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Photo: Quarterczar, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Little known even to locals is this private house-museum with an impressive collection of paintings by the impressionist and early modern masters. The house itself is a work of art, designed by modernist architects Philip Johnson and Richard Foster.
The Kreeger Museum is a modern and contemporary non-profit art museum located in Washington, D.C., United States. It is located on Foxhall Road, one of the residential neighborhoods of the city, in the former home of Carmen and David Lloyd Kreeger and it contains the art collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings and sculpture they acquired from 1952 to 1988.
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Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
The impression of walking up to the world's 6th-largest cathedral, a hulking mass cut over a period of 83 years of 150,000 tons of stone, is alone worth the trip. Tours are a must if you really want to see the cathedral, and the towers and the crypt are off limits without a guide during the busy season. The organ demonstrations are spectacular and loud. Check the website for events, as there is often children's programming as well as major concerts.
Friendship Park
Turtle Park has the coolest playground in town. The centerpiece is an enormous sandbox littered with eminently climbable turtle sculptures and plastic shovels and buckets. In the summer, you can get the sand off your kids away without a trip to the bathrooms at the "sprayground." The park is fenced in and has plenty of shade, as well as four baseball fields, two basketball courts, two tennis courts, and a rec center.
A collection of 400 species, including 2,000 animals. Get a map at the entrance, take your time, and be prepared to walk a great deal. Bring water—the concessions here are insultingly expensive. The most crowded exhibits are nearly always the Pandas and the Ape House. The pandas are perhaps the zoo's shyest residents. The Ape House is fun no matter the crowds. Other hits include the Seals & Sea Lions Exhibit, the Reptile House, the remarkable Aviary, and the irresistibly cute prairie dogs.
Fort Reno was one of the bedrocks of the legendary and celebrated D.C. punk/hardcore/straight-edge scene, and evolved to encompass later post-hardcore and other local indie rock. The concert series was founded in 1968 as a sort of government-sponsored hippie fest to try to bring some love, joy, and sense of community back to the district post-1968 riots. Having run annually since, this is one of the truest local traditions, is beloved by the community, and a great way to delve further into that elusive city beyond the federal government and neoclassical memorials. No alcohol, no glass bottles, but plastic bottles are allowed.
A historic water-powered mill in the park and a national historic site built by Isaac Peirce in 1829.