Jul 25th, 2012 at 5:00PM: It's time for summer vacation, and we're pretty sure we could use a long week at the beach. Thanks to U.S. News & World Report, we now know the most statistically sound places to maximize our oh-so-precious vacation time, sorted by region.
The new rankings identify the top vacation spots based on a methodology that combines expert and consumer opinions. They reflect how strongly a ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
washingtondc posts
US News & World Report Ranks Best Vacations
Jul 25th, 2012 at 5:00PM: It's time for summer vacation, and we're pretty sure we could use a long week at the beach. Thanks to U.S. News & World Report, we now know the most statistically sound places to maximize our oh-so-precious vacation time, sorted by region.
The new rankings identify the top vacation spots based on a methodology that combines expert and consumer opinions. They reflect how strongly a ...Celebrate July Fourth On The National Mall
Jul 4th, 2012 at 9:00AM: If you're looking for a unique and fun way to celebrate Independence Day today, and you're fortunate enough to live close to Washington D.C., you may want to drop by the National Mall to take part in the annual festivities. The iconic monuments and memorials that make up the Mall should make for an inspiring backdrop to a full day of events.
Among the more memorable attractions on the National ...Favorite Travel Destinations: Where's Your 'Happy Place?'
Jun 26th, 2012 at 11:00AM: Long ago, a friend of mine referred to Colorado as my "spiritual homeland." I frequently jest that I'm spiritually bankrupt except when it comes to the outdoors, and she was referring to my long-held love affair with the Centennial State.
My friend was right. There are parts of Colorado that are my "happy place," where I immediately feel I can breathe more deeply, shelve my neuroses and just ...Play Mini-Golf Inside A DC Museum This Summer
Jun 14th, 2012 at 9:00AM: Are you visiting Washington, D.C., this summer and looking for fun family activities? The National Building Museum (NBM), D.C.'s museum dedicated to architecture, engineering and design, will offer a 12-hole mini-golf course under its 159-foot-high vaulted ceiling.
From July 4 through Labor Day (September 3), visitors can play Museum Golf among holes with building-related themes. NBM enlisted ...'This Is The Place Death Delights To Help The Living'
Jun 12th, 2012 at 4:00PM:
The horrors of war and the medical techniques used on the wounded in the battlefield are incomprehensible to those of us who have never donned a soldier's uniform. The National Museum of Health and Medicine, also known as the Army Medical Museum, puts these realities into context.
Founded during the Civil War as a center for medical study of gunshot wounds, amputations and other physical ...Top 3 Places In The US To Experience LEGO-Mania This Summer
Jun 10th, 2012 at 5:00PM: LEGOs – show me a man, woman or child who doesn't love these little plastic building bricks and I'll show you three exhibitions that will impress them to pieces this summer.
LEGO® Architecture: Towering Ambition
National Building Museum, Washington, DC
Through September 3, 2012
The LEGO exhibit "Towering Ambition" has been wowing visitors to Washington, DC's National Building ...An Inside Look Into The Smithsonian's Museum Of Natural History
May 27th, 2012 at 10:00AM:
My favorite travel writers share a sense of curiosity about their surroundings, regardless of where they are. You can squish a dozen or so of them into an elevator, take them into an attic and they'll find something of interest. If that attic happens to be just below the grand upper rotunda of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and those writers happen to be a subset of the ...Gadling's Annual Team Summit: Behind The Scenes In Washington, DC
May 17th, 2012 at 11:00AM: As our daily roster of posts and rigorous travel schedules can attest, we work hard here at Gadling (really; it's not all lying on beaches, slurping pastel-hued cocktails...in fact, it rarely is). We're a small team of freelancers who mostly have day jobs to help pay the bills, whether or not writing is our primary occupation.
As part of AOL, we also have a pretty intense set of goals, ...Photo Of The Day: Lincoln Memorial
May 13th, 2012 at 6:00PM:
Whether you haven't yet been, or you've visited it many times, Washington's Lincoln Memorial never fails to inspire and amaze. Today's photo, by Flickr user Christian Carollo Photography, provides a unique angle on this most famous of American monuments. The photo's black and white color palette, artful use of light and shadow and interesting "behind the pillars" angle creates a feeling of ...Museum Month: The National Bonsai & Penjing Museum In Washington, DC
May 12th, 2012 at 2:00PM:
Consider for a moment the events of 1625.
