How This Shutdown Might Affect Your Trip to DC

photo uploaded to flickr by Simon CocksYou've probably heard a far bit about the budget jostling on Capitol Hill recently. Now I imagine most of you don't hang out in bars where C-SPAN is on round the clock, so you may not be totally up on all the ins and outs, but there's a very real chance that by the close of buisness March 4th, the Federal Government will be operating without a budget.

To grossly oversimplify the issue, the Federal Government authorizes and appropriates funds on a yearly budget. Once that budget runs out at the end of the Fiscal Year (Sept 30), Congress and the President can approve a temporary extension, or Continuing Resolution (CR). This is what the Government has been operating under since October, and the current one runs out March 4th. On that day, thanks to Art. I, Section 9 of the US Constitution (look it up yoursefl!) and the Anti-deficiency Act, it is now illegal for the Federal Government to pay its workers, outside of essential folks. The Congressional Research Service recently wrote an excellent report (.pdf) if you're a government affairs junky.

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It's Just Too Damn Hot Out There

On a hot day like today, take a wander down to the National Mall, and I guarentee you'll see some prime tantrums being thrown. "It's too hot!" "My feet hurt" "I want ice cream" "I don't care what's in that building, I'm sick of museums!"

And this is just the parents.

So, before your kids turn into a molten pile of goo and your wife gives you that look, take some time to relax, buy them (and you) some ice cream, and maybe even splash around a bit. Here are some options:

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How Many Freaking Smithsonians Are There, Already?

OK, the Smithsonian is kind of an unnecessarily fluid concept in DC. We often used as shorthand to refer to the museums on the National Mall, which is technically incorrect as not all Smithsonians are on the Mall and not all museums on the Mall are Smithsonians (the National Gallery of Art is its own thing and not part of the Smithsonian Institute).

But let’s say I want to break from tradition and actually be accurate on my tours. The problem I run into is how many Smithsonians are there really? Officially, the Smithsonian Institute refers to their “19 museums and the National Zoo”, so let’s go with that number. I can buy not lumping the Zoo in, as zoos are usually not considered museums. Just don’t make me buy into that old tour guide canard that “the zoo is not a museum, it’s a research institution”. They’re all research institutions, guys, one way or another.

So let’s try to get a handle on all nineteen. Our first problem starts when we click through to the above link. Let’s count them up, as listed:

    1. African Art Museum
    2. Air and Space Museum
    3. Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center (oohh, so now I guess we’re counting them separately?)
    4. American Art Museum and its Renwick Gallery
    5. American History Museum
    6. American Indian Museum
    7. Anacostia Community Museum
    8. Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
    9. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
    10. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
    11. National Zoo (here listed as under Museums, let’s not count this)
    11. Portrait Gallery
    12. Postal Museum
    13. Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle

And then we get two more, listed under a dividing line:
   
    14. African American History and Culture Museum (currently in planning stages with a rotating exhibit at the American History Museum, to open in 2015ish).
    15. Arts and Industries Building (currently closed for renovations, I haven’t heard a timeline/plan yet for reopening)

So that gets us up to fifteen (not counting the Zoo, and counting the two museums physically not ready yet). This counts (as it should) the off the Mall museums of Udvar-Hazy near Dulles Airport in Virginia, the Portrait Gallery and American Art Museum in downtown DC, the Anacostia Museum across the Anacostia River in Southeast DC, and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York City.

So where are those other four lurking? Well, re-reading our list, I suppose we should break the Renwick Gallery off of the American Art Museum. Frankly, I wish the Smithsonian would as well. The American Art Museum is physically co-located with the National Portrait Gallery at the old Patent Office on F ST NW between 7th and 9th. They share the building, and it takes a really astute observer to notice they are actually two separate museums. Most visitors would never notice. Perversely, the Renwick Gallery, which focuses on crafts and decorative arts, belongs to the American Art Museum, but is physically located several blocks away near the White House. But you wouldn’t really notice this in their collective website, which lumps the two of them together. Annoying, but beyond the scope of our discussion. For our purposes, the Renwick is clearly a separate museum, no matter how the internal structure of the Smithsonian is laid out.

A similar distinction emerges with the Freer/Sackler Galleries. Listed as one Museum; they are at least physically connected, if only by a tunnel. They both focus on Asian Art and share a webpage, but as they are separate buildings I guess we can count them as two museums, bumping our total to seventeen.

So where are those other two hiding? Well, a close look at the National Museum of the American Indian reveals that in addition to their presence on the Mall, they continue to run an earlier incarnation up in New York City, the George Gustav Heye Center at the Customs House near Battery Park in lower Manhattan. And we’re one out away...

And this is where it gets fun. Lurking in the upper left corner I notice the “Virtual Museum” category, with the lonely “Latino Virtual Museum” occupying the only spot. And this is where I put my foot down, Smithsonian. I gave you the African American History and Culture Museum, as plans have progressed, architects have been selected, and they even have a pretty kick-ass exhibition up right now. But I’m sorry guys, just as Second Life is no substitute for the real one, a “virtual museum” doesn’t cut in my book either. Come back and try again when you get something real going with the Latino Museum. I look forward to it.

So, for now, we’re calling it at 18 Museums and the National Zoo. You guys can relax a bit on the count: you’re already world-class, you don’t need to over-compensate.

UPDATE: Thanks to Ian, Germantown for catching me out! I forgot the Natural History Museum!!!! The most visited museum, celebrating it's 100th Anniversary. Holy crap!

Alright, my apologies to the Smithsonian and to the basic concept of mathematics. That puts us safely past 19, with hopes that the Latino Museum will some day be less virtual and round it out to 20.

