A family weekend in Washington
The Du Pont Hotel is in a great location – right on Du Pont Circle with a metro just across the circle (we would describe it as a roundabout!). We checked into a family suite – a corner suite with a huge twin room and good size double room both with en-suite shower rooms and sharing a small entrance hall. This meant we could lock the outer door and leave the bedrooms open at night for easy access.
Although we had a family suite, the hotel is more suited to couples or business travellers. There are no leisure facilities for example. However, the staff are very accommodating and we all thoroughly enjoyed the breakfasts each morning. There was a wide choice of freshly prepared a la carte options including pancake stacks, omelettes, oatmeal and waffles or a wonderful ‘grazing table’ with fresh fruits, pastries, cheeses, meats and bagels.
On Saturday we took the metro to the historic Union Station, which with over 100 places to eat, drink and shop remains a tourist destination in itself, to join the Old Town Trolley Bus Tour of the city. An attraction in itself and with very informative and amusing drivers we hopped on and off the Trolley Bus at various famous sites around the City. Passing the magnificent Capitol building and the Library of Congress (the largest library in the world housing over 142 million items!) we passed the Jefferson Memorial before deciding to disembark at the Lincoln Memorial. From there we walked to the Washington Monument via the Korean, World War II and Vietnam Memorials before joining the crowds outside the White House. We boarded the bus for an hour long tour around the lesser known areas of the city, down Embassy Row and on through the charming and vibrant Georgetown. It was a fantastic introduction to the City, particularly for the children who were suffering from both humidity and jet lag and preferred the seated approach!
The area around Du Pont circle provided us with a large choice of restaurants – Italian at ‘La Tomate’ on Friday night, ‘Kramerbooks and Afterwards Café’ on Saturday evening and ‘The Front Page’ on Sunday all providing good quality food and excellent service.
On Sunday, we spent the day visiting just 2 of the 19 museums of the amazing Smithsonian Institute - the National Air & Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History. Both these amazing buildings provided such over-whelming displays and exhibitions that we were only able to scratch the surface – sadly we only had time to pass through both the Portrait Gallery (a truly breathtaking building in itself) and the National Archives (home to the Declaration of Independence) too so we have vowed to go back again to explore them all in more detail!
That evening however, we did go back to see ‘Night at the Museum 2’ at the IMAX in the Air & Space Museum where the film was shot – a highlight for the children and for us as we were all able to identify many of the famous locations!
So, we survived our first weekend in the United States and thoroughly enjoyed visiting this truly fascinating City with its many famous monuments and sights – we look forward to returning there one day!