OT: Washington DC Trip

[soul survivor]

Need recommendations for WDC, specifically:

1. Outdoor ice skating rinks
2. Indoor ice skating rinks
3. Fun Restaurants with quality food
4. Interactive events (e.g., tour of Congress)
5. Good live music

Thanks,

Soul Survivor :banana:

[Ken Robb]

where will you be staying?

[soul survivor]

Georgetown

[djg]

The Caps practice at an indoor rink attached to the Ballston Mall in Arlington -- plenty of open skating times. If you have a car, it's an easy drive from Georgetown (there's a metro stop on the Orange Line, in Ballston, but not in Georgetown). There's outdoor skating on the National Mall, between the Natural History Museum & the National Gallery. There's also a rink at Pentagon City.

On M Street in Georgetown is great Pizza at Pizzeria Paradiso. Downtown there's Michel Richard's Central -- bistro stuff, and sandwiches. The Bread Line, near the World Bank, has great sandwiches. Rasika is fun and excellent modern Indian food, but it's pricey. For Vietnamese and Chinese places I tend to prefer Northern Virginia (Arlington is also home to Ray's Hell Burger & Ray's the Steaks -- both kinda awesome).

Live music -- depends what you want. There are big clubs and small for various types of rock music (Georgetown doesn't really come to mind) as well as Jazz and Folk -- the Birchmere is sort of a classic for the latter. Classical music is here and there, with the Kennedy Center being an obvious locus. Check the paper to see what's around.

[soul survivor]

Thanks! :hello:

[cody.wms]

there is an outdoor rink at the Pentagon City mall (technically on Pentagon Row, beside the Off-Broadway shoe warehouse).

Check out Ray's Hellburgers, Good Stuff Eatery, or We The Pizza. Ray's is between the Rosslyn and Courthouse metros (just west of G'Town). The other two are at the Capital South Metro (Orange and Blue line).

[veloduffer]

If you want a tour of Congress, contact your congressman to arrange it. Our congressman's staffer gave us a tour and it was really quite impressive.

[Ken Robb]

Leslie and I had 2 trips to DC this year. We are sorta foodies without the attitude. We had a fine classic French dining experience at La Chaumiere in Georgetown. Non of the Nouvelle nonsense here. Classic Julia Child French cooking and good service in a room somewhat like a French farmhouse. I asked before we went if jackets were required because I only wear them to weddings and funerals these days. "No sir, we hope our guests will be comfortable". I wouldn't go in shorts but "Business Casual" worked great. There were some suits on others because it is a NICE place in a cosmopolitan city but noone looked askance at me.

I like wine but really don't know French wines well at all and that's where the list here concentrates. I gave our waiter a price range and what we liked in California wines and he provided a winner.

I was reminded how much fun a classic French dining experience can be and these places have gotten hard to find.

[Ken Robb]

Next hot tip. Ardeo and Bardeo at 3311 Connecticut.

Modern innovative(but not fussy) cuisine. We took a couple of our real foodie friends there one night and they recruited others to go back the next night. Les was available but I had arranged to have drinks w/an old school chum. He was on his way to an embassy party and invited me to go along but I thought my jeans might be in appropriate. Les told me the food was even better the second time. I had a pot pie in the cafe in the Mariott Woodley Park. :crap: Not bad but not nearly as good as Ardeo.

[chuckred]

Need recommendations for WDC,

4. Interactive events (e.g., tour of Congress

Thanks,

Soul Survivor :banana:
Newseum
Holocaust museum (Everybody should contemplate the unthinkable.)
any of the smithsonian museums that strikes your fancy
Viet Nam memorial.
Spy museum
Crime museum

[Louis]

Newseum
Holocaust museum (Everybody should contemplate the unthinkable.)
any of the smithsonian museums that strikes your fancy
Viet Nam memorial.
Spy museum
Crime museum

Where's the Peace Museum?

Given the time of year that may be more appropriate.

[hockeybike]

I've lived here for two years and can recommend the following spots:

If you have access to a car (or zipcar), I'd recommend Two Amys on Wisconsin and Macomb (http://www.yelp.com/biz/2-amys-washington) . Just amazing pizza w/ a great crust--best I've had in DC by far.

