happymz

Hello, we (31 y/o boyfriend & 28 y/o I) will be spending just 1 day in DC this Friday. We have both travelled to DC before, and visited various sites & neighborhoods, including Smithsonian museums, Mall, White House, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, Georgetown. For 1 day, we want to hit some highlights that we haven't yet experienced. We're staying at the JW Marriott (12 ST NW & PA Ave). We're considering starting the day very early with a morning jog on the mall, including stops at the various memorials (WWII in particular), then returning to hotel to dress for day, followed by visits to Ford's Theatre, possibly Spy Museum, walk by (and in, if possible) Capitol and Supreme Court, and afternoon visit to Holocaust Museum. Evening to be spent in Old Town Alexandria. Yes, we are ambitious tourists, so please avoid posting just to say 'too much!' without also advising on which would be your priorities...thank you!

Specific Questions:
- I've read mixed reviews of the Spy Museum, including other postings on this board, but still can't decide whether to cut it off the list or not...so would you say yay or nay to Spy?
- The National Park Service site says you don't need tix to enter the capitol and supreme court, but I've read that your congressperson can provide these. Is this required, or just for the 'behind-the-scenes' view? Is it worth a visit to these two buildings without those tix?
- Any tips for an evening walk in Old Town Alexandria? Recommendations for moderately-priced restaurants there for dinner? Also, which metro stop is closest to town center - King St?
- Lastly, neither have been to Arlington Nat'l Cemetery. Would you skip the Spy Museum & Ford's Theatre for a few hours at Arlington? Metro website says it's just a 10 minute ride from our hotel. If we did this, we'd do Holocaust Museum earlier in day, and stop at Arlington on way to Alexandria. What do you think?

Appreciate your advice!

emd

I would do the Spy Museum. It is unique and fun and samll enough to fit in your schedule without giving something else up. But get online now (right now, really) and get the tickets for the time you want to go. Do not show up and think you will get in; it is high season and lines are awful there, and w/your scheudle and ambitions you won't have time for lines. Early a.m. is best there, as early as you can fit it in your schedule. I would do that first, right after your jog and shower. The rooms are small in that museum and it is pretty intolerable when it is crowded- it is claustrophobic then.

I know Old Town Alexandria well, but what kind of food do you like? My favorite (and i think the best food) there is actully a very short cab ride away (on the edge of Old Town, a 7 minute cab ride from King Street Metro, then you'd cab 3 minutes to Old Town). Stardust Cafe. They have a website. Wonderful fresh creative new American food; moderately priced. This place is GOOD. Much better than anything in Old Town IMO. If you really want to eat in Old Town proper, what kind of food do you like?

King Street is your metro stop. BTW- it's a pretty long walk down King St to get to Old Town proper (like 20 min.), another good reason to cab it to Stardust and then to Old Town for the remainder of the evening.

I fyou decide to skip Spy and do Arlington Cemetary, you can easily metro there- there is a stop for Arlington Cemetary, and you can catch the metro two blocks from your hotel at Metro Center.

Re walking in Old Town- we just like to strool around on King St. There are usually mimes, musicians, etc. Maybe you'll be lucky and see the guy who plays the glasses filled w/water like musical instruments (the one who has been on Letterman). We like the jazz at the club at the place next to the cigar store- I think it is called 719, right on King St. Great bar there.

emd

another personal record for typos.

peg

I enjoyed the Spy Museum when we went. Like the other poster stated, I would get your tickets ahead of time. They have a web site. It was rather crowded and the time slot were sold out for the rest of the day, we had 11:30 a.m. times.

Not knowing what you had in mind for dinner. I am not sure if you want to do Arlington before dinner. We were in DC over the Fourth of July last year and it was rather hot. Arlington has hills, and if it is hot, you might not want to be trekking around there and then going to dinner.

happymz

Thanks for your quick replies!

emd, appreciate the recommendation for dinner. I checked out their website (stardustrestaurant.com, not to be confused with the gentleman's club at stardustcafe.com!) and the menu looks very interesting - - - but I'm fearful that we'll be a bit underdressed in our tourist gear for Friday early evening dinner. Do you think? Alternately, any recommendations for perhaps interesting pub food, or Mexican (saw the Austin Grill on another site?)? We like any food, really, with the exception of seafood.

peg, thanks for the tips on the spy museum. We will be buying tickets tomorrow if we decide to go there, and will definitely take your advice to get there as early as possible (which currently is 9:30 for tickets). not sure yet about Arlington Cemetary, but you make a good point about the hills in the heat. Friday is looking a bit warm.

obxgirl

I'll second the motion for the Stardust Restaurant. It's never received the recognition it deserves. The atmosphere is casual. The Austin Grill used to be one of my favoriate places for Tex Mex but the last couple of visits have been real duds. I also like the Union Street Pub (bottom of King Street, turn right about 2 blocks).

