Tunehead54 (& Family) Goes To Washington (Trip Tips Vanity!)

Hi gang! Since its Friday maybe this won't get pulled before I get a couple of tips. We're 50 and taking our two gals (17 & 14) and our guy (10).

If there are any great places to eat or relatively unknown cool places to visit you know of we'd appreciate a quick post.

BTW, since I read Michener's "Chesapeake" years ago I've regularly tried crab cakes but they never have lived up to his description. Softshell crabs however, have! Yumm.

Any DC FReepers - please ping the rest of the local gang and if you could schedule a FReep on Wednesday between 4:30 and 5:00pm that'd be great! ;-)

We'll be at the Hotel Washington - hope its not a mistake - when we were there in 1983 my mom's room lacked hot water. Hope they've fixed that.

Anyway any tips will be appreciated - I should be online when we're there - worse case I'm certain I can find a few hotspots.

We hope to work in the usual spots and have tried to map places geographically - the list below is in no particular order.

Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Go there to walk down the brick sidewalks, admire the eighteenth-century architecture, have lunch at a seafood restaurant, take a boat tour of the Potomac, and then drive down the beautiful, scenic George Washington Parkway to Mount Vernon. After you return, have a candle-lit dinner at Gadsby's Tavern, where Washington ate. Much of the town is remarkably unchanged, though there is less horse manure there than there was 200 years ago. King Street is full of delightful shops. Historic Christ Church on Washington Street is where Washington owned a pew and where Bobby Lee was baptized and received his orders from the new Confederate government for the first time. His boyhood home (now in private hands) and the Lee-Fendall House are there; the latter is available for tours,too. An amazing city.

You may also enjoy a drive a few minutes north of Alexandria, on the GW Parkway. This is a gorgeous drive (though I would really recommend doing it in mid April rather than now) and there are two overlooks where you can stop the car and contemplate the river gorge of the Potomac and the lights of the city. Really splendid.

If you come back, you must also go upriver to Potomac, Maryland, where you can hike along the historic Chesapeake & Ohio Canal towpath. It will lead you on a route parallel to the river, and you can walk on on a wooden bridge that goes over some dramatic river gorges and then out to an aweing view of the Great Falls of the Potomac. In the summer you can also take a mule-drawn ride on one of the canal barges, which are steered by costumed docents. Continue your walk on the towpath about two miles southward on the towpath and you'll come to the Old Angler's Inn, which is where people in DC traditionally go to propose marriage. It's a fine restaurant with a fireplace in the cold weather months, outdoor eating in the warm weather months, and excellent food and wine at any time. NOT CHEAP, and not for kids. But the towpath hike/bike ride is great for getting the kids worn out. There are also lots of hiking paths in the highlands above the river, with maps furnished by helpful park rangers.

And then of course there are the Gettysburg, Manassas, Harper's Ferry, and Antietam National Battlefield Parks; the beautiful gardens of Dumbarton Oaks above Georgetown, a drive through Rock Creek Park, Annapolis, the Shenandoah Valley. . .

You will be horrified at the traffic. Do not drive anywhere except to Alexandria/Mount Vernon or out into the country, and certainly do not do that in rush hour. Use the Metro otherwise. It's clean, fast, and safe (though denizens of DC like to complain about it).

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