DC Like a Local

Word is filtering down today that the National Archives will be banning photography come February 24th (we saw it on the Post via WeLoveDC). According to their notice in the Federal Register, the Archives "seeks to ensure the necessary protection for the documents from the cumulative effects of photographic flash and to enhance the overall visitor experience."

Now we aren't going to quibble with the first part of their explanation. The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc. are priceless national treasures (I don't care if Nic Cage says so too, they are!) and the American people are going to hold the Archives responsible for their condition. If too many visitors' flashes are going off, so be it. I tell my groups on the bus, most of my teachers re-iterate it, the guards at the door tell visitors, and we're reminded before we go into the Rotunda. And yet, I still have a handful every year that don't get the message. So if this is what has to happen, ok then.

But I don't buy the second part. As quoted in the Register, "NARA does not believe that this rule will create problems for tourists. The agency believes this rule creates a better visitor experience." Now, this rule will, quite frankly, create a better tour guide experience for me. But I fail to see how this is better for visitors. There are three places that every group kills my time-line getting the same shot: here, the White House, and from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial looking east. I used to rail against this, try to hurry them along, bemused at these silly tourists and frustrated at the havoc they are wrecking with my schedule.

And then it dawned on me, as it has failed to do with the National Archives: this is the experience they are here to get, not my feeble attempts. Its my problem, not theirs; hurrying along trying to cross things off a list. So what if ten thousand people this month have already got the same shot? Or that a simple flickr search can get dozens of the same image? Or, as the Archives so patronizingly says, " the National Archives Shop has facsimiles of various sizes and price ranges available for purchase". None of these get it. The point is, that these cheesy pictures have served to make the visit real and theirs to hundreds of thousands of Americans every year. It's a connection they both communally and individually achieve. Now we'll all just file by, respectful and silent. Like at a tomb.

And also, speaking as someone reasonably familiar with the ways of Washington, it is supremely cheesy to slip this out in the Federal Register. A sixty day comment period only announced in the Register? Come on, that's weak. Like I said, if it has to happen for preservation reasons, most of us can support that. Why not announce it then? Did you think we wouldn't notice? There's a reason only three people commented; no one saw it! We expect better, Archives. I can't help but notice that your website still does not reflect this change.

The National Archives is an incredible institution, one of my favorite places to visit. This was poorly handled.

When I take my groups to Arlington, I often go through the same skit. I tell them there are two Presidents buried here, and ask them to guess which ones. Just about everyone knows about the eternal flame and JFK, of course, but then they're normally stumped. There will be a short period of quiet, followed by a series of random outbursts:"Washington!" "Lincoln!" "Very Small Rocks!". Eventually I give them all the clue: he was our "greatest" President ever. With this, some kid in the back will usually get the right answer, William Howard Taft.

Thanks to the National Archives BIG! exhibit, visitors to DC now have an opportunity to contemplate the "greatness" of President and Chief Justice Taft using visual aids. This year, the National Archives celebrates it's 75th anniversary and has put together the BIG! exhibit to help commemorate it. It's filled with very large items, recognizing the big ideas and big events that went into making us who we are. Visitors can see the 13 foot long scroll of the Articles of Confederation, our nation's first constitution, in which I'm reasonably certain that new states are required to compete in feats of strength before they are admitted. The original tally sheet of our Declaration of War upon Japan is there, where you can witness the piling on of Congresswoman Jeanette Rankin, lone holdout against the war. Basketball fans can see Shaq's shoe, in all it's gargantuan glory. And yes, a full size replica of President Taft's specially made White House bathtub is included as well. Presumably his second one.

Sadly, you do have to wait in the general admission security line to see BIG!, even if you have no plans to see the Declaration, Constitution, etc. I've discussed best practices to avoid the lines earlier, but the good news is that although DC can be quite crowded with tourists in the summer, the lines are nowhere near what they are in the spring. It takes a lot of families to equal even one bus load of schoolkids.

BIG! will be here until January 3rd, 2010.