The jazz place emd mentioned is 219 Restaurant and it's great for jazz and drinks...and for dinner too! A little more casual place across the street from 219 is the Warehouse Bar & Grill. Really good seafood with some cajun and southern influence.

You need a ticket to tour the Capitol and they're available free each morning at 9 am from a kiosk near the building. I don't think the Supreme Court requires tickets (at least it didn't a couple of years ago).

I thought you could order your tickects ahead of time for the Spy Museum.

The Holocaust museum is a great experience. Very moving. Give yourself a little time after to you visit to collect your thoughts.

Enjoy your trip!

emd

Union Street was my first thought when you mentioned pub. Not great food, but great beer and good enough food, dark wood, good atmosphere, and it is right on the block next to the water. I second the yuk to that Austin Grill. There is a good Thai place, very casual and inexpensive, right across from the town hall on the corner, can't think of the name but you'll find it if you stand in front of the big red brick town hall and look for the place on the left across the street ont he corner. No reservations needed. Very good. This makes me want to go there. If you want fun and a bit rowdy but in a good way, Murphy's is a big fun old colorful Irish Bar further up King Street. You'll meet people there and sing alot.

hleesa

I was in DC in April with my father. It's very easy to get tickets to the Capital - just go to your senators office across the street. The guards will direct you if you are unsure. As for the Holacost museum, my father tried to go but couldn't get tickets - you may want to check in advance. Also, I tried to take a tour of the Supreme court, but they only offered lectures. While that sounded interesting, I'd rather be exploring the city than listening to a lecture!

richbutnot

We were in DC the first week of June. I will give you our opinion along with our ages so you can adjust for age differences. We are 44/38/14/11.

We liked Arlington Cemetery a lot better than the either the Spy Museum or Ford's Theater. The changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns is very moving. I highly recommend it.

The Spy Museum was nice, but probably not worth the price (at least for 4). We walked up at 10:00 am and had no problem getting in.

Ford's Theater was OK, but nothing special.

We had a tour of The Capital from our Congressman's office. This was great. I believe you have to get there real early in the morning for general tour tickets and then come back later in the day. You can walk through the Supreme Court without tickets, but it closes at 4:30.

I like your plan to jog the Memorials. The day we spent walking them was our favorite day in DC.

Disclaimer: we are a family so our idea of a good time may be different than that of two singles.

Rich

Soda1

The weather is fantastic right now so I'd skip the museam and check out as many outdoorsy things as possible. Right now, for example, the Smithsonian is hosting the Folklife festival on the Mall, which is reallly worth seeing. Or yes, outdoord in Arlington, instead. It's too nice out these days to be indoors! Dinner in Alexandria is really nice, but, um (and please nooone take this the wrong way, because I have enjoyed myself there before), but the crowd is a little older than the 30-ish you mentioned yourself to be. I'd do drinks and dinner at Clarendon if I were you and then take metro to Alexandria for dessert, coffee, and a nice walk along the lit Potomac. Just a thought.

emd

Actually, my first thought for your ages was dinner in the Shirlingon area (Carlye Grand, Capitol Hill Brewery, a Thai place, etc.) and browsing around there (a charming street w/shops and cafes on both sides, quite a spot w/outdoors tables and alot of young people stroling around), maybe a movie as are both a standard theater and an art-type theater are there. But it's not on the metro stops. It's about 5 miles from where you are staying. You could take the metro to Pentagon City and cab it from there, that would be just about two miles for the cab. But for charm, I don't think it or Clarendon (good food, not much to do otherwise when walking though?) can match Old Town Alexandria.

milliebz

Everyone is giving you good tips and I want to add just one. I went for an early morning run and just happened upon the Korean War Memorial. It was very early and there was a light fog surrounding the memorial. It was one of the most hauntingly beautiful memorials I have ever seen. I was so mesmirized I stopped running and looked at it for a long time.

milliebz

Meant to mention that it is on the Mall run right before you get to the Lincoln Memorial.

happymz

Thanks for all of the good tips! I think based upon everyone's feedback, and the weather.com prediction of good - albeit hot - weather for Friday, we are going to skip the Spy Museum and Ford's Theatre and head straight to the Capitol by 9 AM to get tickets to see that. We will do the rest of the day around that, and dinner in Alexandria on Union Street at one of the Irish Pubs or the Thai Place. My only concern: We are reserving our timed tickets for the Holocaust museum in advance (today or tomorrow) so that we ensure we are able to see it. Are we just out of luck if we get to the Capitol at 9 and they tell us to come back at the same time as we are scheduled to see the Holocaust museum? Are the tickets for the Capitol timed such that if you get there by nine, you still may end up with a ticket for the afternoon?

