Many years ago, my aunt was working in the State department when a letter was received from a European who was planning a trip to the USA. She was seeking guidance and wanted to know it it would be better to see the Grand Canyon in the morning and the Smithsonian in the afternoon or the other way around. She clearly indicated that she meant on the same day.
It depends on whether you are willing to fight the afternoon traffic on the tollroads.
Idiots...every good American knows that are teleporter facilities that run 24/7 at both locations...I’d go with Grand Canyon in the morning, Smithsonian later in the day. Tourists? Beaming up and over at your convenience.
Depending on the map, the Grand Canyon and Washington DC are anywhere from 6-18 inches apart. So, it IS possible to do both in one day!
While in Ireland, a guy asked me where I was from. I’ll never forget his response, “America? It’s so big you could fit three Irelands in there.” Made me giggle. People not from the US have absolutely no concept of how big it is.
People from Europe especially UK don’t have ANY idea just how big the US is.
Many Europeans have no concept of time / distance in the US. When I mentioned that I can leave my home, drive at highway speeds 8 hours due east and have only crossed one state / provincial border, they are absolutely floored.
What really blows their mind is when I tell them that there a places here in Colorado in the National wilderness areas where one can travel to and be at least an hours drive away from another human being.
LOL!
I'm not sure that's even possible if you were OK with spending ten minutes on each attraction. I started to work out how long it would take and then remembered the time difference and...well, forget it. If you were going Smithsonian--> Grand Canyon and had unlimited money to spend (realistically, no SR-71s) you could possibly manage a short visit to both in one day. Not enough time to actually SEE anything really, but you could say that you'd done it. :-)