The Old Post Office is now the new Trump hotel.
Botanical Garden is the better bet this time of year, and it’s close to everything downtown. You can do it in under an hour. The Arboretum is a poke and is very spread out.
National Archives is also a good place to go…
Restaurants: look at Jaleo and Rasika. Pizza: District of Pi or Matchbox.
Go see the corpse plant at the Botanical Garden. There is also a docent tour.
Chiming in to say the Library of Congress is not to be missed. Jefferson’s library is astonishing. Also, while on Capitol Hill, you might want to check out Sweetgreen (http://www.sweetgreen.com/menu/?region=dc-md-va) for lunch. It’s very, very close to the Library of Congress – two blocks down on Pennsylvania Avenue. I think there’s also a Sweetgreen in Georgetown. I wish there was one next door to me. A block past that is We the Pizza (renowned because of its chef/owner’s – Spike Mendelson’s – Top Chef fame). His burger place Good Stuff Eatery is next door. Both are extremely popular and pretty good. Just past that is the Hawk and Dove. If you are a West Wing fan, you may remember characters occasionally referring to or going to that restaurant/bar. No big deal, but fun to connect.
Sweet Green is fine but it’s a national chain. I’d recommend going with local establishments for food.
Oh, I’m a small town hick, @doschicos. Sweetgreen was a revelation for me. The sourcing won me immediately. For local, we also really enjoyed Le Diplomate near Dupont Circle
Sweetgreen actually started here in the DC area and has only recently started expanding nationwide. There is one on Arlington Rd. in Bethesda, too.
Ethiopian food is excellent in DC. Then there are local landmarks such as Ben’s Chili Bowl. Don’t forget there are many other excellent restaurants in nearby Arlington (Rosslyn, Clarendon) and Old Town Alexandra, all a short metro ride away.
I have no doubt about the many fine food eateries in DC. Ethiopian food was recommended to me, but I am letting the girls lead the way there and they are a LITTLE picky and not fully adventurous. Being honest, we enjoy casual, non chain (at last to us - but we don’t have a Sweetgreen!), relatively inexpensive options. We’re not a fine dining crowd. 
I have heard of Ben’s Chili Bowl - I think some of it is going to depend where we are when we are hungry - and I only have so much time to plan ahead - I’m not a “schedule everything down to the last minute” person!
I would LOVE to visit the White House gardens - LOVE.IT. We are coming in early Saturday morning so we could only try for Sunday - we shall see.
We will definitely check Yelp when its time to decide on an eatery - and my CC restaurant list I’m making!
District Taco (multiple locations) is another great place for lunch
You probably know this already, but the Smithsonian museums (including the zoo) are all free.
Most of the other museums, including the Spy museum and Newseum, cost a fair amount.
When my son went to the Smishsonian last spring, they were doing bag checks which made for lines.
There is a sandwich chain called Cosi which has a couple of locations in DC. I think there salads and sandwiches are pretty good. There’s also a restaurant called Gordon Biersch that’s near the spy museum that’s not bad.
Yes, and we may not make Newseum. We have Cosi here in Ohio!
S17 and I went to DC together; I had been several times but it was his first trip. One thing we discovered was that there is bag storage at the bus station stop/metro stop. On our last day, we checked out of the hotel, took the metro in, stored our bags and did a trolley tour. Not having our luggage was heavenly. We got off and on and saw most of the monuments. S17 was particularly impressed with Martin Luther King, which I had never seen either, and Viet Nam. We had a 6:30 bus back, so we timed our trolley to get us back to the station in time to get our bags, pick up food and catch our bus. I wish we’d known about the bag check the first day because I wound up sitting around in the Air and Space Museum with the bags while S17 explored. We also enjoyed the Museum of Natural History and the American History museum. S17 had just visited the NYC Holocaust museum with school so we deferred that visit.
We aren’t foodies, so I picked a hotel which provided breakfast and we filled up in the morning. We would then eat a small lunch from one of the carts and pick up food at the bus station food court, take it back to the hotel by Metro and eat there. We stayed in Maryland and the hotel had a shuttle as long as we were back by 9 PM., so we didn’t do a night tour.
Nobody has mentioned this on the thread, but S17 and I went to Arlington. We took the metro out and back. We spent 4 hours and could have stayed an entire day. Next time, we will take one of the trolleys it offers to get to the far ends we couldn’t see. Both of us found it moving and incredibly peaceful, although it was very crowded as it was Cherry Blossom weekend. We also visited the American Military Women’s Museum, where I was able to correct my late aunt’s birth date.
I offered to take S17 to see Boston next but he wants to return to DC. Unfortunately, there aren’t any suitable colleges for him here that I could afford.
If you are not with a tour of the Capitol, you can only wander around the Visitor Center. You cannot go to the Rotunda, Statutory Hall, etc unless with a tour. If you want to go the Senate or House gallery, those are separate tickets.
If the kids want to try something ethic in DC, I would suggest Vietnamese. There’a a fairly significant Vietnamese population in the DC area and many good Vietnamese restaurants. Pho–which is basically a noodle soup is really good and a good menu item for less adventurous eaters. There are also egg rolls and Bahn Mi–a delicious Vietnamese sandwich. There;s a Bahn Mi sandwich place in Georgetown that I went to with my D and son-in-law. It was really good. Another plus, the food is inexpensive. Personally, I prefer Vietnamese food to Ethiopian.
I’d like a bowl of Pho! Any simple recommendations where to order a tasty bowl?!
Pho inside DC is hit or miss. There is a Pho 75 in Rosslyn which is very popular. It’s a short walk from either the Rosslyn or Courthouse metro stations. It’s in the same strip mall as the Ben’s Chili Bowl Arlington location, and Ray’s Hellburger.
I seem to remember a couple places on Wisconsin ave. in Georgetown.
Taste of DC I believe is taking place this weekend so it will be crowded. Groupon is offering a promotion on the tickets. More than 60 restaurants are participating.
https://www.groupon.com/deals/taste-of-dc-llc-4
Here is more information about the event.
http://thetasteofdc.org/
Ben’s Chili Bowl will have its World Eating Competition.
ONE MORE QUESTION!!!
Can we buy one day passes for the metro (Smartrip cards???) at Union Station or the Metro stations? Or weekend passes or something? Without a car I’m guessing that we will want to use the Metro and an occasional Uber…and our feet.
@NoVADad99 Ray’s Hellburger is relocated, no longer in that strip.