Thanks everyone. We are now considering spending a night outside of DC when we visit Monticello, Montpelier and (hopefully) Ash Lawn. Would Charlottesville be the best place to spend that one night?

On another thought, how far away are the "restaurants on Chesapeake Bay" from DC? Drive or public transportation?

Finally, thanks to a very luck draw in yesterday's Super Bowl Pool, it looks like 1789 is on the short list of restaurants.

((H))

Charlottesville is a nice college town. Monticello and Ashlawn are both there and you can easily visit Monteplier on the way down or your way back to DC. Make sure that you don't plan a visit during the UVA graduation which is usually sometime in May I think. There are lots of nice B&B's or hotels.
in Charlottesville and in the surrounding area.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is about an hour outside DC -- lots of good seafood esp crab places in the area. I don't know of any way to get there without a car.

Lucky u -- 1789 is nice, but lots of good restaurants to choose from. If u really did good with your Super Bowl pool and want to go all out on the way from Charlottesville stop at the Inn at Little Washington. It's about an hour from DC and quite the dining experience.

Re the article in the NYTimes --mentions some really nice places to try and see. I love the Kreeger, its a very different "museum." It is about a 10-15 taxi ride out Foxhall Rd.from center of DC. the textile msueum is also a lovely bldg and has some neat exhibits.

Would enjoy getting people together for drinks. For me it would need to be after May 12. Maybe something will work out.

Does your group ride bicycles? You might want to try bicycling from DC to Mount Vernon. Our bicycle club our of Richmond does this once a year - a group drives to Mount Vernon and parks, and bicycles into DC for lunch, then back to Mount Vernon. Most of the ride is on a bike/ jogging path, except for short distance thru old Town Alexandria. For bicycling info you can check out Potomac Pedalers website www.bikepptc.org
During your stay be sure to go to a Five Guys restaurant for burgers and fries. www.fiveguys.com They are a regular winner in Washingtonian magazine for best burgers and cheap eats. They have several locations in DC.
Have fun!

You would drive to the Chesapeake Bay. No public transportation. I assume that there are tours that you can take, e.g. to the Eastern Shore (of the Chesapeake).

Here is a Mt Vernon cruise:
http://www.potomacriverboatco.com/mo...non_cruise.php

The drive to the Bridge is about an hour and then add to that for where you want to visit on the Eastern Shore. Great towns to consider are Chestertown (which I'm partial to!), Rock Hall, Easton, St. Michaels, Oxford. These choices are based on great food and drinks! There are no tours that I am aware of, just lots of friendly local folk willing to offer suggestions. You will need to plan ahead to avoid rush hour around DC.

Another vote for Five Guys burgers, too.

Annapolis! I believe you can get a bus from DC to an Annapolis Park & Ride on Riva Rd. Take a taxi from there to down town. I'll check with my commuter buds about this. Better to rent a car so you can dictate your times.

Mt. Vernon and Monticello don't miss if at all possible though. And for me, I'd choose Monticello first. You can do that as a day trip if you want. Same for Mt. Vernon.

Smithonsians are like Louvre-you could spend your entire vacation there and still miss stuff. Did anyone say that the Indian Museum has a good cafe? It was very crowded the day we visited so didn't stick around.

Did I mention the Library of Congress? The main reading room is awesome. There was a Bob Hope exhibit-probably long gone. It too is a great place.

Know I'll think of other stuff.

The Bob Hope exhibit is still at the Library of Congress, indefinitely, I think--I took the children there last week during the snow day, although we didn't visit that gallery. The LOC also has a great exhibit on "Creating the United States" as well as Thomas Jefferson's Library, a nice prelude to a Monticello visit.

"Does your group ride bicycles? You might want to try bicycling from DC to Mount Vernon."

If I attempted to bicycle from DC to Mt. Vernon and back, the odds are good that I would write the very first posthumous trip report. However, maybe for just riding around DC, that might be fun.

Thanks for all the tips everyone. Five Guys sounds good, and the Library of Congress is on our "must do" list.

Here's something I just thought about. When I was a kid, I remember visiting friends in Maryland and seeing lightning bugs (aka fireflies). They were fascinating to me. Can you still see fireflies back there?

By the way, if anyone is up to it, I am sure we could be coerced to meet for drinks somewhere.

Thanks again for the information you all have provided us.

((H))

Yes, we still do have lightening bugs in the burbs of MD as well as DC -- we used to catch them as kids.

There are segway tours in DC--easier than exerting effort to bike...

MT, do u want to start a thread seeing if folks are interested in meeting for drinks? I have no idea who or how many live in the DC area, but would be glad to try and coordinate it if someone will take over in April as I will be in Italy April 21 - May 12. (Not in the area of your hysterical TR though)

I haven't read all the responses so forgive me if I'm repetitious.

We went to DC for the first time for the WWII Memorial dedication. My dad was a vet so we went in his honor.

I reserved almost everything we did online and it all turned out surprisingly well.

We did a DC Ducks tour (www.dcducks.com) and it was fun (the one in Seattle was awful). We had a good guide, learned a bit about the city, when the God's became angry and it poured rain. The guide provided plastic ponchos, but by the time I got mine open I was drenched.

Union Station is interesting (that's where we caught the DC Ducks).

We spent a lot of time in the Smithsonian Air Museum and Udvar Hazy Air Museum near Dulles (where we saw the dedication on huge screens).