Central is always a great spot for a good meal. There's also Mourayo and Komi for greek food. Mourayo is great and cooks the fish in salt--really cool presentation. Komi (haven't been, but I've only ever heard amazing things. If you're in chinatown, Oyamel is supposed to be delicious, too.

Dupont Circle can get a bit touristy, but Russia house is worth checking out for some of their vodka drinks--good wild game sausage too. If you can make it over to U Street, bar pilar is a fun spot with great tapas and but slightly overpriced drinks (par for the course in DC, really).

Also around U street, St X has a GREAT burger and good drinks. Kind of a mess on a friday/saturday night, but you don't go there for dinner at 10 on those nights.

Skating...ballston has tons of ice time (www.kettlercapitalsiceplex.com) and there's a rink at the sculpture garden right now.


Ack, live music-- Check out who's playing at 9:30 club and blackcat. Never expensive there's tons of bars around both for after the show (they're both in the U street area).

[chuckred]

Where's the Peace Museum?

Given the time of year that may be more appropriate.

You're missing the point.

[rugbysecondrow]

Need recommendations for WDC, specifically:

1. Outdoor ice skating rinks
2. Indoor ice skating rinks
3. Fun Restaurants with quality food
4. Interactive events (e.g., tour of Congress)
5. Good live music

Thanks,

Soul Survivor :banana:


Also, here is a link to an ice rink right off the Mall with a map link and another info link. Have fun.

http://www.nga.gov/ginfo/skating.shtm

http://dc.about.com/cs/sports/a/Iceskating.htm

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=14173306935941254467&q=dc+mall+ice+rink&gl=us

[Louis]

You're missing the point.

I hear what you're saying, but unfortunately reduction of conflict is only rarely part of the take-away message from those sorts of places. You can tell just based on the labels used for them.

[djg]

I hear what you're saying, but unfortunately reduction of conflict is only rarely part of the take-away message from those sorts of places. You can tell just based on the labels used for them.

Louis, honestly, these places have a lot to offer and tend to hit folks in very diverse ways. I don't think there's a simple list of take-aways meant for all who visit, or internalized by most (but for no-brainers -- the Holocaust Museum obviously casts the holocaust in a very bad light; but having been both on my own and leading a group of middle-school-aged kids, I'd suggest that the museum hits people in complex and varied ways). I know this is just folks chatting on the Internet and we've all been cavalier about this or that, but do you have any evidence at all for things "you can tell just based on the labels"?

BTW, for interactive and sorta cool, albeit with a fee that's not charged by the Mall museums, there's the Newseum.

[Louis]

but do you have any evidence at all for things "you can tell just based on the labels"?

Sure. Let’s look at the big picture: I won’t mention any names or specifics, lest I go the way of our friend Viper, but the stories told and lessons taught at those places are too often used to justify present-day actions very similar to those described in those museums and memorials, or ignored to the point where we seem to be sinking into the same quagmires.

If they do tell cautionary tales, they either don’t tell them very well, or they fall on deaf ears. Perhaps it’s mostly the latter, in which case I should not hold the institutions responsible.

(Aside: I won’t bother to bring up the various stories of congressional interference with the Smithsonian, where history is apparently for sale to whoever controls the purse-strings.)

[anomaly]

Almaz on U St. Best Ethiopian around, by far. Awaze tibs and the #4 vegetarian platter are more than enough for 2 and you won't be disappointed.

[rugbysecondrow]

Sure. Let’s look at the big picture: I won’t mention any names or specifics, lest I go the way of our friend Viper, but the stories told and lessons taught at those places are too often used to justify present-day actions very similar to those described in those museums and memorials, or ignored to the point where we seem to be sinking into the same quagmires.

If they do tell cautionary tales, they either don’t tell them very well, or they fall on deaf ears. Perhaps it’s mostly the latter, in which case I should not hold the institutions responsible.

