I wrote a while back about taking my mom to DC around Christmas time - that didn't work out - my mom has cancer - she will have finished all her treatments and hopefully have some hair growing back by the time we go - one problem we have is that my mom can't walk very far because she is weak from the treatments and will be for a while.

We are planning on taking a train into DC - we've never been on a train before - and we would like to stay at a hotel that is a small walk to some nice restaurants and short cab ride to the smithsonian, the wax museum and the zoo.

I have an idea but we've never been there so I need some help. My 9 year old son is going also and possibly my sister.

Ok - I figure the day we get off the train we will get a cab to our hotel - **are cabs readily available at the train station??? Then we will have a nice dinner that night after we have settled in - we aren't into really fine cuisine but I would like to have at least two nice dinners that are reasonably priced. **I need suggestions for restaurants - nothing fancy and we plan on eating american food.

We definitely want to pay for a tour since we won't be renting a car - I can't find my way out of a wet paper bag - I need help on finding the right tour company - my son is already a history buff and he LOVES Lincoln so, of course, we will want to see the Lincoln Memorial but we don't want to be rushed. We would like to see the Arlington Cemetery, and all the other must-see memorials and monuments, the White House, et al. We don't want to be rushed but we don't want to do the "get on, get off" thing either - we would like a narrated tour and a chance to take as many pictures as we can. Oh and I heard that Mount Vernon with George Washington's estate is very cool. I'm not sure if this one is free or not?? We can always take a cab to everywhere we want to go - like the Smithsonian - we want to visit the Natural History and the American History museums and we don't want to be rushed there either - we could take a cab one day and check it out ourselves. We also want to see the wax museum and we would rather just take a cab there and take our time instead of being rushed with a tour. We also want to go to the zoo - again we can take a cab.

I think that's about it but as you can see since I'm not familiar with anything I need some major help in planning all this out!!!

To summarize, we want to definitely see **1) Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, White House, other monuments, et al. which I think a tour should cover all these as long as we aren't too rushed **2) the wax museum. **3) Smithsonian - a. Natural History b. American History. **4) the zoo. **5) Mount Vernon with Washington's estate.

I can't think of anything else right now - I would greatly appreciate any advice you can give me - which tour would be the best for us is a big question and other things that we should see that I haven't thought of. And how to put all this into an itinerary. And where to stay that is within a short walk to restaurants, et al.

I am sorry to read about your Mom and hope she is doing well. Glad you can enjoy this time with her.

I am no DC expert - I have only been once - in the fall.

You need to contact your congress person to arrange for a whitehouse tour and should do it asap. They also can assist with several other tours. Mine was fabulous - I think it helped that it was right before the election and he was up for re-election.

Yes, there are plenty of taxi's in DC and at the train station there is a taxi line similar to many airports.

How long are you staying and where are you staying? There are so many places to eat...

The metro is very easy in DC and staying in a hotel close to a stop would save you a bundle in time and money. I was not very close to a stop - I was using points (at the hotel) and my daughter had a foot injury and it was bothering her so we did end up taking cabs. It got expensive.

If your mother wouldn't be horrified at the idea, you might consider buying or renting an inexpensive (they run around $100) "companion chair" - a collapsible chair on wheels, though not the big wheels a true wheelchair has). For some parts of what you want to do, you might find it an asset because it allows you to take advantage of the "accessible" aspects of touring DC - elevators, etc. The Metro will demand a lot of walking in particular, as handy as it is. You don't have to use the chair everywhere, but it'll sure get you around some places more easily -- I'm thinking, for example, of Mt. Vernon, which is a lot of walking.

I found one for my mother in a drug store.

My mom actually is doing very well but she will be weak for a while - she even had to get a handicap sticker for her car because just walking through the parking lot made her tired.

I forgot to say how long we were thinking about staying - I think we will need 4 or 5 full days to do everything we want to do.

A White House tour would be nice but I only meant we wanted to see the outside of it - I heard you need to go through your congress person 6 months in advance and we want to go in about four months. I might give it a try though - that would be so cool for my son especially! We might even not be going for 6 months depending on the rest of her radiation treatments. I think I will do this - thanks for the idea!

We wanted to stay at one of the hotels like the Comfort Inn which is downtown or the Best Western Georgetown - both have free continental breakfasts and it sounds like it will be close enough to walk to restaurants, but by close they may mean 1/2 a mile and my mom can't walk for 1/2 mile. I know the hotels will be more expensive than others that are 2 or 3 miles away but like I said we don't plan on renting a car. Maybe we could get a cheaper farther away hotel and use cabs?? I don't know which would be cheaper??

