The DC Traveler

No question about it…my sense of direction stinks.
Growing up in Chicago, with its tall landmark buildings and logical grid block system, I found it easy to navigate the city. Since I moved away, I think I left my sense of direction somewhere near Wrigley Field. It got so bad, that I bought myself a GPS device.
Since it’s not convenient to carry my bulky GPS around with me once I leave the car, Metro or while riding my bike, I still carry a map of Washington, DC when out exploring.
And just in time for Washington’s summer tourists season, let me tell …read more

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Managed by the National Park Service, The Old Post Office Clock Tower offers one of the best views of Washington, DC and the National Mall area.
The building houses mostly commercial and governmental offices, along with a large atrium with shops, an entertainment stage, and a food court.
But the highlight of the building is just an elevator ride to the 270 foot-high observation deck. Being the third tallest building in Washington, DC, it offers fantastic panoramas of the National Mall.
Opened in 1899, the Post Office Building was located between the Capitol Building and the White House, an area which …read more

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Today is the 40th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, who was shot dead in Memphis by James Earl Ray.
Within hours of his murder, Washington, DC was poised for one of the most explosive urban riots in American history.

The Washington, DC headquarters of Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Council was located near the intersection of 14th and U Street.  Large crowds of young people were typical in the neighborhood, especially as people headed home from work, as the area was a center of the African-American community in Washington, DC.
Just two …read more

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When visiting Washington, DC, it’s typical to have your photo taken in front of some of DC’s most iconic locations, such as the Jefferson Memorial, and on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. But here’s a few locations that offer a slightly different, yet memorable perspective of Washington, DC, (in no particular order).
1. Get in the front of the depression-era Bread Line at the FDR Memorial for a great photo op.
 
2. Pose for a Springtime photo overlooking the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument from the tulip beds next to the Iwo Jima Memorial. The location is actually in front …read more

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His place in history as one of our greatest presidents is memorialized with the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC.  And next year marks the 200th anniversary of his birth, and the memorial to his life will be rededicated in a major ceremony.
But one of the most notable moments in Lincoln’s life, and in American history, occurred in 1863 in a field in southern Pennsylvania, just 90 miles north of Washington, DC. 
The sixteenth U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, gave a short speech, dedicating a battlefield where four months earlier saw the deadliest fighting of the Civil War.  …read more

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It’s Monument Monday, so I guess I’ll write about a different kind of monument today, a monumental band that changed rock and roll music – The Beatles.

Just two days after their U.S. debute on the The Ed Sullivan Show, The Beatles performed their first U.S. concert here in DC on February 11, 1964.
The show was held at the 7,000 seat Washington Coliseum near Union Station, where the sound was said to be horrible, not to mention the music being drownded out by the constant screaming of fans.
Covering 12 songs in about 30 minutes, the concert was set up as …read more

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Super Tuesday is not so super, at least not in the DC area. 
While over half of the national presidential convention delegates from 22 states are up for grabs today, local area voters get to watch the excitement, drama and bedlam from the sidelines. 
Here in the DC metro area (DC, Virginia and Maryland), voters get to wait one week, until Tuesday, Feb. 12th to vote in our local presidential primaries. 
Can you imaging if each of the 22 Super Tuesday state’s primaries were held on a separate day?  That would mean 22 more “critical make or break battleground states” …read more

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As part of the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday on January 21st, the film, “American Civil Rights Years, Eyes on the Prize, volumes 1 and 2” will be shown during the Civil Rights Film Festival at the Frederick Douglass National Historical Site in Anacostia.

Films will be shown between the hours of 11:30 a.m. and 2: 00 p.m. Sunday, January 6 through Tuesday, January 15. 
Additionally, on Sunday, Jan. 13th at 2:30 p.m., a Park Ranger will lead a discussion entitled “Frederick Douglass: The Father of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Frederick Douglas was born in to slavery in 1818 …read more

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The neighborhood of Crystal City in southeast Arlington VA, is within walking distance of Reagan Washington National Airport, the Pentagon, Pentagon City Mall and the National Air Force Memorial.
This sparkling chrome and glass high-rise community was built on acreage comprising of mostly former industrial properties and railroad rights-of-ways. It now houses some of DC’s more desirable commercial properties, hotels, high-rise apartments and retail space.  
The first building to be erected in the early 1960s, the Crystal House at 1900 South Eads Street, set the standard for naming buildings in the area, using the word “crystal” in its name, and eventually the area became known as Crystal City.
The …read more

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Now that the holiday shopping season is officially underway, finding a great gift for someone can be challenging. But how about giving a Washington, DC travel guide?
To make it easy to find a great one, I just completed reviewing three leading Washington, DC travel guides including: 

Fodor’s Washington, DC 2008, 382 pages, $17.95
Pauleen Frommer’s Washington, DC, 310 pages, $16.95
Lonely Planet Washington, DC, 288 pages , $17.99 

To give you an idea of how I reviewed these guides, I compared the guides over a month, using them in side-by-side comparisons of attractions, destinations, hotels, restaurant and more to determine the “best”.  I judged them in the followings …read more

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