The DC Traveler

Originally on the site of a Methodist Episcopal church, the Greater New Hope Baptist Church at 8th and I Streets NW, just outside of Washington, DC’s Chinatown is an architectural landmark church, dating back to 1898.

The building’s style with its twin tall towers is considered similar to Berlin’s famous New Synagogue, build in 1866.
Originally on the site of a Methodist Episcopal church, the building was initially the home of Washington, DC’s oldest Jewish congregation, until 1954, when New Hope Baptist moved in.
The lower floors hold a large meeting room and cafeteria, while the top two floors house the church and …read more

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Join the famous Blue Angels along with stunt and acrobatic fliers, skywriters, barnstormers, dog-fighting jets and more as they perform at the annual Oceana Air Show, in Virginia Beach, VA.

The base is  just 3 hours from Washington, DC and the East Coast’s only Master Jet Base, the largest type of tactical fighter air base. It  manages a sophisticated array of attack and support aircraft of over 250 aircraft, including both F/A-18 Hornet and Navy F-14 Tomcat squadrons.
 
From vintage aviation to the latest in military firepower, the show includes demonstrations from the hottest fighters in the U.S. arsenal including the …read more

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One of the best and, best attended, neighborhood street festivals in Washington, DC is the annual Adams Morgan Day Festival. 
As the longest running street festival in DC (30 years), it brings a full day of live music and exciting dance performances, artisans selling their original and hand-crafted goods, interactive performance workshops, and food from around the world.
With two main stages feature live music from a wide range of genres from Rock, Latin, jazz to Americana, bluegrass and funk, and more. Plus dance performances from Bolivia to Africa , Cuba to Spain.
Located on a tree-lined street, Arts on Belmont …read more

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Since It’s Monday, and I typically write a Monument Monday, but here’s one that’s monument to the performing arts – The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Next weekend, enjoy over 30 FREE music, dance and artistic performances at Washington, DC’s premiere center for the arts, The Kennedy Center and their annual Open House.
The range of entertainment of as varied as the number of performers.
Here’s just a sampling of the many free performances:

The Kennedy Center’s own Suzanne Farrell Ballet. Suzanne Ferrell  who was one of one of George Balanchine’s most celebrated ballerinas.
Washington’s own, National Symphony …read more

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Cross under the Lion Arch and listen for the Vietnamese pop music coming out of the shops, as you enter what’s called by many locals, “the heart and soul of DC’s Vietnamese-American community”.
The Eden Center is DC’s Vietnamese-centric shopping mall and community gathering place.  Located in suburban Falls Church, Virginia, about 20 minutes from downtown Washington, DC, it seems to caters almost exclusively to the Vietnamese community.
Close to 30 Vietnamese restaurants and phở soup shops, along with another 17 bakeries, delis and cafes, with not a Burger Kings or Subway in site, draw many people to come Eden Center for …read more

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The Bull Run Shooting Center in suburban Centreville, VA lets shotgun shooters looking to simulate the hunting experience and practice shooting targets without actually killing anything.
Skeet shooting and its related cousins, trap and sporting clays, is a competitive sport where participants try to break clay disks (pigeons). The neon colored “birds”  are flung into the air, at high speed, from a variety of positions on the shooting range. The shooter must quickly react, site and shoot at the pigeon with a shotgun.  The targets fly at different speeds, angles and trajectories, making it a challenging skill to learn.
The pigeons …read more

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Travel back in time to the period of King Henry VIII and watch non-stop entertainment on 8 stages, ranging from performances for children to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as well as swashbuckling pirate shows and William Tell…well…telling stories. 
All the the annual Maryland Renaissance Festival just out side of Annapolis, Maryland.  

Enjoy over 35 groups of musicians and dancers, or cheer for your favorite mounted knight during the exciting jousting match.  But don’t miss some of the faire’s classic Renaissance food – like the hot apple dumplings, steak-on-a-stake or a classic smoked turkey leg, fit for a king.
…read more

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Learn about you cat or the many breeds at the annual National Capital Cat Show in suburban Chantilly, Virginia.
Again this years, over 500 cats compete at the Cat Fanciers’ Association Debutante’s Ball in various competitions.
And remember, dogs have owners…cats simply have staffs.
There’s several categories of contacts including a cat agility competition. There’s also no cat swimming contest, but I suspect if so, this scuba diving Calico named Hawkeye, would have taken that prize.

National Capital Cat Show
Dulles Expo Center
4368 Chantilly Center
Chantilly, VA  (map it)
Dates and Times – Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 6 & 7, 2008.  Doors open at 9:30 a.m. , and …read more

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There are over 40 Washington, DC radio stations within listening distance to downtown.  Most DC-based radio transmitter towers are shorter than in most cities, since most are located on shorter buildings or in the suburbs. This causes reception to be poor. It is partially because Washington, DC allows no buildings to be built that are taller than the tip of the statute on the Capitol Building (228 feet), other than the Washington Monument (555 feet).
The tallest radio/TV tower (also the tallest structure) in the District is located at 6001 Georgia Ave., at 9th and Peabody Streets, NW. At 761 feet …read more

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A few times a season, the National Symphony Orchestra steps out of its traditional role of playing famous classical music by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, and Wagner, and play scores from classic Hollywood movies.
For two evenings in September, the NSO will perform music from some of the greatest films of all time. 
The first evening, Classical Hollywood, includes selections from movies that use classical music as parts of their score, including Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, The Godfather, and Raging Bull.
The second evening, entitled The Golden Age of Film Music, features musical scores written …read more

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