The metro sounds like the best way to get around but I didn't know how easy it would be to use - I've been on the subway in NYC before and if it's similar to that I don't want any part of it!!

The companion chair I will definitely check out. Thank you so much for the advice! I really hadn't thought of Mt. Vernon being hard on her - have you been there? Is it well worth it?

I just found a hotel with great reviews at a decent price - the Holiday Inn Central - seems very safe with a full breakfast and cheaper than some others that people warned were unsafe.

mrrockydog - not sure why you are opposed to the subway system in NYC? I am a very "afraid" traveler - people who know me well are always surprised that I just "do it" as I refuse to permit my fears to limit me. The subway proved to be easy, inexpensive and frankly better then dealing with traffic in NYC.

I got my tour within a 3 months of the whitehouse.

Here are some comments that might help you narrow down your itinerary:

I am in DC right now visiting my daughter who attended college here. I've been on the Fodor's boards for about ten years. I have never before heard of anybody planning to visit a wax museum in DC; I didn't even know they had one.

The Zoo is extensive and hilly; your mom will not be able to handle it on foot, and she'll have trouble with the grounds at Mount Vernon if she can't walk half a mile.

Mount Vernon will eat up a whole day of your visit; very few visitors would included it in a 5-day itinerary.

I am in DC right now visiting my daughter who attended college here. I've been on the Fodor's boards for about ten years. I have never before heard of anybody planning to visit a wax museum in DC; I didn't even know they had one.

The Zoo is extensive and hilly; your mom will not be able to handle it on foot, and she'll have trouble with the grounds at Mount Vernon if she can't walk half a mile.

The wax museum seems really cool especially for a 9 year old! Check it out online - I think it opened not too long ago and there are a lot of these museums - it's called "Madame Trouss?? Wax Museum."

Mount Vernon is something that looked fun and educational and people seemed to really like it - I only researched it this morning - this is the one that we probably do last - if there was nothing else that we wanted to do.

I hadn't thought of the zoo being hard on my mom especially if it is hilly - and I've read negative reviews of it - thanks for the advice.

And to MomDDTravel I grew up and live in a very small town especially compared to DC! I have no sense of direction and am scatterbrained - I will be the "leader" of our group and that's scary for me! I'm scared I'll lose my kid or something. I emailed my congressman this morning after your suggestion!!

ok - thanks to all of you I have decided some things for sure. We are going to tour the White House - now I'm wondering how long does this take, what are you allowed to see, etc?? I know I can google it but anything you can tell me about it I would appreciate. Assuming this will take a half day at most, I thought we would visit that wax musuem that evening - they not only have political figures, but also celebrities.

That was one day - another day we will go on a tour - I still need to find out which would be the best one for us. Some offer two day tours - is it worth it?? We want to see the best monuments and memorials of course - we also want to visit the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington Cemetery. Suggestions on tour companies that will allow us to see the above??

Ok that was either one or two days - we want to visit at the Smithsonian the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of American History and maybe some other stuff. I think we can do this in one day can't we? Should we get a tour guide - do they have tour guides?

And that's it - so we will need 3 or 4 entire days - I'm thinking we should stay for 5 nights. How does this sound?

mrrockydog - where you are coming from? I have never lived in a major city and got through the public transportation. I firmly believe if I can do it anyone can. It is a GREAT learning process for your son as well.

Pass on the wax muesum. They have that in several cities and it is a waste of money. I went in Vegas. You are in a city with some of the most amazing history in the whole country... jmo of course.

If you want to add something cool your son would like - go to the spy museum.

You've gotten some good info, but here is my 2 cents worth (from a local):

1. If you have not already done so, go to the White House website and read about the tours. I understand that they are not currently doing any tours because of the change in administration, but I would assume they would be up and running again in 4 months when you say you plan to be here (late June?) So, it's good that you have already requested a reservation Please read carefully the list of prohibited items. They do not have lockers at the White House to store your camera, handbags, etc. so you will either have to go back to the hotel to retrieve them after your tour or you will have to have one member of your party miss the tour to hold the items. This is a "deal-breaker" for some people interested in taking the tour. The tour is self-guided and takes about 30 - 45 minutes. You see a number of the ceremonial rooms--the Red Room, the Blue Room, the East Room, etc. Should you not be able to take a tour for whatever reason, there is a White House Visitor's Center with displays and a video which you might enjoy.

