Hotels By City: Cheap Hotels, Hotel Guides & Hotel Blogs

For this blog posting, I'm not going to tell you about any of DC's gems or goings-on.  Instead, I'd like you to send me your favorite things to do and see in the Washington area, places to visit, eat, shop and sleep here, as well as any other local gems you've discovered in your peripatetic forays into our nation's capital.  I call this approach "Interactive Blogging."

This call for input is motivated not ...

Second Story Books in Dupont Circle has evolved from a small used bookshop to house manuscripts, maps, prints, vintage French and American advertising posters as well as used CDs and vinyl records. The shop specializes in rare and out-of-print titles --- if it's old, out of print, custom bound, or a small-press publication, this is where to find it.

The staff is ...

The National Museum of Women in the Arts is housed in a former Masonic Temple at 1250 New York Avenue, NW (Metro Stop: Metro Center Red, Orange and Blue lines). The extraordinary architecture of the building alone is well worth the $8 admission fee.

10. Tonight NMWA premiers Amu, a feature film about a young ...

DC is home to many excellent bookstores, but my favorite is Politics and Prose (www.politics-prose.com).  Politics and Prose has it all:  knowledgeable, helpful staff; a wide variety of books, including an extensive selection of history, international affairs, and political science books; and an excellent coffee shop.  But the thing that brings me back to Politics and Prose over and over again is its impressive schedule of author talks.  This ...

In addition to the usual attactions, this area offers some outstanding indoor malls if you're into that sort of thing. A lesser known, less crowded one is Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, VA, and it's there that you'll find the hands-down best mall food in Fairfax County, in the form of Hunan Chinese Gourmet. Actually, the food's better than decent, regardless of whether it's from the mall our not. Entree ...

The kids and I were at Reston Town Center this morning and were somewhat surprised to find the ice rink open for business, if not  somewhat slushy, given the fact that it's 66 degrees. The ice rink's open in the winter months, and it's an inexpensive way to get some fresh air and exercise while you're in town, even if you've never skated before or didn't bring your skates (you can ...

Location: 50 Massachusetts Ave. N.E.

Nearest metro stop: Union Station on the red line

I would imagine that plenty of people visiting Washington, D.C. would either arrive by plane (through Reagan National Airport or BWI for international flights) or by train. If the railway is your mode of transportation, you will probably find yourself at Union Station, the train hub of D.C.

I ...

Place: N.W., spans both H and I Streets between 5th and 8th St.

Nearest metro stop: Gallery Place/Chinatown on the red, green and yellow line

Tourists who visit Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown now are very lucky. The neighborhood recently underwent massive renovations and it looks ALOT better than it looked about three years ago. ("Urban decay" are the two words that come to mind to describe the old Chinatown.) Now the block is sparkling new with better stores and restaurants, renovated signs, a movie complex, and the Verizon Center at the end of the block. An article about the restoration can be found at Architecture Week.