The Tarwathie Guide to DC

Engineers suffer from compulsion to assign numbers to everything, and then sort. I confess. I wrote a list of all the things that we saw and did in the past month, ranked them, asked Libby to rank them, then averaged the two.

Here is our ranking system 1 to 5 stars.

***** Must See
**** Very Good
*** Good
** So so
* Waste of time
(zero stars) no opinion, didn't do that

Here are our rankings.

Rank	Stars	Description
1	5	Holocaust Museum
2	5	Smithsonian Museum of American Art
3	5	Smithsonian Museum of The American Indian
4	4	Wolf Trap
5	4	Smithsonian Folklore Festival
6	4	National Building Museum
7	4	Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
8	4	Capitol
9	4	Kennedy Performing Arts Center
10	4	DC fish wharf market
11	4	National Art Gallery
12	4	Arlington National Cemetery
13	4	Union Station
14	4	Supreme Court
15	4	Old Post Office
16	4	Smithsonian Air and Space Museum – downtown
17	4	National Archive
18	4	Iwo Jima Memorial
19	3	Bureau of Engraving and Printing
20	4	Jefferson, FDR, Lincoln, Korea, Vietnam, WWII Memorials
21	4	Chinatown
22	3	Smithsonian Natural History Museum
23	3	National Arboretum
24	3	Hirshorn Museum
25	2	Smithsonian Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy
26	3	Smithsonian National Postal Museum
27	3	Voice of America
28	4	House or Senate Cafeteria
29	3	NPR National Public Radio
30	3	National Sculpture Garden
31	3	USDA Cafeteria
32	2	Smithsonian National Zoological Park
33	3	Library of Congress
34	2	Smithsonian Natural History Museum – Butterfly Exhibit
35	2	Eastern Market
36	2	Smithsonian Castle
37	2	Georgetown Embassy Row
38	2	Schooner: Spirit of South Carolina
39	2	National Aquarium
40	2	DC Public Library
41	0	FBI building
42	1	National Farmers Market at USDA
43	0	White House Visitors Center
44	0	Washington Memorial
45	0	White House Tour
45	0	Newseum

Anomalies:

• The American Art Museum, American Indian Museum, and Union Station are either new or newly renovated, thus substantially raising their rank as compared to years past. Consider them.
  
  
• 30 years ago, we thought that the zoo was the top attraction in DC. This time, there were big renovations in progress and we visited late in the afternoon, and we were very disappointed. If you visit in the morning, a few years from now, it will probably be better.
  
  
• The Smithsonian museums of American History and Industry were closed for renovation this month.
  
  
• We thought that journalists are too self absorbed to pay them $20/head to visit the new Newseum. Others who went there said it was good.

The "Circulator" busses are very convenient and much cheaper than Washington METRO fares. You ride for $1 ($0.50 over 65). Transfers give you free rides on other Circulators. Most days, a transfer was accepted for the whole day. The circulators are an outstanding bargain. The METRO subway is very fast, but very expensive if you use it a lot.

Sea Otter II's guide to DC was very useful.