I recently spent five days in Washington D.C. partly for business but also for fun. One of the things that struck me about D.C. was its comprehensive and efficient public transportation system. The company didn’t want to pay for a car in D.C., so I was placed in a different situation from my daily life in Cincinnati where I can drive everywhere. I know there’s public transportation in Cincinnati (including buses, bikes and the street car), but I never need to use it. If I did, I suspect it would be less convenient than the system in D.C. I don’t have a lot to compare it to, but I think D.C. public transit is pretty good. Paris also had a good public transportation system, but we were just less reliant on it.

First, I love the D.C. metro. It’s fast, efficient and pretty cheap ($2 for a basic fare). It was a little confusing on my first day since I don’t normally ride public transit, but it didn’t take too long to figure out. After visiting Paris with my family earlier this year, I quickly felt like a savvy independent traveler on the metro. The metro staff were all very helpful. One of my fondest mementos from my D.C. trip will be the crumpled and torn metro pocket map which I consulted multiple times every day. The trains ran every 10 minutes and the cars and stations were pretty clean, if dimly lit. Sitting in the rear car was pretty cool, because it felt like you were in some sort of sci-fi hyperspace tunnel with the lights flashing by and trailing off behind you. My only gripe about the metro is the lack of a stop at the western edge of the National Mall which discouraged me from visiting the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. However, I did visit the White House, Washington Monument, Supreme Court and the Capitol. I thought the Washington Monument was the most serene and striking at night, although I ended up with a great picture of the Capitol as well.

The metro also provided excellent opportunities for people watching and observing the masses going about their daily lives. The metro is a social environment in which I have never really spent a lot of time, but in D.C. I was immersed in it every day for five days straight. I drive to and from work every day in Cincinnati, which is a very isolated activity. There are thousands of other people on the road as well, but you can’t really see them or interact with them. Usually I took a taxi to my work meetings in D.C., but afterwards I took the metro back into D.C. After a meeting at the Defense Intelligence Agency, I entered the nearest metro station (on the Green line on the south side of the Anacostia River) in Anacostia, a mostly African-American neighborhood, and suddenly found myself in the minority. Of the people milling around or waiting for the metro, only one other person was white. I felt out of element in a way that I rarely have felt before, and I admit it made me a little uncomfortable. However, it gave me an appreciation, if only briefly, for how non-white people might feel in the opposite situation. But only one stop later, and I was back in the Navy Yard – a vibrant and more diverse neighborhood.

I did a few other things in D.C. (such visit museums and eat amazing food) besides ride the metro, but we can discuss that later! While I mostly rode the metro in D.C., I used the bus when leaving because there wasn’t a direct metro line to the Dulles airport, although there is one for Reagan. Upon arrival, I took an express bus from Dulles to L’enfant Plaza – a major public transit hub in D.C. When I left, I took the metro until I got as close to Dulles as I could, and then I finished the last few miles on a local bus route (again only $2). The bus also stops at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum near the airport which I also utilized since I had a few hours before my flight left for Cincinnati.

D.C. also has a bike share program that I used only on my last day. I didn’t really think about bicycles before I arrived in D.C. and probably could have used it more during my trip instead of walking as much as I did after getting off the metro. The bike share program costs $2 for a 30-minute ride – plus, the docking stations are solar powered! However, the first station I tried to use seemed to be out of service – I couldn’t rent or return any of the bikes in the rack. However, there was another station nearby, and I was quickly able to get on my way. The rental process is quick and easy.

Although not public transit, I rounded out my stay in D.C. with a cruise down the Potomac River. I’ve had the idea for a dinner river cruise since my family went to Paris – we planned to float down the Seine but couldn’t fit it in our itinerary. I signed up for the Spirit of D.C. dinner cruise. I was a little hesitant because of the price (about $100), plus the company adds on about $30 in fees when you try to buy a ticket. None of that includes the gratuity for the crew either. However, there’s a discount code on their website that takes 15% off, which made it a little more palatable. In the end, I went for it because it was my only significant out-of-pocket expense on the whole trip.

I was hoping for more of a night-time narrated sight-seeing tour, but it ended up being a booze cruise with loud music and white people flailing about on the dance floor. The food was good but not great – I liked the smoked duck appetizer with cherries and cranberries. For the main course, I had the beef short ribs which was fine but not outstanding. The mashed potatoes definitely seemed like some sort of watery instant-serve product. Since I can no longer drink, I’ve become a desert aficionado and the warm butter cake with ice cream was pretty good! The cruise didn’t offer much in terms of good night-time views except for the Kennedy Center. In addition, the boarding area was a little hard to find and I spent a while walking up and down the Wharf trying to find the right spot.

