North VA / D.C. Places to Visit

[jed2009]

Hey all,

Heading out to the east coast soon for my internship. I will be staying in far north V.A., in McLean. If any of you have been out that direction and would like to contribute some places to visit and see while i'm there, i'll be there for 3 months so i'll have a good amount of time to do it on the weekends. Anywhere within 50 miles or so of D.C. would be cool! Big fan of pretty much every attraction - museums, zoos, amusement parks, food, technology places, scenery, etc.

Thanks!

List so far :
-Smithsonian Museums in DC
-Monuments
-Air & Space Center at Dulles
-National Zoo in DC
-Marine Corps Museum near Quantico
-Kings Dominion about 20 miles north of Richmond, VA
-Six Flags amusement park in Upper Marlboro Maryland
-Downtown Annapolis/Naval Academy
-Baltimore Inner Harbor - food
-Fells Point - food
-Colonial Williamsburg
-Crystal Ctiy Sports Pub
-DC Zoo
-US Capitol
-Pentagon
-The Truman Building
-Spy Museum in DC
-Union Station to Philly, NYC or Boston
-Fords Theatre
-Arlington Cemetary
-Lincoln Memorial
-Vietnam Memorial
-Walter Reed Medical Oddities Museum
-Civil War Battlefields
-Museum of Natural History

[John0397]

Smithsonian museums in DC, monuments, Air & Space Center at Dulles, National Zoo in DC, Marine Corps Museum near Quantico, Kings Dominion about 20 miles north of Richmond, VA. Six Flags amusement park in Upper Marlboro Maryland.... lots to do up there.

[PaxSR9]

Downtown Annapolis/Naval Academy is a fun place to checkout. Baltimore Inner Harbor has some great food, Fells Point (not far from Inner Harbor and where Homicide was filmed) has great restaurants.

Also, Air & Space at Dulles has a space shuttle in it and the Enola Gay. Very cool museum. If you really don't mind the long drive then Colonial Williamsburg is worth the drive.

[Bearcat357]

Best Sports Bar in town is the Crystal City Sports Pub. 3 levels of fun.....tons of TVs....great food....and just a nice place to hang out at..... They can get any game you want to watch.....from Cricket to European Football to Baseball games.....to Rugby. We use to get bored at night and bet on the ponies from the track feed they could get......

DC Zoo is fun. I have a bro that is a LEO there...

Get with Chiller's dumb *** and get a tour of the US Cap.

Get with the guys that work for PFPA and see if you can get a tour of the Pentagon.....

Get with your fellow folks and make sure you get the tour of The Truman Building (Main State building)....

Air and Space at Dulles is incredible......

Do the Spy Museum in town DC.....

Hit Union Station and take the train to Philly, NYC, or Boston..... While you are at Union Station, do some people watching.....very cool....and they have decent food there......

[FromOhio]

I absolutely loved D.C. Been there twice on school field trips back in 6th grade. If you're a history buff, it'll make it even 100x better. The Smithsonian museums are really cool. You're bound to see something that interests you when you go in one. All the monuments are really cool also. It's worth the extra 50 mile trip. Places I enjoyed were Fords Theatre, The Air and Space museum, Arlington Cemetery (watched the changing of the guards), the Lincoln Memorial. I can go on and on. What took me by surprise was the Vietnam Memorial. It's much larger than I thought it would be. And I thought the names would be much bigger than what they really were. They were very tiny to include the other names and there's just soo many of them.

Edit: Also agree with BearCat on the train station. It's a very cool place also.

[PaxSR9]

Just remembered that Walter Reed has a medical oddities museum. When I worked there I wandered through it one day after lunch. That wasn't one of the better choices I made that day. I walked out kinda queezy. They actually have fetes' with fully grown tails, etc. When I worked there it was free.

[Bearcat357]

Also get a Civil War guide and hit all the battlefields around the area. Gettysburg is only an hour or so away.....

[GPC]

Smithsonian museums in DC, monuments, Air & Space Center at Dulles, National Zoo in DC, Marine Corps Museum near Quantico, Kings Dominion about 20 miles north of Richmond, VA. Six Flags amusement park in Upper Marlboro Maryland.... lots to do up there.

+1 Just add Arlington to the list.

[jed2009]

WOW - Thanks a ton for all of the replies!!! This is a great list of tons of things I never would have thought of hitting... Keep 'em coming, don't be shy to name more if you 'could go on and on'. Thanks all

So far...

