This photo was taken from the roof of the historic Warner Theatre on Pennsylvania Avenue where the chairman of the National Urban League hosted a private reception. Beautiful view.
Wow! I love our nation’s capital!
Alan and I spent last week in Washington, D.C., with our friends Phyllis and Jim Nichols and Peyton Hairston. The purpose of the trip was to attend a National Urban League convention (which I’ll write about in the next blog post), but during the course of a week in such a great city, you know we had to play hooky from the convention for a little while!
Make no mistake. Shaking hands with President Barack Obama at the convention was the highlight. But here are some other activities I’d recommend if you are planning a trip there in the near future.
1. Take a tour of the Capitol. Sure, you can get one through a commercial tour service. But if you go with your Congressman, you can have access to parts of the Capitol the public doesn’t get to see. We were just lucky that our Congressman, Jimmy Duncan, was able to get away between votes last week to accompany us on a special tour.
This is the Capitol viewed from Congressman Jimmy Duncan (R-Tenn.)'s office in the Rayburn Office Building.
Congressman Duncan explains that if you rub the shoe of the statue of Will Rogers just outside the entrance to the House of Representatives, it's supposed to bring you good luck!
Phyllis Nichols doesn't waste any time making use of that tip!
Congressman Duncan is very proud of the fact that Tennessee marble is used extensively in the Capitol.
Rebecca Forster, left, staff assistant to Congressman Jimmy Duncan, poses with Peyton Hairston and Phyllis Nichols outside the entrance to the House of Representatives. Rebecca is the daughter of Fred and Carolyn Forster of Maryville.
2. If you are not attending a convention at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, be sure to drop by there anyway just to see the fantastic art it holds.
This striking mobile is made of actual bicycles.
This one is made of bar stools!
A creative use of canoes!
These are real guitars. The artist is Donald Lipski from Chicago.
3. I always wanted to eat and drink at a famous restaurant and bar on Capitol Hill called The Monocle. My friend and mentor, the late Ron McMahan, was legendary for taking reporters and others there when he lived in Washington and served as press secretary to U.S. Sen. Howard Baker, Jr. One story goes that Ron would usually be finishing his last drink of Jack Daniels as he walked to his car. When he got home, he’d take the glass out of his car and leave it in his garage. Eventually he wound up with so many glasses that the bartender at The Monocle begged him to bring them back. The bartender finally had to bribe Ron by offering to give free drinks to Ron and any guests he wanted to bring — as long as he returned all the glasses! Ron, of course, showed up with a huge entourage — but The Monocle got cases of their glasses back!
We found The Monocle to be an interesting spot to have a drink and dinner. The place was full of politicians and lobbyists — and maybe even a reporter or two!
The Monocle is an institution.
The walls of The Monocle are lined with photos of celebrities who have dined there.
The bar of The Monocle. Alan, in blue, and Phyllis share a laugh with the bartender and another patron.
4. Jim and Alan took in a Nationals vs. Braves baseball game and loved the stadium. Alan recommends the fish-dog, a strip of fried fish in a hotdog bun! Jim was happy with his foot-long Philly dog.
Jim at the baseball game. The Nationals won.
5. We highly recommend a great cajun/creole restaurant called Acadiana located near the convention center.
From left, Peyton Hairston, Alan Carmichael, me and Phyllis Nichols at Acadiana.
I thought this Tabasco bottle holder was unusual and elegant. Gotta get one!
6. We found a great place to have an after dinner drink: Oya, a sophisticated little restaurant with a very cool bar and tons of exotic martinis. They also serve sushi, although we didn’t try any because we already had eaten.
One whole wall at Oya is covered with silk roses. A very unusual touch.
7. A very comfortable place we ended up spending some casual time on a number of nights was a sports bar located inside the Renaissance Hotel. It was called Presidents Sports Bar and featured photos of many U.S. Presidents engaged in sporting activities.
This photo of Barack Obama swinging a bat as a child has a prominent spot at Presidents Sports Bar.
President Obama bowling is featured in another photo.
7. You must visit the Newseum, also on Pennsylvania Avenue. Currently on display is a special Elvis exhibit dealing with how the media covered him throughout his career. Lots of articles from the Memphis papers, of course, and great video. In another vein is a moving exhibit about Sept. 11. It includes the twisted remains of the radio tower from atop one of the fallen buildings. Other great things to see: Tim Russert’s desk, front pages from around the world and the nation on the day of your visit, a history of the Civil Rights movement as told through the news media and much, much more. We stayed two hours and could easily have stayed longer.
