

[homegrown terror]

Also if u can go to bars, chech out the brick scheler, it has the most bottled bear available of any bar in the country.

bottled bear? that sounds either freakishly inhumane, or ridiculously dangerous, depending on the size of the bottle in question.