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In
God We Trust
The
city of Washington, attracts almost twenty million visitors each year.
Conveniently, most arrive in midsummer, when the lawmakers have gone home,
so overcrowding is rarely a problem. The nation's showcase puts on quite
a display for its guests, and admission to virtually all major attractions
is free. The most famous sites are concentrated along the central Mall
, including the White House, individual memorials to four of the greatest
presidents, and the superb museums of the Smithsonian Institution The
Mall
From
the Lincoln Memorial to the US Capitol by way of the towering Washington
Monument - the capital's Mall is an awesome showcase of American culture
and history.
Phillips
Collection
Canvasses
by the likes of Picasso, Kandinsky, Rothko and O'Keefe are on display in
the Phillips Collection, sited in an ornate nineteenth-century mansion.
The
White House
It's
undeniably cool to see the White House through the black front gates, and
for a historical lowdown, go to the nearby visitor's center for photos,
film footage and tantalizing trivia.
Reeve's
Restaurant and Bakery
Reeve's
is an old-style diner where the matronly waitstaff will "Honey" and "Darlin'"
you to death as they serve up the yummiest strawberry-custard pie in DC.
Vietnam
Veterans Memorial
Atypically
subdued for a war memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a somber sight,
its black 
marble
wall engraved with the name of every soldier killed in Vietnam.
National
Museum of American History
This
eclectic museum - holding everything from reconstructed dinosaurs to antique
gramophones and Dorothy's red shoes - is not to be missed. A kitsch lover's
delight.
The
Tombs
When
strolling around Georgetown, pop into The Tombs, a studenty basement dive
where, it's said, a young Bill Clinton indulged in burgers and beers.
The
Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Want
to make a million dollars fast? For the folks at the Bureau of Engraving
and Printing, doing so every day is par for the course, and you can watch
as sheets of "pretty green" are sliced into individual bills and then dumped
into wheelbarrows.
US
Holocaust Memorial Museum
As
unflinching a look at the Holocaust as you'll find - the Holocaust Museum's
powerful exhibits cover the rise of the Nazi party and include such personal
effects as the shoes, combs and the like taken from victims.
Adams-Morgan
and Georgetown
Stroll
through Adams-Morgan and Georgetown, the best neighborhoods in which to
discover that DC isn't all monuments, memorials and museums.
With five different theater spaces, the Kennedy Center , 2700 F St NW (tel 202/467-4600, ; Foggy Bottom Metro), next to the Watergate complex, hosts most of the capital's highbrow cultural events (including Washington Opera and Washington Ballet Company performances). It also presents nightly film screenings organized by the American Film Institute (tel 202/785-4600). The highly regarded, often pioneering Arena Stage , Sixth Street and Maine Avenue SW (tel 202/488-3300, ; Waterfront Metro), puts on contemporary theater and performance pieces at its three-stage complex, while the historic Ford's Theatre , 511 Tenth St NW (tel 202/426-6924; Metro Center Metro), has a family-friendly program of mainstream musicals and dramas, frequently historical in nature. The celebrated Shakespeare Theatre , 450 Seventh St NW (tel 202/547-1122, ; Archives-Navy Memorial Metro), stages four productions a year, plus a free summer performance in Rock Creek Park. The experimental Woolly Mammoth Theatre , 1401 Church St NW (tel 202/393-3939, ; Dupont Circle Metro), and the Source Theatre Company , 1835 14th St NW (tel 202/462-1073; U St-Cardozo Metro), the anchor of DC's alternative theater scene, are also worth seeking out.
Out of the city, Wolf Trap Farm Park , 1551 Trap Rd, Vienna, VA ( ), is the country's first national park for the performing arts, presenting concerts, opera, ballet and dance at the outdoor Filene Center (tel 703/255-1860) or the indoor Barns (tel 703/938-2404). There's a Metro-shuttle bus service for most performances. For half-price, same-day theater tickets , call 202/TICKETS or visit the TicketPlace booth on the ground floor of the Old Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue NW; otherwise TicketMaster (tel 202/432-7328 or 1-800/551-7328, ) has full-price tickets for all arts, music and sports events.
Tickets to the Washington
Redskins football games at FedEx Field, just inside the Capital Beltway
in Landover, Maryland (tel 301/276-6050, ), are sold on a season ticket
basis only. You'll have better luck catching the DC United soccer team
at RFK Stadium, 2400 E Capitol St SE (tel 703/478-6600; Stadium-Armory
Metro). The huge downtown MCI Center (tel 202/661-5500, ; next to Gallery
Place-Chinatown Metro) hosts home games of the pro basketball Washington
Wizards ( ) and Mystics ( ), as well as the pro hockey Washington Capitals
( ). The prospects for the woebegone Wizards rose when Michael Jordan left
retirement to take the floor for them in 2001. The Caps added further star
power to their line-up that same year by signing Czech superstar Jaromir
Jagr, a prolific goal scorer and perennial all-star, to a seven-year $77
million contract. 
During
the day, open-sided Tourmobiles (tel 202/554-5100, ) connect the major
museums and sites - allowing you to stop for as long as you choose at any
of a dozen different locations. An $18 one-day ticket covers downtown DC
and Arlington Cemetery, while an extra $25 gets you to Mount Vernon and
back; tickets for the three-hour "twilight tour," which departs from Union
Station (daily 6.30pm), also run $18. All can be bought from the main office
on the Ellipse, just south of the White House, at kiosks on the Mall and
in Union Station or on the tram itself.
If
you want to cycle or cruise along the Potomac River or the historic C&O
Canal, both Thompson's Boat Center, 2900 Virginia Ave NW at Rock Creek
Parkway (tel 202/333-4861), near the Watergate complex, and Fletcher's
Boat House, 4940 Canal Rd NW, two miles farther up the canal towpath (tel
202/244-0461), rent touring bikes, rowboats and canoes. You could also
get to know the city on a three-hour cycling trip with Bike the Sites Inc
($40 per person including bike and helmet; tel 202/966-8662); or call Better
Bikes (tel 202/293-2080), which will deliver rental bikes anywhere in DC
($28-38 a day). In addition, mule-drawn canal boats , with costumed National
Park Service guides, follow the old C&O Canal from behind 30th and
M streets in Georgetown on a hour-long narrated cruise (April-Oct; $8;
tel 202/653-5190). The city's best walking tours are led by Anthony S.
Pitch ($10; tel 301/294-9514), who ambles around Adams-Morgan and Georgetown
most Sunday mornings beginning at 11am.
In
general, it's worth calling ahead to major sites for any changes to tour
procedures due to heightened security concerns .
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