In addition to transportation marvels of D.C., I also enjoyed the monuments and museums. I usually finished with work at about 2 p.m. each day, so I could hop on the metro and get to a museum in 30 or 45 minutes. I visited the International Spy Museum. At $25, it offered a good historical overview of espionage but didn’t have much new information (at least for me). However, I did enjoy the different hands-on exhibits where you could take a stab at being a spy yourself. I also really loved the collection of WWII counter-espionage posters, because that style just really appeals to me for some reason.

As a former journalist, I felt obligated to visit the Newseum even if it cost $25 and the Smithsonians are all free. The design of the museum was a little disconcerting since a large part of the interior is open-air and heights make me anxious. That meant I didn’t go up to the top floors, but there were still several interesting exhibits. For example, I thought the Berlin Wall exhibit was good, and I enjoyed the Pulitzer Prize photo collection.

I also visited the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. I wasn’t able to visit the café unfortunately, because it was closed by the time I arrived. However, I did have a couple hours to tour the museum, which was one of my favorites. I just love Native American history, and the museum had an excellent collection of artifacts. In addition, there is an excellent exhibit about the Incan empire that focuses on the roads the empire built. The gift shop also offered a number of excellent Christmas gifts.

I visited my last museum in D.C. only a couple hours before my flight left, and it was one of my favorites. The main Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is located in D.C. but the Udvar-Hazy museum at Dulles airport came highly recommended, so I picked that one instead and I have no regrets! I vaguely remember visiting the main museum as a youngster on family vacation. However, Udvar-Hazy has an amazing collection and it’s easy to view the whole collection in just a couple hours. I didn’t see every plane, but I walked through almost the entire collection in about two hours. The entire collection is housed in one huge hanger with an elevated walkway around the perimeter. Plus, it’s accessible from Dulles via a quick bus transfer, and I could roll my luggage around the entire place without being hassled.

The museums houses an excellent collection – especially of rare experimental German planes from WWII. I have several scale models of these planes at home and it was an amazing experience to be only a few feet away from the real thing! But wait, there’s even more! The museum also includes a restoration wing where visitors can watch experts complete repairs and conservation work. The museum also houses an excellent collection of pre-WWI aircraft, which are only 30 years older than the German jets of WWII but look more like paper toys. The museum also includes a space exploration exhibit that includes the shuttle Discovery, which is also very impressive. It looks like I went to museum at the right time, because in a few short weeks the museum will close to begin a 7-year renovation project. The only disappoint was the gift shop, which didn’t offer any postcards of some of the iconic planes on display. I’ve been building a postcard collection from all my various trips and excursions, and I had hoped to add to my display!

My coworker Chelsie suggested I also check out Du Pont Circle, and since I love to read I stopped in at Kramer’s Books where I purchased “How to Love” by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk. I had first become interested in Hanh’s books a few years ago, and it was felicitous coincidence I couldn’t resist!

Now finally, a quick round-up of my favorite spots to eat in D.C. Nando’s Peri-Peri came highly recommended and didn’t disappoint. I had an order of wings which were tender and moist, unlike most other wings I’ve ever had. I also had the Portuguese rice with turmeric and the mint peas on the side. The mint peas really stole the show – they were delicious and tasted more like they belonged in an Indian buffet. You can also order the Peri-Peri sauce on Amazon, which I’ll do shortly. I also had the nata custard tarts and pineapple carrot cake, which were both tasty.

Old Ebbitt Grill also came highly recommended and the crab cakes didn’t disappoint. As a recently self-declared desert connoisseur, the chocolate chip bread pudding was a little disappointing. I’ve had some really great bread pudding before and it was a little underwhelming. It was also an enormous amount of bread pudding. The music was exceptionally loud and the whole restaurant was crowded cheek to cheek on a Tuesday, but the staff were very helpful and efficient.

Last but not least, Le Diplomate where two out of the three dishes were amazing. I let the waiter guide my choices (except for dessert). I normally don’t pick cheese as an appetizer, but I decided to try something new and was not disappointed. The three cheeses were all very tasty and were accompanied by fruit, nuts and honey that were all excellent accents. The main course was not as amazing as everything else, but it wasn’t bad either. The waiter suggested the skate Grenobloise, and I assented in the spirit of experimentation. I’m not really a fish connoisseur and it was a fine meal – just not as amazing as everything else. My only real complaint was the loud music and the fact my humble attire meant I was relegated to the heated patio and not the main dining area with more ambience.

The finale was dessert (seeing a trend so far?) and the profiteroles came so highly recommended it was the main reason I went to Le Diplomate. Profiteroles are made from puff pastry buns with ice cream and bananas in the middle. The top layer also includes thin strip of chocolate. Over all of this, a cup of molten chocolate sauce is poured that forms a lake on the plate. It’s obscene – that’s the only way I could describe it.

Le fin.