-Smithsonian Museums in DC
-Monuments
-Air & Space Center at Dulles
-National Zoo in DC
-Marine Corps Museum near Quantico
-Kings Dominion about 20 miles north of Richmond, VA
-Six Flags amusement park in Upper Marlboro Maryland
-Downtown Annapolis/Naval Academy
-Baltimore Inner Harbor - food
-Fells Point - food
-Colonial Williamsburg
-Crystal Ctiy Sports Pub
-DC Zoo
-US Capitol
-Pentagon
-The Truman Building
-Spy Museum in DC
-Union Station to Philly, NYC or Boston
-Fords Theatre
-Arlington Cemetary
-Lincoln Memorial
-Vietnam Memorial
-Walter Reed Medical Oddities Museum
-Civil War Battlefields

[Bearcat357]

-US Capitol

Give Chiller some beer money (since you are underage) and I am sure he will hook you up. Just PM him...

[EmmaPeel]

Hey all,

Heading out to the east coast soon for my internship. I will be staying in far north V.A., in McLean. If any of you have been out that direction and would like to contribute some places to visit and see while i'm there, i'll be there for 3 months so i'll have a good amount of time to do it on the weekends. Anywhere within 50 miles or so of D.C. would be cool! Big fan of pretty much every attraction - museums, zoos, amusement parks, food, technology places, scenery, etc.

Thanks!

List so far :
-Smithsonian Museums in DC
-Monuments
-Air & Space Center at Dulles
-National Zoo in DC
-Marine Corps Museum near Quantico
-Kings Dominion about 20 miles north of Richmond, VA
-Six Flags amusement park in Upper Marlboro Maryland
-Downtown Annapolis/Naval Academy
-Baltimore Inner Harbor - food
-Fells Point - food
-Colonial Williamsburg
-Crystal Ctiy Sports Pub
-DC Zoo
-US Capitol
-Pentagon
-The Truman Building
-Spy Museum in DC
-Union Station to Philly, NYC or Boston
-Fords Theatre
-Arlington Cemetary
-Lincoln Memorial
-Vietnam Memorial
-Walter Reed Medical Oddities Museum
-Civil War Battlefields

Hey JJ, you'll have fun when you head out here. I actually work in McLean when I'm in country so let me give ya a heads up about the construction going on. This area is also called Tysons Corner and they're in the process of ripping that place apart to build things vertically instead of the sprawling horizontal direction we Virginians tend to do. The interstate and other roads are all ripped up for not only the upward building but to expand our metro into that area as well. I don't know what your commute will be like but all of our commutes have really increased.

Now having said that, there's a ton to do and people have already mentioned some of the places I would've suggested as a priority for you. Definitely get out to Dulles airport where the Air and Space Museum has replicas of space shuttles and the SR-71 (and lots of other a/c). I was never a big zoo person but the DC zoo is awesome. Museum of Natural History is another big fav. When you get here, just pick up a Washingtonian magazine which will list all types of places to eat and drink, along with some pictures to give you a flavor. AOL also has a link that will update you on everything going on each week. Taked the time to go witness some protests --- it's great watching Democracy in action. Ifyour'e here for the fourth, it's a blast being out among all the other crazies (which is what you have to be to live here.)

[jed2009]

Give Chiller some beer money (since you are underage) and I am sure he will hook you up. Just PM him...

Always thinkin'... Good man. I will probably try to get a 'ride along' with him if I can get ahold of him too. Or would they be 'walk alongs'? Either way...

Emma - Thanks for the info. I'll be living with a long time native so he will be happy to help me out also. My commute is only about 5 miles, or less, from where I will be living. I can't wait for the 4th, I am really looking forward to celebrating it in (or close to) our nations capitol.

[FromOhio]

Taked the time to go witness some protests --- it's great watching Democracy in action.

When I was there we were scheduled to go up into the washington monument, but couldn't because of a huge protest taking place there. Screw the hippy protests

[EmmaPeel]

Always thinkin'... Good man. I will probably try to get a 'ride along' with him if I can get ahold of him too. Or would they be 'walk alongs'? Either way...

Emma - Thanks for the info. I'll be living with a long time native so he will be happy to help me out also. My commute is only about 5 miles, or less, from where I will be living. I can't wait for the 4th, I am really looking forward to celebrating it in (or close to) our nations capitol.

A five minute commute????? That's disgusting! That's just wrong, LOL. j/k. Well, if you are down there on the 4th, I'll keep an eye out fo ya....you'll have on that blue face paint, right? LOL I always end up for some reason on the east side of the Washington Monument, kinda in front of the Dept of Agriculture on the Mall. The best view of the fireworks.

[EmmaPeel]

When I was there we were scheduled to go up into the washington monument, but couldn't because of a huge protest taking place there. Screw the hippy protests

These days there's almost always a counter-protest to every hippy protest. Conservatives have caught onto this expression of Democracy