Things to do while in the DC area not crab cake or bar scene related:
My # 1 is Arlington - Arlington exists to be visited. The rows of identical white headstones, the eternal flame, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier—these are memorials designed to ensure we remember. Walking among them isn’t tourism. It’s the act of remembering that gives their sacrifice meaning.
My # 2 is Holocaust Museum - I am particularly interested because my father was the first person to open a Concentration Camp's gate and a POW camp gate. He saw things that haunted him until his death at age 96 during Covid. He once made me promise to never let anyone tell me the Holocaust didn't happen.
If you don't come away from those two events with a different perspective on things then you may not have a soul.
My # 3 is broad includes all the sites. Do as many sites as possible, some of my highlights were: Smithsonian, Veitnam, WWII and War Memorials, White House, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Ford's Theater etc... I missed one that I plan on going back to see if I ever go back and it's the Native American Museum. I regret not walking back down there. It was getting late and I was running out of time and may have only had a few minutes in there but I wish I had gone.
I say every American should make this trip.