Alan poses on a deck at the Newseum.
A real news helicopter hangs in the center of the Newseum.
The bathrooms contain tiles of "flubbed headlines" from various newspapers from across the country. The Knoxville News Sentinel is represented by this one from 1989 in the men's room: "Actor sent to jail for not finishing sentence." Hahaha!
Of course, all this barely scratches the surface of things to do in Washington, a town Alan has worked in and I’ve visited several times. I have found Washington to be different on each trip. We tried to go to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, but all the passes had been given out when we arrived on Saturday. We’ll try that next time because we definitely are planning a return visit in the near future. The direct U.S. Airways flight between Knoxville and there makes it so easy.
So please post any suggestions you have for great things to do and places to eat and drink in Washington!
Photo credits: Alan Carmichael took the photo of Jim Nichols at the Nationals game; Jim Nichols took the group photo of the rest of us at Acadiana. And Alan took the one in the men’s room at the Newseum. Thanks, guys!
DC is one of my all-time favorite cities. I love The Dubliner (520 N. Capitol Street. NW–near Union Station). The DuPont Circle area never disappoints for good people watching, plus there are some great restaurants in that part of the city. I love to visit Washington National Cathedral as well.
Loved this post totally….Ended waay too fast.
What a fun trip! I love DC — got to see the Independence Day fireworks on the mall a few years back and did a Christmas tour of the White House the following year. And every American should see the war memorials — really make you appreciate Freedom.
The Holocaust Museum is absolutely haunting. We spent 2 days there.
Thanks, Mary! Michael: great suggestions. Ranee: we definitely will go back to Holocaust Museum.
We lived in Washington (in the District!) for many years and never grew tired of finding new things to see and do. As a matter of fact, we were married there — at St. John’s, a Benjamin Latrobe-designed church across Lafayette Square from the White House. A couple of our favorite things to do are to visit the U.S. Botanic Garden at the foot of Capitol Hill (a hidden gem) and the Library of Congress. As far as art galleries are concerned, the Corcoran, the Renwick and the Phillips Collection are terrific. Peter and I need to go back for a long visit — you’ve inspired me!
Great, great ideas, Ellen! Thanks! Especially want to go to U.S. Botanic Garden. Passed by it, but couldn’t work into schedule.
Great stuff, Cynthia! I, too, love DC and now that our son and DIL live there, we will be regular visitors, I hope. On our last trip we met and talked with Senator Harold Ford outside the Capitol grille. The visit was fun, but the food was really great! Try the Wedge Salad when there, it is the pinnacle that has not been matched anywhere yet …
Cynthia,
You are right, Congressman Duncan does an unbelievably great tour of the Capitol! While you are in DC you need to visit the International Spy Museum–it is a treasure trove of things used by various spy agencies around the world such as the CIA, KGB and Mossad to ply their trade. In addition, you can become a spy and you have an hour to fulfill your mission. You can also do a GPS tour of DC and the surrounding neighborhoods — you get clues, codes, audio intercepts etc. to fulfill your assigned mission. It is so interesting and great fun! It’s also located in the District.
I’d like to add a few items to Ellen’s comments. First, everyone should definitely visit the Holocaust Museum. It’s extremely well presented, and it manages to tell the story movingly, but without resorting to the gory and horrible photos that you might expect. It’s well worth the visit. Second, I recommend the Zoo, on upper Conn. Ave.; great for pandas. A good neighborhood to walk around and hang out is Adams-Morgan, a bit north of Dupont Circle. It’s great for people-watching and has lots of trendy and/or ethnic restaurants. The Air and Space Museum on the Mall has the Spirit of St. Louis and the Wright’s original plane, plus scads of other interesting stuff, including a real DC-3 airliner hung from the ceiling! There’s an IMAX there, with flight-related films. Have fun!
Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington has absolutely the best burgers ever. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rays-Hell-Burger/24980361241
How about an old Knoxville Journal headline from the 80’s…”Cocke head goes beserk”…
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One of these days I’m actually going to catch a Nationals game when I’m in DC.
Love that artwork at the convention center! How unusual!
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