Our DC Ideas
National Gallery of Art
Have a snack in the cafeteria at a table close to the waterfall; watch the toddlers touch the cool glass, and try it yourself. Find the Rembrandt featuring the gentleman in the fine turban. Smell the flowers in the rotunda. Look for the Renoir that looks like Courtney as a little girl. Pose with the Picasso Saltimbanques and match their poses with your family.
Lincoln Memorial
After admiring Abraham, turn around to watch people taking pictures of the reflecting pool, er, reflecting, the Washington Monument. If you walk around to the back, you can sit and watch the Potomac River, sometimes in solitude.
Walking at the National Arboretum
The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, the views of the Anacostia, and the Gotelli conifer collection are particularly nice. (Either drive or Uber to R St. entrance and prepare for lots of walking.)
More Walking!
Circumabulate the Tidal Basin. Stop at the FDR Memorial and line up with the forgotten men. Raj and Courtney visited Franklin and Eleanor’s houses in New York. Comfortable!
Vietnamese Food
This was Raj and Courtney’s first date. The place isn’t there anymore, and the other place Courtney liked closed . . . tell us what you find. Or try Ethiopian. Raj often orders this when Courtney gets home from a work trip.
Kennedy Center
Free shows every day in the lobby, and great river views on the terrace – of Roosevelt Island, among other things. (Take the elevator up for, well, higher views.)
Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art
The Zhou bronzes have so many amazing animal faces! Courtney took Raj there very early in their courtship.
National Botanic Garden
So oxygenated inside! Outside, sometimes there are rabbits.
National Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery
Enjoy a coffee break in the Kogod Courtyard by the splashy fountain. In the galleries, behold a life’s work in aluminum foil.