Excellent advice! I'm assuming the hotel concierge will also be able to tell us about DC's mass transit systems and how to get around on them?
If you are driving, make sure you pay attention to local commuter websites, and absolutely note down where traffic cameras are placed. You might actually have the best luck going to Arlington in the morning of the 4th, and should expect little access to the Mall area, but of course the Lincoln Memorial and Vietnam Memorial are open at most times.
Yep, we're driving in, good advice on the commuter websites (will google those to find them.)
I think you also mentioned that the Mall is pretty much shut down on the 3rd, does anyone reading this thread know if that's still the case? If so, that puts a big dent in our tourism plans...
The buildings around the mall are open, and major cross streets are open, but I do not know if the lawns themselves are open for pedestrian access from the 3rd - 4th outside of scheduled events. It just takes a little bit of planning or walking to handle it, and the hotel should be able to tell you the local conditions.
Here’s a useful website which you of course pay for:
http://www.nps.gov/foju/directions.htm
And it appears we’re back to the ever popular security checkpoints.
You only have a couple of days. You’re staying at a really well situated hotel. Don’t even THINK about taking the car out unless you try to squeeze in a trip to Mt Vernon (say on your last day on your way outta town). You might even consider parking in an outer DC ‘burb and taking Metro in. The hotel is 1.5 blocks from a Metro stop.
From your hotel you can walk to the Mall that contains pretty much anything you’d want to see in one short trip. You can even walk across Memorial Bridge to Arlington Cemetery. (that’s not a bad vantage point to watch the fireworks, tho you then wouldn’t see the concert at the Capitol). I’m assuming you all are pretty serious walkers. The last thing you’d want to do is drive, and catching a cab would be virtually impossible.
If it were me, I’d take a section of the Mall area each day. Maybe start at the West end of the Mall (more properly, West Potomac Park) and work your way East to the Capitol over the four days.
Go to Arlington, cross back to the District, take in the Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean and WWII Memorials. If you can, arrange a State Dept tour. It’s on the other side of Constitution Ave from the Lincoln. Sit on Albert Einstein’s lap at the statue on Constitution Ave @ the Natl Academy of Sciences (ON Constitution between Lincoln and State). That’s plenty for one day.
Then take the next section which by 7/3 would include the Folklife Festival; The Washington Monument is closed, but the Museum of Am History and Natural History are along in there. Depending on the progress you make you could continue to the National Archives, National Gallery of Art, and X the Mall the Air and Space Museum and American Indian Museum.
It’s an awful lot to see in a really short period of time. Think of it as a tasting, and plan a longer stay in the future.