We took the Spirit of Washington www.spiritcruises.com to Mt. Vernon. Left at 8:30 am and got back to DC at 3:00 pm. We enjoyed the cruise on the Potomac.

We arranged a capitol tour through our rep and also visited the Supreme Court.

I reserved tickets for plays at both the Kennedy Center and Ford's Theatre (recently renovated) online. Both performances were great.

We were moved to tears at the FDR Memorial (he was the only president we knew until we were half grown) and the Korea Memorial (my husband's war). We also went to the Lincoln and, of course WWII (more tears here). All are incredibly well done.

After touring the National Gallery of Art we had lunch downstairs and it was surrisingly good.

We also toured the Holocaust Museum.

Went to Arlington on some sort of on/off Trolley.

Lots more we would love to see and do. Maybe another trip someday; I hope so.

Make sure you don't schedule the LOC for a Sunday--it's closed. And since you'll be in the vicinity, do duck into the Botanic Garden--it's an overlooked, and free, gem.

Also, plan for spending the bulk of the day at the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space if you're planning to go at all. Between the bus ride out there and the museum itself, there won't be time for much else.

The cruise to Mt. Vernon looks terrific. we're on board. Thanks!

If a local wants to start a thread about getting together for drinks, I think that would be better than me starting one since I have no idea where places are in DC. But I also know that those events are a pain to organize, so it might be easier, as the time draws near to our visit that if someone just wants to post on this thread and pick a DC watering hole and a night, we can be there.

((H))

You should stop by the Whitehouse for a pork dinner.
There will be plenty to share come Monday!

<The cruise to Mt. Vernon looks terrific. we're on board. Thanks! >

You're very welcome. Glad I could help. Your info and all around entertaiing report on your Central/Eastern European trip hopefully will be of help to us if we ever get back to Europe again!

Great thread everyone! We're making our first trip to DC April 18-24th!

"Everybody take the week of May 9 to May 16 off"

Are those your final dates? The problem as I see it is that you won't know what days you'll be doing what so might not want to worry about trying to plan for a gtg.

What if someone who actually lives in the area suggests a place near the hotel on your last evening and see who'd be available to meet? If there was enough of a group, it could be a DC gtg even if you couldn't make it. Of course, we'd all be "tres desole" if you and the peeps we've come to know weren't there!

If your visit includes Mother's Day, be sure to make reservations for dinner!

"What if someone who actually lives in the area suggests a place near the hotel on your last evening and see who'd be available to meet?"

May 9 to 16 are set in stone (unless I decide to nearly cut my toe off like I did before our Central Europe trip).

I am sure our sojourn to Monticello will be earlier in the week (Tues or Wed), so Thursday the 14th or Friday the 15th would be fine for us, whichever is more convenient for the local Fodorite crowd.

If someone picks a fun spot (doesn't necessarily have to be near our hotel if we can get to it by public transportation), we will be there!!!

((H))

OK, let me start of with my credentials. Maitaitom, I have a DC tour guide license.

Spring is the busiest season here. Yup, spring, not summer. Why? All the 5th and 8th graders in the US (OK, I am exaggerating but not by much) choose spring as the time for their class trips. If I were you, I would come in fall not spring. The weather is still nice but the kids are NOT HERE. You would enjoy it more and you wouldn't face long waits to get into things (not to mention crowds). I did skim this entire thread (although I cannot claim to have read every post) and did not notice anything about the school tour season.

OK, assuming you have decided to brave the kids, I do recommend you reserve the all day tour of the monuments given by On Board Tours (onboardtours.com). OK, I occasionally work for them (I work for a lot of tour companies). During the 6 hour day tour you will be taken to all the major monuments. The guide stays with the bus and there is, consequently, no waiting for the Tourmobile or hop on/hop off bus to come round. Really, it is the best money you will spend in DC and it prevents a lot of sore feet to let the van schlep you around (large vans hold up to 35--no more and some smaller ones hold less).

Mount Vernon should not be done on an organized tour or on the boat because it is worth a full day and those options do not give you nearly enough time. There can be enormous waits to get into the house in the spring due to the mobs of kids.

Dupont Circle is great for eating. I recommend Au Bon Pain and Thaiphoon but I certainly do not know all the restaurants there. Just walk around and pick.

You want to go on the Capitol Visitor's Center site and make a reservation for a tour at The US Capitol (service charge only for advance reservations).

Ford's Theatre now requires advance reservations as well.

Contact your Congressman/Senator to see what he will or will not do to assist you in getting a White House tour. Warning: It may already be too late for that because the students book up the spring tours up to a year in advance.

Just pick a couple of tours that need reservations because reservations can drive your day and you may end up resentful at the structure. Leave plenty of time for the Smithsonian.

If you have not been here in a long time, I would just concentrate in DC and do Mount Vernon and leave Monticello and the other nearby plantations for another trip. It is a LONG drive there and an even LONGER drive back. Remember, you should be having a vacation not a forced march.

If you have any specific questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Thanks in advance for pumping your spare cash into the local economy.

I definitely agre about the 1789 Restaurant. You can't go wrong with that one for a big splurge.

"You want to go on the Capitol Visitor's Center site and make a reservation for a tour at The US Capitol (service charge only for advance reservations)."

There is no service charge.

http://www.visitthecapitol.gov/