It was once a swampy piece of land along the Potomac selected by President George Washington as the future site of the United States capital. It is now the pulse of a nation, beating non-stop with political, historical, and cultural activity. It is Washington, D.C., my favorite city in the United States, and I’d like [...]

How would you like to see the Berlin Wall, a guard tower located next to Checkpoint Charlie, a thank-you letter written by Saddam Hussein, four decades of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographs, an antenna damaged in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, and newspapers headlining the sinking of the Titanic in 1912? What if [...]

Last week, we posted Part One of our top ten recommendations of  Washington, D.C.’s best monuments and memorials to help you better plan and prepare for your trip to America’s capital. The memorials are one of the highlights of any visit to Washington, D.C., but because there are so many, if you don’t plan your [...]

I’ve never hit them all in one go. Not even close. I’ve had to go back ten times. And I still haven’t seen them all … More than perhaps any other city in the world, Washington, D.C. is known for paying tribute to its heroes and its fallen through commemorative memorials. For the visitor with [...]

 “It is right to remind ourselves that such progress did not come easily. . . it came from the smack of billyclubs, and blasts of fire hoses . . . the nights of bomb threats. For every victory in the height of the civil rights movement there were setbacks, there were defeats.” President Barack Obama spoke these words at [...]

The year was 1989.  Paula Abdul’s “Straight Up” dominated the airwaves. The Berlin Wall was on its way down. George Herbert Walker Bush had just taken the oath of office as the 41st President of the United States. And I was just an eager first grader at Stockwell Elementary School trying my best to color [...]

My list is in the blue notebook, toward the back, hidden, and written in short-hand to avoid potential embarassment should I accidentally leave it in the back seat of a rental car again.  Admit it. You have one, too. You may not go to such great lengths as I to conceal it — you may [...]