Washington, in the federal protectorate of the District of Columbia,
is the site of the capital of the United States of America. Tourism
is the 2nd major industry in Washington, the 1st being government.
Most visitors to the city will want to see the many famous national
icons, like the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln
Memorial, or spend some time in the Smithsonian Institute museums
or the National Gallery of Art. One great way to see Washington
is to take the cycling tours offered by Bike the Sites (www.bikethesites.com).
The city has innumerable performing arts venues to enjoy, from
the big, Broadway-style shows at the National Theater, Washington,
D.C.’s oldest continually running theater, to the small
but world class classics produced at the incomparable Shakespeare
Theater. Washington is also famous for its fantastic jazz clubs.
Blues Alley Jazz, for example, bills itself as the nations oldest
continuous jazz super-club.
There are outdoor adventures to be had in and around Washington,
D.C. Rock Creek Park offers opportunities for hiking, biking and
horseback riding on its rustic 1,754 acres. The Potomac River
is an interesting and scenic route for kayaking enthusiasts to
enjoy. The historic C & O Canal allows visitors to travel
back in time and take a 1-hour narrated barge-trip, pulled along
by mules in the old-fashioned way. Cyclists can use the C &
O towpaths and hikers can wander away from the canal into one
of the many side-parks.
Washington DC is the proud home of the Washington Redskins NFL
football team. The world’s largest
mahogany chair towers 19 feet over Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive
in Anacostia on V Street in Washington DC. Architect Pierre L’Enfant’s
design stipulated that no building should exceed the United State’s
Capitol in height, and to this day there are no sky-scrapers in
Washington, D.C.