2. The waxworks in D.C., Madame Tussaud's, opened last year and has generally had lukewarm reviews. One reason may be that since there are so many free museums in D.C., people hate paying $18 to go to a museum. They've run some promotions in the past to get visitors, so you might check to see if there are any before you come. (BTW, I've been to Madame Tussaud's in London and Las Vegas and enjoyed them very much, but I, too, find it hard to pay for a museum here in D.C.)
3. You say that you would like a tour that doesn't rush you and you don't want to take a hop on/hop off tour either. I'm not sure you can find exactly what you want unless you can arrange for a personal tour/tourguide. The hop on/hop off bus has the advantage that you can get off and spend as much time as you want at a location and then just wait for the next bus to come around. You aren't on any particular schedule and you aren't being "rushed" by a guide that has to cover a certain amount of territory. Also, you don't have to stop for things that don't interest you. The downside is that sometimes in summer, the buses are crowded and you may have to wait awhile for a bus that isn't full.
4. Should you decide to take a hop on/hop off bus, the choices are Tourmobile, Old Town Trolleys and Open Top. They all cover the Mall and monuments, but there are some differences for the rest of their routes. Although the other companies may go to Arlington Cemetery, Tourmobile is the only company which does the tour inside the cemetery. So if you choose Old Town Trolley, you will need to get a separate ticket from Tourmobile to take their tour inside Arlington Cemetery. Check each of their websites for tour and price details.
5. You should be able to visit two, or even possibly three, Smithsonian museums in one day depending on when you get started and how much time you want to spend in each place. Each of the museums offer free "highlights" tours (usually once in the morning and once in the afternoon). Check their websites for details.
6. Finally, if your son is interested in Lincoln, you should plan to take him to the newly-renovated Ford's Theatre. It just re-opened a few weeks ago. Free, timed tickets are required now for tours and are distributed on a first come/first serve basis at the theatre's box office beginning at 8:30 each morning. If you don't want to get tickets that way, you can pre-order tickets (for a service fee) through Ticketmaster. Check www.fordstheatre.org for details.

I hope this has been helpful.

I think a 9-year-old boy would enjoy the Air and Space Museum. Definitely worthwhile. I'd skip the wax museum - saw it in London and it was ok, but the free Smithsonian museums are better. Try to see one of the IMAX movies at either Air and Space or Natural History. Do you enjoy art? The National Gallery is quite nice. The great thing about the Smithsonian is that (most of) the museums are clustered together along the mall and since they're free you can quickly check out several of them and spend as much time as you'd like. The Spy Museum (not part of the Smithsonian) might be fun for your son.

For the main monuments, I suggest you do an On Board Tours tour (onboardtour.com). Before anyone flays me for promoting this, I work for them as an independent contractor tour guide from time to time. Let me tell you why I recommend On Board: The guide stays with you. The hop on/hop off options, of course, work fine, but what does not work is that often the bus is not there and you have to wait when you want to leave. On Board has a day tour that takes 6 hours. It goes to The Capitol (outside only), World War II, Jefferson, FDR, Korea, Lincoln, Vietnam, Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima), Air Force Memorial (you look down on the Pentagon where the plane hit on 9/11 and fantastic view), Embassy Row drive by (and National Cathedral drive by as part of it), and White House (outside only). Lunch is at the Pentagon City Mall (price of lunch not included). It is a great introduction to DC. By the way, I do not get commission for referring people. The most I might get is an extra tour if masses of people sign up. That's it. There are 30-40 guides that work for On Board. Most of us work with a lot of groups as well, so we are not always available when they need people. That is why they use so many guides. Everyone who works for On Board has taken the DC tour guide test (not true of the driver/guides on some of the other options; some even work off a taped commentary). By the way, should you need a bus with a wheelchair lift, please ask for it when you book (from any of the bus services not just On Board).

Arlington Cemetery is best done by taking a cab over there or the Metro. Given your mother's stamina, spring for the Tourmobile tickets there and do not try and walk it (although the walk is not that bad even if you are in so so shape). Please note that Arlington House (the Lee Mansion) is under construction and currently empty of furniture. The iew is great, but I discourage people with mobility problems from getting off there because you may have to wait a very long time for a Tourmobile to come that has space for you. What happens is most people do not get off there. The Tourmobile stops at the Kennedy graves, the Tomb of the Unknowns (Changing of the Guard), Arlington House and then back to the Visitor's Center.

If your mother tires easily, she may not be up for a trip to DC. Even on an organized monument tour, there will be a bit of walking when you get off the bus at each site.

I agree that the zoo might overtax your mom (only you can know that). I also agree that the wax museum (in fact any way museum in my opinion) is a waste of time (not to mention the price).

