Washington DC (trip this summer)

[ny biker]

There are lots of Smithsonians. What interests you? American History, Natural Science, Air and Space, American Indian, various art museums...?

www.si.edu

Make sure you have comfortable shoes for walking.

There is a hop on/hop off tourist bus that starts at Arlington Cemetary and goes around the mall/monument area. It might go to Union Station, too.

But you'll want comfortable shoes, anyway.

[Possegal]

I did the hop on/off bus with cousins that came to visit me a couple years ago, first time I'd done that with company and it was a great idea. Should have done it earlier. I'd recommend that to get more sites in less time. I always take the visitors to the mall at night to see the wall/Lincoln/Korea at night. Totally a must do as far as I'm concerned.

[tulip]

Rent a bike and ride down the Mount Vernon Trail (but not at rush hour) or just see the monuments by bike.

Explore neighborhoods. Visit the monuments at night.

Enjoy your trip! I enjoyed living in DC for as long as I did. Even though I'm only 100 miles away, I hardly ever get there any more. I miss it.

[ny biker]

http://www.bikethesites.com/

Bike the Sites rentals and tours.

[Koronin]

We're definitely going to visit the Air and Space museum. (I've been to that one a couple of times, but my husband has never been in DC before). Have been debating which other of the Smithsonian museums to go to. I love the National History one. One I want to see is the Post Office one.

The tourist bus sounds like a great idea. Thank you.

Renting bikes to see the monuments might not be a bad idea at all. We can't take our bikes because we're driving my car and do not have a bike rack for it. We have a bike rack for our pick up. The car (Monte Carlo) gets better gas milage.

I indent on wearing my best pair of walking shoes the entire time we're there.

Thank you all for the ideas.

[TsPoet]

air and space museum
spy museum (not part of the Smithsonian, but neat anyway)
Washington nat'l cathedral (I love gargoyles, there is even a Darth Vader one)
i love the bike tour idea.

[Koronin]

spy museum? That sounds pretty neat.

[TsPoet]

spy museum? That sounds pretty neat.

http://www.spymuseum.org/about
(warning, it is rather directed at kids, but I loved it)