I’ve been to Washington DC many times – mostly for work. In fact, I went back and forth to DC for the construction of our DC office starting in 2005 and it wasn’t until last summer that I actually left the office and walked the two blocks to check out the white house. How pathetic is that… being two blocks from the white house for 5 years and never seeing it…

OK Back to 5 great places to see in DC:

1. Spy Museum – this is a VERY fun place to see. Take your time. Go when it isn’t crowded. It is definitely no fun when it is crowded. It is more fun when you can read the descriptions and really check out the exhibits – they don’t allow photography so you need to take your own button hole camera 🙂 The gift shop and cafe were fun places to hang out too! If you have the chance to attend a special event at the museum, you will have the private run of the museum, which is awesome. They put on a great event!
2. Library of Congress Tour – plan ahead, book a private tour, if at all possible. The main reading room was fantastic! Usually you can’t get to the main reading room floor without a pass. Thank you to David Baldo and his wife, who is a docent, for arranging the private tour. I was in awe – the exhibits and the building itself were amazing! I loved the Thomas Jefferson library! I loved the Gershwin exhibit too.
3. Open-top Bus Tour – these are a couple of choices – we picked a hop on/hop off bus. It was great – you could sit down, listen, observe. Hop off to check something out in more detail. The top deck was great – bring a hat and sunglasses. And a camera!
4. Monuments – bring walking shoes. Seeing the monuments is a LOT of walking. If you actually want to go in any of the monuments that have tours, you need to get their very early (opening time) to get on the tour list. If you can do a night tour, that is a lot of fun. Kids bedtime may be a factor for the night tour, but the daytime view is great too. We spent a bit of time exploring the Viet Nam Memorial and the WW II memorial/monument.
5. Smithsonian – whichever part of the museum(s) you visit,  you will enjoy it and have fun! We went to several parts of the museum. We loved the special exhibit on Madeline Albright’s pins. We (Bryce and McKinley) loved the sculpture garden. It was at the end of the day and we were exhausted. We should have planned for a couple of more days to see particular parts – air & space, anyone?

There are sooo many things to see in DC – I think this could be many more blog posts. I didn’t even get to our favorite food or many of our favorite museums.

Let me know what your favorite DC place is!