D.C. Area Nesties
Baby248 - ETA 1/10/13
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
What interesting things have you seen/done in DC lately?
On Thursday I'm taking the day off to play tour guide for my parents' former exchange student and his girlfriend. The exchange student has visited DC multiple times, but it is his girlfriend's first time in the States. I know he wants to show her the typical DC sights (White House, Capitol, memorials), but I was hoping to find a few interesting things to see/do that neither he nor I have done before as well. Are there any new exhibits worth checking out? Any good tours (e.g. is DC Ducks worth it)? Good but cheap lunch spots if there aren't any food trucks in the area (I've previously taken him to the cafeteria at the American Indian Museum and the food court in the Ronald Reagan building)? I am having trouble thinking of things to do outside of wander the Mall and Smithsonians, and would welcome some Nestie creativity. TIA!
Baby248 - ETA 1/10/13
Re: What interesting things have you seen/done in DC lately?
teaism is where i typically eat when i'm near the mall. lunch would be ~$10. if you're near the white house around lunch time, there's a julia's empanadas on 14th & vermont-ish (backside of white house & off mcpherson square).that you could get & eat in lafayette square. Also, Ben's Chili Bowl & then do a walk around U St? I think there may be an free iPod walking tour that you can download of the area, too.
My mom and I did Bike the Sites last summer and loved it. We had both seen most of those monuments before but going with a tour guide and learning the history and some information about each monument made it much more interesting. It's a great way to experience the major sites of DC in a few hours. Here's the review I wrote for TripAdvisor (note that it's called Bike and Roll on Trip Advisor but it's the same company).
********************
We went on the Bike the Sites Monuments tour today and had a wonderful time. When we showed up, they fitted us with a bike and a helmet. They had all different sizes so that you could get the right fit. The bikes were Trek comfort bikes and they were in good condition. They also gave us water for our bikes free of charge. Each bike has a large zipper pouch on the front where you can store your camera, wallet, sunglasses, etc. They will also let you store larger bags at their kiosk, however, they are not locked up so I wouldn't leave anything valuable. The tour lasts 3 hours but the pace of the tour was easy and it was not strenuous at all. You stop at each monument and the guide tells you some of the history about it. I found it very informative and learned a lot of new things. Then you get about 10 minutes or so at each monument to walk around and take photos. About mid-way through the tour, the guide had a Cliff bar snack for us. Our guide was Amy and she was a great guide and very knowledgeable about all of the different sites. This is what we saw today:
1. The Washington Monument
2. The White House
3. The World War II Memorial
4. Constituion Gardens
5. The Albert Einstein Memorial
6. The Vietnam Memorial
7. The Lincoln Memorial
8. The Korean War Memorial
9. The Roosevelt Memorial
10. The Jefferson Memorial
I highly recommend this tour as a great way to see the sites.
i think the american history museum is one of the best and most fun (i am a pop culture/history nerd)
if they like art, i love the phillips collection, hirshhorn, and national galleries. the national gallery has a nice cafeteria. i like the eastern market area a lot and it's an easy train ride from the mall.
old town trolley tours are always good, haven't done a duck tour. i think that would be a great way to see a lot in less time.
Sometimes when we are on the mall we eat at Hard Rock Cafe
We like the American Art museum in Penn Quarter, near the Spy museum and all those yummy restaurants ! Is there a foodie tour of DC ? I'd totally do that
What about doing a cruise of the Potomac, Arlington cemetery, and Mount Vernon
Fords theater? Kennedy Center?
we did the Duck Tour when my FIL was in town and it was fun. The only bad part was no advanced ticket sales so we went to Union Station early to get tickets. Otherwise, it was fun! They even let my hubz drive the boat.
Other favorite things- the National Arboretum, the Library of Congress, Mount Vernon (there is also a boat cruise out of their dock) and the west side of the National Gallery of Art.
That Julia's location closed a few years ago. What about checking out the food truck scene near wherever you'll be? That's the newest big thing in lunch.
I do the Duck tour in every town I go to that has it. I love it! Also, there is a great boat tour to Mt Vernon that goes down the Potomac and you see Mt Vernon from the water (the way it was meant to be) and the price includes tour of Mt Vernon.
What about going to Wineries out in Leesburg?
There is a Groupon today to the National Museum of Crime and Punishment. Choose from the following options:
For $10, you get one adult museum admission (a $21.15 value, including tax). This option expires on November 20, 2011.
For $21, you get one ticket for an after-hours tour of the museum (a $42 value) on September 23. Choose from the following times:
Here is the link: http://www.groupon.com/r/uu747326
this is a shameless plug, but our app might be a fun thing to have for the day if they have an iphone or a droid.
http://www.ithappenedhere.com/ihh/index.php
it finds your location using GPS and then tells you interesting things (historical events, movie scenes filmed, famous crimes, etc) that have happened nearby.
Thanks for all of the great recs, ladies! We ended up doing the DC Ducks tour, which was a lot of fun (FYI, if you live within 50 miles of DC, you can sign up online for their hometown pass, which means that your ticket is free when you purchase another adult ticket); the National Archives (which I'd actually never visited before); the Natural History Museum (which I have been to more times than I'd like, but they really wanted to see it); and then walked the mall from the Monument down to Lincoln. I would have liked to have gone to the American History Museum and the MLK monument, but we were worn out. I'm bookmarking this for future use though, thanks for all of the good ideas!
(bh, I currently have a Blackberry but will be downloading your app once I get the new iPhone this fall!)
Baby248 - ETA 1/10/13