A good dozen of us in the DC area have been watching the latest pseudo-controversy about White House access regarding the cancellation of a tour is elementary school kids attempting to visit the White House, supposedly for a photo op with the Steelers. On the surface, it appears as the story of a callous government bureaucracy not bending a bit to help out with kindergartners.

But, once you dig through the shoddy reporting of the local news, it turns out the kids were over an hour late to the appointment. To the White House. I'm not sure what they thought was going to happen, but let me assure you, on the near impossible chance you get White House tickets, they will be unbending on rescheduling. I'm no fan of the White House's visitor policy, but on this one, I'll cut them some slack.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Not to prolong a ridiculous non-story, but to explore what an appointment time "means" when you have one. So let me run down the list of likely ticket venues and my experiences with being late. Obviously, I should lead in with the usual caveats that this is simply my experience, your's may be different, and I don't speak for any of these organizations. That aside, let's assume you have 12:30 pm tickets to all of these places:

Bureau of Engraving and Printing: I don't know why they even have tickets for this one anymore. Personally, I think their schtick has gotten stale, but if you have tickets, be on time. They're pretty good working with you if you are five to ten minutes late, but no guarantees.

Capitol Visitors Center: 12:30 is the time you line up to enter the movie theater, inside the Visitor's Center. This means you have already passed through security, which you should allow 20 minutes for, although it's routinely less (and occasionally more). Also, you will want to give yourself a few minutes to orient yourself to the new Visitors Center. So, I would plan on being in line to enter the CVC thirty minutes prior to your ticket time and use the spare time, if any, to take a break in the cafeteria and/or explore its excellent museum. The good news; although I don't recommend it, the folks at the Visitor's Center have proven to be very helpful with me in the last few months with late/delayed visitors. It's worth asking them if you miss your ticket time.

Ford's Theater: The ticket time is when the presentation starts. You want to be in line 10 minutes or so before it. You might be able to squeeze in a minute or two after, but don't plan on it. Fortunatly, you can still use the ticket to visit the Peterson House across the street, even if you miss the ranger presentation. Once the museum opens, I'll be posting on ticketing procedures for that.

Holocaust Memorial Museum: Great news here! Ticket times are good for any time after their stated time. So, you could use the 12:30 ticket at 4 pm with no problem. Also, the ticket is only for the Permanent Exhibit. If you arrive early, take the time to check out Danial's Story (if you have kids) on the first floor, or the temporary exhibits in the basement. I strongly recommend one of the current ones, State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda.

National Archives: Officially, you have to be on time, but I've had luck with just handing the security guard the appointment sheet and bluffing your way in. Not that I recommend it, but it can be done.

Tours: If you have a tour scheduled at a museum, Library of Congress, Cathedral, bike/segway etc. you're going to want to be on time. The tour will start on time and they may or may not allow you to catch up.

Washington Monument: You have about a thirty minute window to use this ticket. If you're ticket is 12:30, I'd be there right about then, but if you are a few minutes late, you'd just get in the 12:30 line and no one would be the wiser. You might be pushing it if you arrived at 12:59 and they were already taking the 1:00's in. Throw yourself on the mercy of the Park Ranger, and you might get lucky.

White House: Yeah, right. Don't be late.

I hope this highly subjective look helps. Not that I ever advocate being late, but.....

I thought I had a pretty good idea of fun things to do in DC at night, but upon reflection, I'm afraid most of them aren't terribly kid friendly. Having small kids, it's pretty easy (put them to bed), but what to do with older kids who just won't go down at 7:30? As it would be irresponsible for me to suggest NyQuil, let's see what we can do for the reader who recently asked:

"What are the best night time activities for 10-12 year olds? I am planning on doing the DC by Foot and night tour of monuments. Any info on places open past 5:30 would be a big help."

Well, you're off to a good start with DC by Foot. These guys put on a good show, and have a lot of fun doing it. I think it's a great way to get to know the memorials on a personal level. The tour is free, but make sure you tip the guides. And to stay on topic, kids love them and they have a 6 pm tour most nights.