To take a tour of the US Capitol, there is a new visitor's center (Capitol Visitor's Center). You can book advance tickets online and bypass your Congressman's office. You will get a Capitol trained guide instead of some intern in your Congressman's office. Many of the interns know absolutely nothing. Sad, but true. Go with the trained folks. The Visitor's Center itself is also very interesting.

The only sites with fees that I think are worth it are the Newseum and Mount Vernon. The education center at Mount Vernon has this neat multimedia show.

Do not come for the Cherry Blossom Festival if you can't stand crowds (not that it will compare to inauguration!).

Taxis are plentiful at the train station (Union Station). The Metro, since it has fewer lines, is a lot easier to navigate than the subway in NYC.

For the White House, the only way to get in is to contact your Congressman and make an advance booking. You only see 4 rooms and a corridor with some china in it. In my opinion, The Capitol is much more interesting. Just a word of caution about The Capitol: Expect long lines. If you have prebooked a tour allow an hour to get in to be on the safe side. The Capitol police often have the "slows" at the metal detectors. Remember no liquids, gels or Swiss Army knives! You can take a walk through the Visitor's Center before your tour if you get in early. Better to be safe than sorry. If they are not busy and you are in before you prebooked, sometimes you can just join the next tour. The Guides (as opposed to the Police) are very hospitable.

And you might want to have a look at Tim Krepp's blog.

http://www.dclikealocal.com/

Ditto on axing the wax museum. There are so many better things to enjoy in DC. Since your son is a Lincoln fan, you should try to fit in a visit to the newly reopened Ford's Theater, It has new Lincoln exhibits that your son should like.

A companion chair or wheelchair could expand your horizons. I would not consider taking your mother to see the zoo without one since it is hilly and involves much walking.

If you are near the American Indian museum of the Smithsonian around lunchtime, stop in. The food there is both tasty and interesting - the cafeteria is divided into sections representing different areas where American Indians live and features foods from those regions.

Just to clarify my suggestion re: a chair -- this is not because I think you don't know your mother's limits, it's because it could facilitate one or two things while preserving her stamina. Note what basingstoke2 said about expanding your horizons and the zoo. You also might get better entry and treatment if you present yourselves as a party with a "handicapped" person - e.g., things like the White House tour, perhaps, or even through airport security.

I'm not advocating PRETENDING to be handicapped just to gain unfair advantage. She's genuinely hampered by her limits right now, and when I had a badly sprained ankle and had to get through airport security in a wheelchair, I found out inadvertently just how much being in one can expedite things. I'm very glad not to have to use one now, and I'm very glad she's on the mend -- but for now, why not avail yourselves of the assistance so you can go where you want to without worry.

And just so you know, with my own mother's companion chair, I've gotten the time it takes to collapse it and put it in the trunk of her car down to about 10-5 seconds.

One more thing, although everyone recovers differently, your mom may bounce back quicker than you think. Did she have good stamina before she became ill? Do the docs think she will be in remission at the end of these treatments? I don't know the time between ending treatments and your trip but give her a couple of months to get her strength back. For example, my son had a full year of very heavy chemo and suffered every side effect including drop foot, yet 3 months after treatment end, we visited Italy and I couldn't keep up with him - he even climbed the path up Mt Vesuvius and reached the top a couple of hundred yards before I did. True, he was a teenager at the time, but I couldn't believe it since not that many months earlier he was too weak to walk and had to be pushed in a wheelchair. Closer to your mom's age, We just came back from visiting a cousin, age 79 who finished chemo for uterine cancer a month earlier. She was a very active, lively person before and was almost back to her old self. We walked a lot and if she was tired, it did not show.

I think Mt. Vernon is a must do. It is one of my favorite places in the DC area. The new visitor's center/museum is great. That said, there is a bit of walk, but it can be done at a very leisurly pace. Check the web site to get an idea of what you will experience there.
I think your son will really enjoy the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The Museum of American History has just reopened after a renovation. You do not need a guide, but each museum has a guide book you might find useful.

I think you will find the Metro fairly easy to use.

Have a great trip.

Please note that Ford's Theater now requires advance tickets. The Park Service is ruling out all spontaniety on Ford's--which is a shame. You need to get tickets and run your day around arriving at the right time. That does seem to be the rule for EVERYTHING in DC now (White House, Capitol, Washington Monument, tour of the Pentagon inside). We tour guides hate it, but they don't listen to us.

Expect to huge lines to get into The Capitol this spring. The new Visitor's Center was supposed to end that, but, from the way The Capitol Police run things up there, the Visitor's Center has ended as an impediment and not a help. Please write to your Congressman if you are caught in a long line. Things will only change if they hear from you!