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If you haven’t had a chance to see the cherry blossoms, there are still lots of events planned to highlight DC’s thousands of cherry trees.

The annual National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, DC. The first two trees were planted on ...

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 ...

With so many activity choices in Washington, DC, on any given day, it can be overwhelming to decide what to do, especially on the weekend.  Here are my Top Three picks for this coming Saturday, 29 September.  Since I'm into economizing, all the activities I've chosen are FREE.  Keep a sharp eye out and you just might see me at one, or all, of them!

WalkingTown, ...

The Barns at Wolf Trap, a woodsy concert venue in Virginia, about 30 minutes west of downtown Washington, DC, recently announced their Fall-Winter '07-'08 lineup.  Wolf Trap, often associated with the NPR set, is known for its dedication to high-quality artists who uphold the inspiring musical legacies of jazz, folk, classical, and rock. 

If you're planning a trip to DC in October, mark your calendar to go see (among others):  folk-singer sisters the Nields ...

Don your kilts and tune your bagpipes lasses and laddies, as you prepare to be transported back to the land of heather and tartans through song.  This Friday, 21 September 2007, at 7:30 pm, gather at the National Geographic Society's Grosvenor Auditorium for what promises to be a lively and moving concert of Scottish music, featuring renowned Scottish fiddler Bonnie Rideout and Scotland's premier musicologist, Dr. John Purser.  The dynamic duo will ...

Although not newly opened, Montmartre Restaurant, located adjacent to the iconic Eastern Market on Capitol Hill, is a newly discovered favorite for this long-time Washingtonian.  With a warm, unpretentious atmosphere that belies its haute cuisine, Montmartre offers a true gout de Paris.  The restaurant is small and a tad crowded, with a large window facing the street, an open kitchen, cheerful yellow walls reminiscent of Van Gogh's sunflowers.  Outdoor patio seating available ...

One of the lesser-visited but no less edifying of the (free) Smithsonian museums is the National Portrait Gallery, located across from the Spy Museum in DC's trendy Penn Quarter.  The building also houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum; together, the collections offer a range of styles and media to tell the stories of prominent Americans and pioneers throughout history. 

A stroll through the American Experience exhibit, for example, features a portrait of 19th-century religious leader Joseph Smith, ...

Every Thursday evening through August 9th, the Freer and Sackler Galleries--part of the Smithsonian complex--remain open until 8pm.  Each week features family-friendly programs of song, dance, art, storytelling, films and more.  Admission for all this heady entertainment?  FREE!

This Thursday, July 19th, come to the museum to see:

5:30 pm:  Capoeira dancers from Brazil demonstrating their unique brand of martial arts.
5:30 pm:  A dramatic telling of the story behind painter James McNeill Whistler's ...

What better place to celebrate our Independence Day than the nation's capitol, Washington, DC?  There is no shortage of patriotic holiday activities downtown this year, between the parade on Constitution Avenue, to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, to the patriotic NSO concert on the west lawn of the Capitol Building, to fireworks over the National Mall.  The fireworks show begins at dusk, usually around 9pm, and I ...

Courtesy of The Smithsonian Institute

Happen to be in town this weekend? Maybe you came early for the July 4th extravaganza?!?!

While you're here, you may consider taking a trip to The Mall and attend the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (June 27-July 1 and July 4-8). The annual event (which began back in 1967) has plenty of cultural events from crafting to Native ...