Some other options:

1. Museums: As a guide, I'm often faced with filling time between museums closing and a 8 pm dinner. Traditionally, that has been one of the reasons the Archive's busiest time seems to be after 5. Fortunately, other museums have steadily started to stay open until 7, which is a trend that I heartily support. The National Portrait Gallery and the Holocaust Memorial Museum (seasonally) have had extended hours for some time now and perhaps the most exciting thing that's happened to me in some time is this year several of the Smithsonians will be open until 7:30 (Air and Space, Natural History, and American History). Moving on from the sadness that is my life, many of the for-profit museums naturally will take your money into the evening. The new Crime and Punishment Museum is a lot of fun, and I enjoyed the Spy Museum, at least the first thirty times I saw it. Be sure to check ahead with your specific date in mind. Some of these hours are seasonal.

2. Theater: Washington, DC has a great selection of theaters to choose from, with a kid-friendly performance showing at least one of them generally at any given time. The Kennedy Center's Shear Madness has been playing for over twenty years and is a staple of my eighth grade tours. But I prefer the downtown theaters both for their ambiance as well as their Metro friendly locations. The National, the Warner, the Shakespeare, and Ford's all have been known to put on shows accessible to kids. I particularly recommend this as the best way to experience Ford's Theater, just like President Lincoln did. Well, almost. Heck, you've got to get a ticket anyway nowadays to get in, you might as well see a performance while you're there. If you're in town before May 24th, The Civil War is a musical tribute to the war that I would enjoy taking a twelve year old to. Not everyone is sucked into a love of history the way I was, and this performance is quite moving. It might even beat an i-pod for an hour or so. It's recommended for kids twelve and up, as it has some historical images of slavery and the war, so keep that in mind for kids a little younger.

3. Movies: Sure, you can do this at home, but sometimes it's nice to take a break from trudging through museums with something familiar. Gallery Place in Chinatown and the AMC Loews in Georgetown are both good multiplexes with plenty of dining and touring options in the near vicinity. But if you'd still like to take in some history, the Uptown Theater in Cleveland Park is a historic, single screen movie theater that has hosted, among others, the world premier of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sadly, it has wilted those laurels by repeating the trick for some crappy Kevin Costner flicks. But it's still a great theater and my go to place for a movie that benefits from the big screen.

If anyone else has some ideas for things kids might enjoy in the evening, please leave them in the comments. I imagine this will become even more important to me in years to come, so let's all put our thinking caps on.

In last week's post about the Archives, Jean W. asked the very good question:

Any chance there's a day of the week or a time of day when the student tours aren't there?

Unfortunately, the question is better than the answer. I have noticed a few broad trends over the last few years of doing this and I'm happy to pass them on, but I must caution everyone that I am painting with a wide brush. Besides the normal vagaries of visitor traffic, all of the following can be completely blown out of the water by the arrival of the dreaded "four bus group". I'm not sure why some groups of multiple buses insist on staying together and lumbering around town like a wounded brontosaurus, but they do. And like said dinosaur, they can crush your carefully planned out itinerary not from malevolence, but simple inattention.

That being said, here are some very general guidelines:

1. I very rarely have a school group booked on Monday. Most groups will come mid-week.

2. I used to try to get there when it opened at ten. It's not a bad strategy as this line moves faster than normal since there is no backlog inside. However, there's almost always a line waiting outside so it generally negates any advantage.

3. Traditionally, the Archives and the Holocaust Museum were the only thing open past 5, so it had long lines from 5-7. Now the Smithsonian's will be open later, so this might help to draw some of the crowds off. This is the first season the Smithsonian will be regularly open late, so that might help the evening lines. Keep your fingers crossed.

4. Most groups are at lunch from 12:30 to 2. I often get lucky then. As a corollary, this is a bad time to go to the Reagan Building or the Old Post Office.

5. School groups are marginally less likely to stay over the weekend. However, any drop off in school groups on the weekends is usually compensated for with more families and individuals visiting.

I hope this helps, and if any other guides or seasoned travelers have advice, please leave them in the comments.