Dutch settlers in North America established the city of New Amsterdam, which would become, of course, New York City. Theaters throughout London closed for eight months due to an epidemic of bubonic plague. And somewhere in a studio or garden in Japan, a bonsai artist began training a Japanese White Pine, the very tree that would become the ...Museum Month: Madness And Badness At Psychiatric And Crime Museums
May 12th, 2012 at 10:00AM: It's no secret amongst my friends (and I suspect, most of my readers) that I'm obsessed with the more sordid aspects of humanity. Why? Hell if I know. As with most things, I blame my dad, the veterinarian. I'm pretty sure a childhood spent playing necropsy assistant has something to do with it.
My love of forensics is only the tip of the iceberg: psychiatry, taxidermy, eating weird shit and ...Visiting Ford's Theatre, Where Lincoln Got Assassinated
May 11th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
On April 14, 1865, a few days after Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia, John Wilkes Booth finally decided to do something for the Confederacy.
The famous actor had supported the South from the start, but he had spent the entire Civil War in the North, playing to packed theaters and making lots of money. Now that the war was winding down, he felt he needed to take a stand. ...Visiting Synagogues Around The World
Apr 6th, 2012 at 9:00AM:
Places of worship have long been points of interest for travelers. Solemn and usually quite ornate, these buildings provide a window onto a community's history and values and often give visitors a much-needed pause while pounding the sightseeing pavement. Cathedrals are typical for this kind of touring. But have you ever thought to pay a visit to a synagogue?
My fascination with exploring ...Budget Travel Zen: 10 Free/Donation-Based Yoga Studios In The US
Apr 4th, 2012 at 11:00AM:
Knotted shoulders... stiff necks... flight delay anxiety... pent-up aggression toward the armrest-hogger seated next to you on the plane. Travel certainly has its ways of winding you up, and there's nothing like a great yoga class to wind back down. But with trendy studios charging upwards of $25 per class, it can be difficult to find a practice that doesn't exceed your daily travel budget. ...National Portrait Gallery Opens Two Civil War Exhibits
Mar 31st, 2012 at 10:00AM:
The National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., is commemorating the Civil War with two new exhibits.
"The Confederate Sketches of Adalbert Volck" looks at the work of a rebel dentist who became one of the Confederacy's leading political cartoonists. Unlike most German immigrants, who sided with the Union, Volck was an active rebel who not only fought the Union with his pen, but also ...D.C.'s Cherry Blossoms turn 100
Mar 24th, 2012 at 12:00PM: Washington, D.C. is a city of posers. Especially during the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival when camera-toting tourists and locals descend like locusts to D.C.'s Tidal Basin to bask in the ethereal beauty of these Japanese trees in bloom. 100 years ago Monday, 3,020 cherry blossom trees arrived in Washington as a gift from Japan, largely thanks to the efforts of a journalist and traveler ...Find hotel deals with new booking site Guestmob
Mar 22nd, 2012 at 2:00PM: The Internet has brought us many ways to research and book hotels at prices much lower than the hotels' published rate. Aggregate sites like Kayak and Orbitz give you the best available rate (BAR) without pre-payment on a specific hotel, while "opaque" sites like Priceline and Hotwire allow you to bid for a room below BAR but the actual property remains hidden until after you book and the purchase ...Photo of the Day: Moody Dupont Circle
Mar 16th, 2012 at 6:00PM:
Dupont Circle has never looked quite so moody as it does here, in Flickr user Guillermo Esteves' beautiful interpretation of the DC social hub. The black and white starkness of the image contributes to this impression, though it's really the clouds and the bare trees that nail the late winter atmospherics of this corner of DC.
Upload your best photos to the Gadling Group Pool on Flickr. We ...Sweetlife Festival to feature hot music and sustainable eats
Mar 9th, 2012 at 4:00PM: It isn't often you get invited to a party with a purpose. But that's exactly what the Sweetlife Food & Music Festival at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, will be: an all-day extravaganza celebrating the values of "sustainability, community and fun." Scheduled for April 28, the festival will feature a stellar lineup of musicians, including: Avicii, Kid Cudi, The Shins, ...JFK's Georgetown
Mar 5th, 2012 at 9:00AM: John F. Kennedy was one of the greatest orators in American history. But as a single congressman and then senator, his Sunday morning routine in Washington involved food and newspapers and no chit-chat. Each week, the magnetic politician would occupy a tiny, one-person booth called a "rumble seat" (see photo right and video below) at Martin's Tavern, his favorite restaurant and watering hole in ...
