To actually see up-close places like The White House, The Capitol Building, The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, and the Lincoln Memorial is really inspiring. Favorite thing for me was to drive around and visit these places at night as they’re all lit up and really look spectacular – especially the Jefferson Memorial, which has to be my favorite. One place I visited that I’d never even heard of before was Hanes Point. If you take a left at the Lincoln Memorial and follow signs to the golf course to the very end, you wind up at an incredible sculpture entitled “The Awakening” - a Giant that looks as if he is trying to pull himself from the earth. All you see is his huge screaming head, a hand, a foot and a knee. Very cool. And sort of scary at the same time. I hit as many of the Smithsonian Museums as humanly possible – there are a lot of them and they aren’t small! Of course, like the rest of the world, the Air and Space Museum is particularly cool. I have to admit I wish the Washington Zoo was larger, but I still had a great time. If you go, make sure you take a ride on the Metro. The escalators are LONG and the subways are really quiet. Coming from New York, I liked that a lot. And if you want to get a Capitol Building gallery pass and didn’t plan ahead, walk into the office of any representative from the state you live and they’ll give you a gallery pass 9if they are available). Another tip: take one of the Trolley Tours the first day you’re in town. They go all over, right by the monuments, through Georgetown and other neighborhoods. I thought it was a really easy and relaxing way to acclimate myself to the city.

Erik Hastings