Hope people can keep this bumped - we're still packing!
There's a new Air and Space museum out near Dulles Airport. Haven't been there myself, but from what I hear it is HUGE. They have a Concorde, the trainer shuttle Enterprise and all sorts of airplanes.
I've been to all those places except the WWII monument. Be sure to visit the Vietnam memorial late in the day when you can return to your hotel. It is overwhelmingly emotional.
D.C. is not nearly as clean as it was even 10 years ago. Take kleenex with you into the public restrooms :-)
Day passes for the metro are your friend...
Also please note that I restrained myself from posting this in Breaking News - that ought to be worth a tip or two?
Vidalia -- terrific southern cooking. In Georgetown. Very Expensive. Don't wear jeans and a t-shirt. Make Reservations. Well worth the money.
I suggest you prioritize your list, because I don't think you are going to be able to see all that you have listed in the time allotted. Three or four days alone could be spent in the Smithsonian. Lines for touring the WH can get long also so plan on waiting time.
Advice from a former DC resident: skip the Botanical Gardens and instead head on over to a little-visited but truly amazing memorial to one of our greatest presidents, Teddy Roosevelt! The Teddy Roosevelt memorial is located on Roosevelt Island, in the middle of the Potomac. It's a mostly wooded island, and a bit of a trick to get to even though it is very close, which is why people tend to overlook it. Nice short hiking trail with great views of DC. The monument itself is very impressive, 2nd only to the Lincoln Memorial, in my opinion.
A visit to Old Town Alexandria is a must, for dinner and a stroll. There are several good places for softshells there, but avoid the Chart House, which is awful. Also, DC has great ethnic food. Check out Tony Chang's in Chinatown (the seafood restaurant upstairs), Nam Viet on CT Ave. in Cleveland Park, and Heritage India on Wisconsin in upper Georgetown. Stay away from the touristy restaurants.
see my #10. I sent it to Keith by mistake.
Have great fun. Our trip to Washington was one of the best we ever had. The cherry trees will be in bloom.
Be prepared to walk, walk, walk, walk, walk, walk.
The Mall is very windy. Take a parker you can tie around your waist when you get hot.
You have way too much scheduled....you could spend a month in either the Smithsonian or the Air&Space Museum
You will not be able to tour the White House unless you were already part of a group and pre-screened a couple months ago. Similar situation with tours of Congress though the waiting period is now only a week or so if you have a good member and I don't believe you can tour the FBI building anymore, either. The SCOTUS is in session right now so proceed accordingly. As for the memorials and all the other sites on your list I recommend you take the little red tour buses that look like trolleys - they charge you like $20 per person per day or whatever and they run continuously around the beltway (and across to Arlington) and all the memorials + other sites with stops at every single one along the way - so you simply buy your pass and then get on, get off, get on, get off, over & over again all day (and night, depending on what package you pick). It's an ideal way to see sights when vacationing in DC as you don't have repeatedly park or anything. The new Air & Space museum at Dulles is really a must see IMO and really takes the established museum to new heights (literally and figuratively) - I was fortunate to visit on the second day after it opened (you may recall japanese war protestors were there and dinged the Enola Gay). Basically the legacy museum houses everything from 1960's and before while Dulles houses everything newer to include the space shuttle (on display in one of the hangers). When you're at the legacy Air & Space Smithsonian be sure to go to the Space Station IMAX - one of the best ones I've ever seen. As for eats, my favorite used to be Blackie's House of Beef but - frankly - they're just not as good anymore ... but I still really love the crab / seafood place on the Potomac across from the Kennedy Center (I forget the name of that little tourist trap it's in but it's one of the stops - after Georgetown as I recall) on the tour bus. Many of the other best restaurant chefs are amidst all the lobbyist hang-outs on K Street. For views & ambiance I also recommend the Capitol Hyatt - beautiful views of the Capitol dome from the dining room and particularly good food when I've dined there as well.
You have to go to the Korean Memorial. Its amazing at night. Your kids might like the Spy Museum on 9th St. NW. Retaurants can be expensive. Try www.washingtonian.com for their "Cheap Eats" section.
Oh, and take a photo of the family in front of the BACK of the capitol. It takes a better pic.
Enjoy yourself!
The Holocaust Museum, also I kind of like the Corcoran.
Something we did for my mother when she visited last was get tix for one of the trolley tours. I'm sure the DC locals will scoff, but it helped us make sure she got to see lots of stuff without getting wiped out from the walking. *Well* worth the money, imo. The tix are like a day pass. You can get off the trolley at any stop, stay as long as you like, and then get back on the next one for the rest of the tour.
Except for peeing on the FDR statues, I have very little desire to visit Parasite Town.
Bump. Thanks for putting this up. We are going the week of April 23-30, so I'm piggybacking on this advice.
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.