Stuff Around Town - What's Going On When You're in Town

One of the challenges I face in helping folks out with visiting DC is keeping my information current. I think I do an adequate job of highlighting off the beaten path options as well as new ways of exploring the traditional attractions, but I don’t scratch the surface of what’s going on here. We try to catch new museums and new exhibits as they come, but it’s a big city with a lot of stuff going on; there’s just no way we can hope to be comprehensive about all the things going on in Washington when you plan to be here. We don’t even try.

Which can be a bit of a bummer, as there’s always something going on in DC. It’s easy to troop to a few museums and snap a picture outside the White House and think, “Gee, this city sure is busy but between herds of tourists and thousands of cars with Maryland tags, does anyone actually live here?” Well, of course we do, and the best place to get the sense of the city’s life is to leave the Mall and check out some of the other things going on in town.

I try to highlight a few from time to time, but I’m not set up to keep a comprehensive calender of all things Washingtonian. And why should I, as other folks already do so (and better than I could)? So without further ado, here’s where I go to find out what’s going on on any particular time in Washington:

1. Since you’re probably going to be at one or more of these institutions anyway during your trip to DC, go ahead and check what’s going on while you’re here. Catching a special event at one of these places can be a lot more fulfilling and enriching than just staring blindly at another exhibit:
    A. Smithsonian - Includes Air and Space, American History, Natural History, etc.
    B. Library of Congress
    C. National Gallery of Art
    D. U.S. Capitol - This is actually the link to the US Capitol Historical Society’s calender.
    E. White House Visitor’s Center - You have to click through to their schedule. Which is, of course, a pdf that changes seasonally.
    F. Ford’s Theater - The day time presentation is perfectly fine, but check what’s showing while you’re in town. It’s a far more civilized way to see the Theater.
    G. National Mall and Monuments - The National Park Service’s calender of events.

2. Cultural Tourism DC: Getting off the Mall a bit, I recommend Cultural Tourism DC. These folks focus on bringing the “other” DC to people’s attention. They represent over 230 different museums, community organizations, historic sights, etc. and serves as a clearinghouse for all manner of activities. Be sure to check their calender for the dates you will be in town.

3. Free in DC: You’d be hard pressed to find another city with so many free things going on. The trick is hearing about it in the first place. Fortunately, Amy Melrose over at Free in DC has done the ground work for you. Her blog is a compendium of all sorts of free (and under $10) events going on.

4. Local News Outlets:
    A. Washington City Paper: By far the best local coverage of DC.
    B. Washington Post: While the Post confuses “local” with “greater Mid-Atlantic Region”, it is the dowager Empress of local coverage. Fine, I’ll include it here.
    C. DCist: Online reviews of current exhibits, events, etc. Along with local news and some interesting (at the very least) comments.
    D. WeLoveDC: Another excellent blog about DC happenings, both news and events.

While you probably won’t check out all of these, clicking through to a few of them will allow you to have a much richer and interesting visit to Washington. And hey, it’ll give you a little more to talk about back home than the standard tourist experience. You friends will appreciate it. Heck, they might even sit through your slide show.

The Circulator Cometh!

photo uploaded to flickr by krossbowWalking along the National Mall, distances become quite deceptive. The compulsion to see "just one more museum" can lead you further and further astray. Before you know it, you're a good mile away from the Metro, which in normal times would be but a fifteen minute stroll.

But it's not normal times. It's hot. The kids are clamoring for ice cream and rides on the carousel. Your feet hurt. The damned stroller keeps getting stuck with the godforsaken gravel along the paths. You're not even sure you are going the right way. And your wife is looking at you as if this is all your fault. I've been there before, and as I can't permanently stand outside the Air and Space museum bailing all of you out, I do what I can to point you in the right direction.

But with a little planning some more professional help is available, for the transportation problem at least. Starting this Saturday, March 27th, the Circulator will be re-starting it's National Mall loop. Unfortunatly, it only runs on weekends, from 10 am till 6 pm, but it's better than nothing. For those of you not familiar with this service, the Circulator is a bus system run by the District Department of Transportation, not the regional system that runs the Metro buses (WMATA). It offers a few advantages over the Metro bus system, especially for our out of town visitors. Unlike Metro bus, you don't need a Masters in Systems Engineering to understand the routing, it's somewhat cheaper at an uncomplicated $1 per ride, and the buses stand out with a distinctive color scheme.

The Smithsonian-National Mall loop, which runs in a loop around the outside of the museums (i.e. along Constitution and Independence Avenues) can be picked up on various spots and swings (with short walks) near the Smithsonian, Federal Triangle, Archives-Navy Memorial, L'Enfant Plaza, and Federal Center SW Metro stops (see here for more info on taking the Metro to the Mall). It also has the advantage of getting near the World War II Memorial. Unfortunately, it doesn't continue to the Lincoln Memorial so your options to get all the way down there are to walk or pay $27 for the Tourmobile, which I'm not linking to because it sucks.

So take a few minutes before you come, and familiarize yourself with the route. No doubt, you've already listened to me and purchased SmartTrip cards for your family, but if not, have a crisp $1 bill for everyone. This bus is designed to run every ten minutes, so don't worry about a schedule, although you can showoff and save this link for your smart phone. It'll finally answer the perennial question from your kids: "when is the bus going to be here" (the mass transit version of "are we there yet" for you auto types).

Pull this all together and your kids will have a fun ride and your wife can go back to wondering if you remembered to mow the lawn before you left home. That I can't help you with.