A long weekend in Washington, DC

Sat, 31 Oct 2026 10:00:00 -0400

Trip: Washington, DC · Jan 17–19, 2026 · with Dan · MLK Day long weekend

The Capitol, first thing on Saturday.

Getting there

We were in an Uber to Moynihan Train Hall at 5:20 on Saturday morning, for the 6 AM Amtrak down from New York. We got into Union Station at about a quarter to ten. The main hall has a huge coffered ceiling, and I stopped to take a photo before we went out.

Union Station.

The Capitol

From the station it was a short ride to Capitol Hill. It was cold and grey, and the plaza was wet from the rain.

We did the tour inside, with the little audio headsets. In the Rotunda you stand right under the dome and look straight up at the painting at the very top.

The painting up there is The Apotheosis of Washington, and Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol opens right under it. I’d read the book before, so I kept looking up and picking out things I remembered. More on that book in a minute.

Then National Statuary Hall, where every state sends statues of its own people. I took photos of the ones from Nebraska and Ohio. Down in the visitor centre there’s the full-size plaster model of the Statue of Freedom, the figure that stands on top of the dome.

Straight up, inside the Rotunda.

The Library of Congress

Next was the Library of Congress, the Thomas Jefferson Building, just across the street. We bought the timed tickets on the spot, two minutes before the 12:45 entry.

The Great Hall is all marble staircases, gold on the ceilings, and skylights in coloured glass.

The Great Hall.

This was the part of the day that stood out most for me, because of The Lost Symbol. I’d read it before, and part of it happens in this very building. The whole book is about mysteries hidden in the capital’s buildings, with the Freemasons behind a lot of it, and walking through the real Great Hall felt a little like being inside it.

I also saw the Gutenberg Bible, one of the first books ever printed with movable type, open in a glass case, and the exhibit of Thomas Jefferson’s own library: the books he sold to Congress to restart the library after the British burned the Capitol in 1814.

The Gutenberg Bible.

Jefferson’s library.

Where we stayed

After the library we drove past the Washington Monument to the hotel. We stayed at The River Inn in Foggy Bottom, a short walk from the Potomac, Georgetown and the Kennedy Center.

Georgetown at night

On Saturday evening we walked over to Georgetown. In the dark we found the Exorcist Steps, the long, steep stone staircase from the old horror film, squeezed between a stone wall and a red-brick building, and the start of the C&O Canal towpath.

The Exorcist Steps, Saturday night.

Sunday: the bus, the White House, Air and Space

On Sunday we took a hop-on hop-off Big Bus loop around the city. We got off near the White House around half past twelve and walked through Lafayette Square, past the statue of Andrew Jackson on his horse. Later the bus took us down the Mall to the Capitol again, this time from the other side.

The White House, from Lafayette Square.

In the afternoon we went to the National Air and Space Museum (it’s free, you just reserve a pass). Before going in I’d looked up the Wright Flyer, the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, and the Spirit of St. Louis. What I actually came away with photos of was Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit, a lunar module, a gallery of old hot-air balloons, and, of course, the panel about Buzz Aldrin.

One small step.

The monuments at dusk

We thought about the Spy Museum, but decided to walk the monuments instead as it got dark: the WWII Memorial, the Reflecting Pool with the Washington Monument in it, and down to the Lincoln Memorial at the far end of the Mall.

The Washington Monument, from the Lincoln end of the Reflecting Pool.

The Lincoln Memorial.

I’d missed Mass that morning, so from the Lincoln Memorial we took an Uber up to St. Ann’s in Tenleytown for the 7 PM Mass.

Sunday evening Mass.

Monday: one more museum, and the piano

On Monday, MLK Day, we checked out and spent about an hour and a half at the National Museum of Natural History before the airport. The big African elephant stands in the middle of the rotunda as you walk in. From there we went round the life-size megalodon hanging in the ocean hall, an Easter Island moai, the gems, and the Hall of Human Origins, where I’d gone looking for Lucy, the 3.2-million-year-old fossil.

The rotunda, from the balcony.

With the moai.

We’d only booked the flight home the day before, after weighing up the train: a 3:15 United flight from Reagan National to Newark. When we landed in Newark there was a public piano in the terminal, painted with blue waves, that anyone could play. So I sat down and played for a bit. My mom was very happy when I sent it to the family group. Then NJ Transit from Newark back into the city.

The piano at Newark.

Notes to myself

Free museums need a timed pass on busy weekends. Reserve it before you go.
Book the way home before the trip, not the day before.

library-of-congress on Aldrin Jenson