All galleries and museums on The National Mall are free.
They are also open every day of the year but one. (I think they close on Christmas.)
This display of art, artistry, architecture, artifact and memorabilia is the most riotous cultural cornucopia in America.
And it's all free!
Also, for strategizing your "visitation schedule," keep in mind that whereas most galleries and museums close at 5 or 5:30, "The National Portrait Gallery" (a few blocks north of the mall) is open til 7 p.m. http://npg.si.edu/
This display of art, artistry, architecture, artifact and memorabilia is the most riotous cultural cornucopia in America.
And it's all free!
Also, for strategizing your "visitation schedule," keep in mind that whereas most galleries and museums close at 5 or 5:30, "The National Portrait Gallery" (a few blocks north of the mall) is open til 7 p.m. http://npg.si.edu/
"The Portrait Gallery" is inexplainably splendid.
In fact, Danny and I both thought "The Portrait Gallery" was a highlight by any measure!
In "The President's Gallery" (inside "The National Portrait Gallery"), Bill Clinton's official portrait
makes him look -- eyepoppingly -- like a clown!?!
And LBJ hated his portrait, calling it "the ugliest thing I've ever seen." It was painted by a fellow named Hurd and after it was unveiled, Johnson said: "Artists should be seen in The White House, but never Hurd."
D.C.'s "Chinatown" starts just north (and a little east) of "The National Portrait Gallery."
This is the same "neck of the woods" where The Ford Theatre is located. And the house directly across the street in which Lincoln died in the wee hours of the next morning is totally worth a "walk by" just to "get a sense" of these historic places and to imagine Lincoln's bleeding body being carried across the street exactly where you yourself will walk across the street.
Also, the "Surratt Boarding House" where the plot to assassinate Lincoln was hatched is just a few blocks away. The ground floor of the Surratt House -- located in Chinatown -- contains a mediocre Chinese Restaurant although I've visited it twice and am moved by the thought that I'm "under the same roof" where Booth first resolved to kill Lincoln. Although I think the food is mediocre, I should add that Danny -- who really knows how to cook -- said his "Spicey Salt And Pepper Shrimp" dish was the best Chinese food he ever tasted. https://www.yelp.com/biz/wok-and-roll-washington-8 (An interesting side note... Mary Surratt was born and raised in Maryland. She was a Catholic educated by nuns in Catholic schools. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/11/mary-surratt-conspirator.html)
If you like "Subway Restaurant" food -- "Subway" is Danny's go-to eatery -- there is a branch just a few hundred yards north-west of the Capitol Building. Address: 501 D St NW, Washington, DC 20001.
I will take this opportunity to say that, for me and Danny, the north side of The Mall is more interesting than the south side -- with the exception of the American Indian Museum where the special exhibit titled "The Great Inka Road: Engineering An Empire" is brilliant! It will be on display until 2020.
1.) The American Indian Museum's main webpage: http://www.nmai.si.edu/
2.) The Great Inka Road exhibit: http://www.nmai.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/item/?id=945
"The National Museum Of The American Indian" is a great place to start exploring, especially if you enter DC from the south side as Danny and I did. (As an aside, I will mention that "The American Indian Museum's" in-house eatery -- complete with "fry bread" -- is a fine and reasonably priced place to eat, as is the restaurant in "The Natural History Museum.")
The Natural History Museum (on the north side of the mall" which Danny and I visited after The American Indian Museum is also superb, and overwhelming. I encourage you to read about their vast collection in advance so you can target those exhibits you most want to see. https://naturalhistory.si.edu/
The two separate buildings that comprise the National Gallery Of Art are located a short distance east of The Natural History Museum and house superb collections. If my mind's eye is oriented correctly, I think the westermost of the two buildings has the better collection - in part because it's bigger but also because it exhibits art from a much wider band of time. In this huge, breath-takingly beautiful collection, you will see an endless parade of immediately recognizable paintings by all the world's great artists from Van Gogh through Monet, Manet and Degas.
Although you might have done enough for one day with the itinerary outlined above, Danny and I started Day 2 by walking west from The Natural History Museum to view the White House, the Vietnam memorial and then, looping south and finally back to the east on the south side of The Mall, The Lincoln Monument, The Jefferson Monument, The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Monument, The Martin Luther King Monument which, while good, disappointed me largely because the massive, central statue of King seemed too "cold" and "imperious."
Of all these monuments, FDR's impressed me most - perhaps because Dad and Mom esteemed Roosevelt as the nation's savior.
Of all these monuments, FDR's impressed me most - perhaps because Dad and Mom esteemed Roosevelt as the nation's savior.
Walking through the Korean War Monument is also moving.
I should mention that all of these monuments are situated one after another in linear sequence.
And finally, I will note that The National Museum Of African-American History And Culture had not yet opened when Danny and I visited D.C. in June, 2016.
However, The National African-American Museum is open now and by all accounts is well worth a couple hours of exploration. https://www.si.edu/museums/african-american-history-and-culture-museum
If you have time, I cannot urge you strongly enough to visit Jefferson's Monticello just a couple hours from D.C. where you will realize as John Kennedy remarked at a dinner honoring Nobel Prize Winners of the Western Hemisphere: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." April 29, 1962 If you have the good fortune to visit Monticello, set aside at least 3 hours. http://home.monticello.org/
Danny and I staid with friends in Burke, Virginia and took the Metro in-and-out of town.
Similarly, it is convenient -- and economical -- to stay at a hotel outside D.C. but near a Metro station
which, if you stay on the south side of D.C., takes you to L'Enfant Plaza just "a hundred yards" from the south side of The National Mall.
which, if you stay on the south side of D.C., takes you to L'Enfant Plaza just "a hundred yards" from the south side of The National Mall.
Here are some websites about D.C. parking.
3.) https://hotelsneardcmetro.com/washington-dc-hotels-near-the-metro-with-free-parking/
And here are some links for good-value hotels in-and-around D.C.
1.) https://www.tripadvisor.com/HotelsList-Washington_DC-Cheap-Hotels-zfp10285.html (TripAdvisor.com, Yelp.com and WikiTravel.com are my three most valued travel sites.)
Pax tecum
Alan
Alan
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