(Aside: I won’t bother to bring up the various stories of congressional interference with the Smithsonian, where history is apparently for sale to whoever controls the purse-strings.)
The grown men whom I regularly see crying around these sites might disagree with you Louis.

[Louis]

The grown men whom I regularly see crying around these sites might disagree with you Louis.

They're not the ones who need to learn the lessons. The ones who send them into battle do.

[rugbysecondrow]

They're not the ones who need to learn the lessons. The ones who send them into battle do.
Memorials are not for the politicians, but for the people. I guess I am missing your whole point. You have a perspective that I just don't share I suppose.

[Louis]

I guess I am missing your whole point.

The specific issue was whether or not museums and memorials provide useful messages. I've never been there, but have heard that the Vietnam memorial is a moving experience. However, if the primary folks who are moved are guys who lost their buddies or relatives, and the country continues to dig itself deeper and deeper in the muck elsewhere, then somebody's not listening.

[drewski]

The specific issue was whether or not museums and memorials provide useful messages. I've never been there, but have heard that the Vietnam memorial is a moving experience. However, if the primary folks who are moved are guys who lost their buddies or relatives, and the country continues to dig itself deeper and deeper in the muck elsewhere, then somebody's not listening.

The fact that Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney have not been held account
for the lies of the Iraq conflict is an indictment of our giovt.

The fact that when Powell gave the bs about WMD to the UN
in 2002 while there was a copy of Picasso's Guernica right out in the hallway
is also instructive.

[rugbysecondrow]

The specific issue was whether or not museums and memorials provide useful messages. I've never been there, but have heard that the Vietnam memorial is a moving experience. However, if the primary folks who are moved are guys who lost their buddies or relatives, and the country continues to dig itself deeper and deeper in the muck elsewhere, then somebody's not listening.
I think you need to go there and experience it. There is a reverence, pervasive sense of loss, a tragic reality of the number of lives lost. I think it was a Vietnamse artist who designed it. The Korean war memorial, so real and vivid, is more than touching. The holocaust is very strong, moving, and respectful. These three specifically seem to communicate the enormity of war and some of it's costs, if they can ever be communicated at all. You should go.

[rugbysecondrow]

The fact that Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney have not been held account
for the lies of the Iraq conflict is an indictment of our giovt.

The fact that when Powell gave the bs about WMD to the UN
in 2002 while there was a copy of Picasso's Guernica right out in the hallway
is also instructive.
Not the place or time dawg. Move on.

[Louis]

You should go.

I hope to some day.

[cody.wms]

Back on topic: I'll second the Newseum. It is an incredible place, though it costs money - unlike many of the museums in town.

[djg]

Sure. Let’s look at the big picture: I won’t mention any names or specifics, lest I go the way of our friend Viper, but the stories told and lessons taught at those places are too often used to justify present-day actions very similar to those described in those museums and memorials, or ignored to the point where we seem to be sinking into the same quagmires.

If they do tell cautionary tales, they either don’t tell them very well, or they fall on deaf ears. Perhaps it’s mostly the latter, in which case I should not hold the institutions responsible.

(Aside: I won’t bother to bring up the various stories of congressional interference with the Smithsonian, where history is apparently for sale to whoever controls the purse-strings.)

O.k., let's not look at the big picture. On the one hand, I find this entirely unpersuasive -- basically repetitive of your earlier surmise, with the unwelcome addition of your reference to Viper. I suspect that you could formulate your views with more clarity and support them with better evidence -- more systematic evidence from more rigorous and less offensive sources than I recall from V. If not, then bad on you and bad on our old undergraduate college too. On the other hand, I'm now inclined to think I shouldn't have asked you for evidence in the first place. I really don't want to get into a back and forth over such sweeping conclusions, or duelling citations, not least but not merely because you intimate a rather dark space in which to have our conversation. Somebody asked for suggestions of places to go and things to see in Washington, D.C., where I happen to work. I offered a few in one post, but then called you on your quip in another. I'm already sorry for my contribution to this digression.

I'm not a museum but I wish you peace.

[rugbysecondrow]

I hope to some day.
When you do, you will have a riding partner. ;)