Oh, and we are definitely keeping the early morning visit to the monuments on the Mall (great visual, Milliebz, and I bet they are also not inundated with people at that time, either!) and will try to fit in an afternoon visit to Arlington Cemetary - schedule permitting - on the way to Alexandria.

Thanks everyone!

obxgirl

Hi happymz, If you can, I suggest you all get to the Capitol before 9 am to get tickets. We usually tell people to get there around 8:30 but the holiday weekend may mean more visitors than the usual summer Friday. Sounds like you're going to be on the mall anyway for your jog! I'm afraid you will be out of luck if your Capitol tickets conflict with the Holocause Museum. Maybe you could trade with other line standers??

This website has maps and details: http://www.aoc.gov/

If you want to hedge your bets, the Holocaust Musuem also has a fairly large number of tickets distributed daily for first come first serve visitors (10 am?). Twice in the last two years, I've been able to walk up and get tickets, tho again, factor in the Independence Day crowds.

Have a super time!

happymz

Hi all - just back from the holiday weekend, and thought I'd post a quick trip report from our day in DC.

We started the day much later than planned, due to delayed arrival in DC the evening prior and two unplanned early morning wake-ups, including a loud 5 AM (!) alarm in the apparently vacant room adjacent to ours. We stayed at the JW Marriott, which I had stayed at previously for business and we got this time for $70 from priceline - can't be beat for the location. Our room was standard Marriott, nice, but nothing particularly special.

We headed out at 10 AM (yes, big disapointment to us both that the 6 AM run did not happen...though we were later pleased that we had saved our feet for the great deal of walking that was to come!). First straight to the Capitol, to see it up close and to check on any outside chance we might get a ticket. Lo and behold, at 10:30 AM, we were able to walk right up and secure a tour ticket for the last tour of the day (3:30 PM).

We then ventured down the mall, visiting the various festivals set up, including the wonderful Folklife festival - great food! Our next stop was the WWII memorial, which I had been very much looking forward to seeing. Looking back, I'm very glad we had the opportunity to visit it during the day with the crowd, which included a few WWII vets (most in wheelchairs) and their families. I found it particularly emotional, having lost my grandfather - a proud WWII vet himself - this past winter. I felt like he was with me though as I saw it for the first time.

From there, we travelled over to the Holocaust museum, for which we had a 1 PM ticket reserved in advance, so we walked right in. We spent about 2 hours in the very crowded museum, and read nearly every exhibit, though we skipped the short movies scattered throughout due to the aforementioned crowds. This was a very impressive and moving exhibit. Leaving the museum, we headed back up the mall to the Capitol, arriving just in time for our 3:30 PM tour.

The Capitol tour was interesting - it was an experience just to see the inside of the building and to be able to visit the Rotunda where just a short while ago President Reagan lay in state. I was a bit disappointed, though, that the tour did not include a look at the galleries - I thought we would be able to get a peek, especially since Congress was not in session. Perhaps this is only an option available to those on tours arranged through your congressperson?

In any event, following the 30-minute tour we headed toward the closest metro station on the blue line and took that to Arlington Nat'l Cemetary. I'm glad we were able to make this part of our day, including the opportunity to see Arlington house (from the outside only, it closed at 4:30), JFK and RFK's resting places, and the tomb of the Unknown with changing of the guard. After Arlington, we hopped back on the Metro to King Street in Alexandria, and proceeded to walk down toward the water front, stopping over at Murphy's for a great - cheap! - meal and drinks. After shopping a bit, stopping for some ice cream further down on King Street at Pop's (?) and finishing at Union St, we grabbed a cab back up to the metro, which we took back to our hotel to pick up our car and luggage and drive out of the city at 9:30.

All in all, we were very pleased with all we were able to accomplish, especially after the late start! A few comments: 1 - wear comfy shoes. We did, and we were thankful, but after what we calculated to be at least 7 miles of walking in pretty humid heat, our feet were swollen impressively. 2 - have layers available! It was intensely hot in the sun and humidity, and while it felt great in the indoors and A/C, you quickly cooled to where it was nice to have a sweater to throw over your shoulders.

In terms of security, we found what others have posted previously - a small backpack was ok to bring into all of the above locations. My drink was allowed into the Holocaust museum only after I took a sip from it in from of the security guard...and no drinks or bottles are allowed in the Capitol.

Great trip!