Well, that's not entirely true. I do stay at hotels, but I do it with large tour groups, and the determining factor has more to do with the ability to feed 97 eighth-graders breakfast and park several giant buses than the details you might find important in a visit here. So, on that note, I will endeavor from time to time to evaluate some local hotels with an eye to help our out of town visitors find a place to stay.

All true, but yet no more comprehensive than hanging out with a cowboy and thinking you've got the pulse of America. For a country and a culture that has occupied a prominent role in our foreign policy (and we just might want to keep abreast of right now), many of us know surprisingly little about it.

As is the rest of DC. Photo by Maria Helena Carey

While a lot of the big ticket items will be closed, there's still plenty to do and see in DC. Frankly, some of these less visited venues are more interesting that the high-draw options, and you could plan a perfectly good trip around them alone. So let's take a look at a few:

photo uploaded to flickr by Simon Cocks

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.

National Building Museum

The National Building Museum holds a very special place in the heart of the Washington Photo Safari as it celebrates architecture and the built environment which is how I made my foray into professional photography. Originally known as the Pension Building when it was constructed in the 1880's to provide ample office space for clerks writing out pension checks to Civil War veterans, it is now known as the National Building Museum. It’s certainly a hidden treasure off the beaten path of the National Mall but nevertheless situated conveniently near the city center at Judiciary Square metro.  What looks like a bunch of columns and archways gives way to an interactive exploration of how we design, build, use, are inspired by and interact with our concrete brethren. 

One of the ironies of telling the African American experience today is that is hardly an under-told story. The same exhbit that would have groundbreaking, and maybe even contoversial, in 1981 treads a well worn path in 2011. Once routinely marginalized and white washed out of the story; historians and museum curators have taken to re-examining these stories with vigor. Today, there's no shortage of museums, in Washington, DC and elsewhere, hosting exhibits

So the National Geographic Museum faces a unique challenge hosting it's new exhibit America I AM: The African American Imprint. How do you tell this story in a way that has relevance to today's generation in a way that avoids the whole "oh, it's February again, we have to talk about Black people" trap?

It's a challenge, and America I AM largely rises to it. The exhibit is a comprehensive and well documented look at the African American experience in our country, with a particular focus on how that experience interplays with larger society as a whole. From it's roots in the slave trade, to the election of our first African American President, America I AM details the unique, separate, and largely unequal experience of the only large group of Americans who didn't choose to come here.

Willard Hotel

Called by many “the residence of presidents” since nearly every president since Franklin Pierce has either stayed there or attended an event there, the Willard Hotel on 14th Street and Constitution Ave NW is one of Washington’s most stately and historically rich hotels. 

A staging ground for peace and freedom, the Willard was the site of the Peace Congress in 1861, a last ditch effort to avert the Civil War; a mere 100 years later, in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. penned his I Have a Dream speech at the hotel before delivering it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Moreover, it is said that the term “lobbyist” was coined here because of solicitors seeking favors from President Grant while he enjoyed his brandy and cigar in the hotel lobby.

photo uploaded to flickr by Rainer Ebert

But this year, I thought I'd stray a little away from this single event, and show a little of impact Dr. King had in his many visits to our city. "Martin Luther King spoke here" is rapidly becoming the modern day equivalent of "George Washington slept here", so let's take a look at a few of those spots; some well know, others less so.