What to see in Washington during cherry time?

[razz]

I am looking at visiting Washington with a bus tour and having three days to explore Washington for the first time. I believe it would be quite crowded at that time but I would skip the parade and visit points of interest instead. Definitely the Smithsonian but not sure which to focus on seeing. What else is a must do in your experience? I am comfortable walking but traveling on my own so need advice on what to avoid as well. TIA

[bae]

I've been in DC the past two days with 5-6 hours of free time during the day and have enjoyed simply walking around the Mall and Tidal Basin.

[Teacher Terry]

The Smithsonian is so big that you will have to decide what you would like to see. I am trying to remember what we saw 20+ years ago and not much coming to me. We did enjoy seeing the Vietnam wall. The White House was closed. I would google what there is to do to help you decide.

[razz]

Googling doesn't tell you how far apart things are and whether they are worth focusing on when visiting for the first time. I tried and got frustrated. If I have to take a cab between places due to distance or lack of safety between?
Here is one site but I have no idea of the distance between sites.
http://what to see in washington dc in 3 days

[Teacher Terry]

OUr hotel told us to be out of DC by 5pm because it was not safe after that. So we started early each day and then came back to the hotel. We did take their metro around and it was very clean, bright, etc. I tried to click on the link you posted but could not get it to open.

[Teacher Terry]

So I looked and we also did the capital, national mall, monuments.

[bae]

My hotel is in Georgetown, and it has been under an hour of very pleasant strolling to get to even the furthest sights from here. DC itself is rather small. It never took me more than a minute or two to find a cab if I needed one, and rates are cheap. At no time did I feel unsafe, except when I observed a backpack left unattended for 20 minutes outside one of the memorials - response time from Park Police after I called it in was about 2 minutes.

People all seemed very friendly and happy.

[herbgeek]

If you are going during cherry blossom time, it might still be a little chilly. A really nice respite is the National Botanical Garden. Its adjacent to the capital. The conservatories are lovely and humid. :) As others have said it all depends what you are interested in. We did the National Gallery of Art (5 minute walk from capital), then got back in the car and parked near the water and walked around and looked at a bunch of memorials (FDR, Martin Luther King, Lincoln).

[Alan]

We've been several times in the last few years and would recommend going straight to the mall. Just about everything a tourist may wish to see is within a 5 minute walk from its perimeter.

I'd especially recommend spending a little time at each of the monuments, then Arlington National Cemetery which is just across the river from the Lincoln Memorial, the National Archives, Natural History Museum, National Art Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the National Aquarium. For lunch, I'd recommend one of the food courts on the mall, they have the best hotdogs ever.

You could easily spend 3 days exploring all the features on this map:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d2/60/ce/d260ce3920e155a68abb78cc288b026e.jpg

[bae]

For lunch we've mostly been feasting at the food trucks along 14th on the Mall. Cheap and decent.

[razz]

That scale on the map and the map answered my questions. Now I that I know that I can walk to most of the features that I am interested in seeing or rather heard about for years, I can plan. thank you. Food on the go sounds like fun.
FWIW, a 'mall' in Canada is a large shopping centre so was very puzzled by the term.

[bae]

Tonight we had dinner at this place, and it was quite good, and a reasonable value for what it was:

http://runinout.com/seafood/pier-2934-cajun-seafood-georgetown-dc

[Tybee]

Well, this dates me, but I turned down the opportunity to be a cherry blossom princess or whatever it was called back in college. I also went and stayed at the Watergate in 1977, and that was very exciting back in those days!
I'd see the mall, Georgetown because it's so pretty, I'd probably tour the White House,go to the Smithsonian, go to the Library of Congress, and go see the DAR building, which is quite beautiful, and has a great genealogical library.
When I was working, I went and did a FOIA request, and that was pretty fun, too, now that I think about it.