You could increase the odds with large campaign contributions. Or, for a free extended mini-tour of federal facilities, you could just mail him some threats. 
I was thinking of hopping over the White House fence. Heard that gets some attention.
Yes, and you will probably get an extremely close up view of the lawn grass, not to mention it’s pleasant scent – should you survive long enough to be thrown down onto it by the security staff.
New question regarding Gettysburg. In my naivete, I figured it would be nice to have a quick look on our way to Washington. But it’s looks like there’s more there than I imagined. Would it be worth staying overnight nearby? Or is it really just a day trip?
Until someone can provide you with a better answer…
I haven’t been to Gettysburg, but I’ve been to several civil war battle sites in Virginia and they have all been disappointing. They consist of open (or fenced) fields and historical markers. Perhaps Gettysburg has re-enactments or something else to make it more interesting. I understand the cemetery is pretty impressive, but I doubt it can compare to Arlington.
Thanks. We’ll definitely see Arlington, of course. But I’m interested in Gettysburg because I think it was my great-grandfather fought there with some sort of New York regiment. An aunt and uncle took a tour there one time and seemed to like it.
We just spent a week in DC. We had started with “well, four days will be plenty” and ended up after seven saying “there is so much we didn’t do.” We had a twelve and thirteen year old with us.
You should login to your U.S. Rep sites and request tickets (I think you are still a U.S. Citizen with a rep, right?). They can do the White House (the tour was good, they run them first thing in the morning - you only see some public rooms, the most amusing things is the specially trained Secret Service agents standing in each room to say “Mary Todd Lincoln purchased this sofa.”), Capitol (tour isn’t great, but might be worthwhile) and the Bureau of Engraving (fun tour - right next to the Holocaust museum so if you want to do that, plan them together). You’ll also want advance tickets for the Holocaust museum if you want to go (its very good, not very upbeat). We spent a whole day riding the Tourmobile and seeing monuments - then going out to Arlington where my husband got trapped by the chattiest park service employee ever. We did Air and Space, Natural History (several times - the human origins exhibit is amazing - especially when you consider ‘publically funded in the U.S.’) and American History. We saw pandas at the zoo. Went to Ford’s Theatre. We went out to Udvar Hazy which was amazing and my son’s favorite part of the trip (you can see a Space Shuttle. And the Enola Gay - which I found really creepy). We saw the expensive, but fun, Spy Museum. We walked our feet to stumps, were exhausted each evening and didn’t manage to get out to Alexandria, Mount Vernon, or Gettysburg - all on our “if we run out of things” list. And didn’t step foot in an Art Museum (I promised the kids 
But I cheated, we walked THROUGH the National Sculpture Garden)
Thanks. Dang, that sounds like a pretty full trip on its own. Gettysburg we’d hit on our way to DC; planning to rent a car between the two cities. Yes, still a US citizen. The Holocaust Museum is definitely on our list; after touring the Killing Fields and the old Khmer Rouge torture center in Phnom Penh, I think we’ll be prepared for that. (I’ve also visited Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich.)
Turns out that theNational Cherry Blossom Festivalthis coming year will be huge because it’s the centennial–although the opening ceremony is March 25, events run through April 27.
Ask away if you have questions about DC hotels, Metro, etc. Make sure to book your hotel stay early because of all the spring break travelers.
Oh, the Library of Congress. We didn’t intend to go but got into a cab to do our capitol tour and the driver said “see the Library of Congress, its amazing” and then we went to the Capitol tour and the guide said “and while you are here, go over the the Library of Congress.”
We didn’t do a tour (which is, I hear, cool), but just saw the building and the exhibits - which we didn’t have time to do justice to. Including a Gutenberg Bible.
Also we went to the National Archieves where you can see the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights (and, it was out when we were there, one of 17 original copies of the Magna Carta). Rather faded, but still - you are looking at THE Constitution.
Re-reading the OP, I see you mentioned Motel 6 in DC. The two locations are very different, with the one on 4th St. NE in a fairly sketchy neighborhood. The one on Georgia Ave. NW is in a safer area–I would guess they get a lot of families of military personnel there since Walter Reed is close by.
Gettysburg is pretty close to DC, actually – it took maybe an hour and half up Rt. 15 the last time I made that trip (~10 years ago). It’s a much shorter ride from DC than it is from my home in the Philly suburbs, though.
If you’re coming from Philly, you’ll probably take Rt. 30, which has a 50 mph speed limit and you’re lucky if you’ll hit 50 even if there’s no traffic because for some ungodly reason, people just coast along like they’re on a Sunday drive. And then there usually is a ton of traffic because big trucks take that route to avoid paying tolls across the state. Plus the occasional Amish buggy that will slow things down even more.
So from Philly, it could easily be a 4-hour drive (I live 45 min. west of Philly, and it takes me 3 hours to get to Gettysburg).
It’s worth the trip no matter how you get there, though. IIRC, it’s the best preserved Civil War battlefield in the country, and it’s got a well-marked driving tour and great visitors’ center. I’ve been there at least a dozen times, and I never regret making the long trek out there.
Yeah, that Motel 6 on 4th Street NE is pretty shady and I wouldn’t want to be at Union Market at night as the area gets pretty deserted. There is a Courtyard Marriot a few blocks south that is much nicer and almost on top of the Metro.
I’ll be damned! I had no idea they had Xerox machines back that far. :eek:
Sounds like our week in Washington is going to be rather full. Hopefully New York will have toughened up our leg muscles.
Thanks all, too, for the Motel 6/Gettysburg recommendations. I’ll look more into accommodation this month; Motel 6 just popped into my head, so I looked at their website. We’ll be wanting a pretty safe aea no matter what we use.
Again on Gettysburg, is it good for a day, or is it worth staying overnight somewhere near there?
I’ve done Gettysburg in less than a day - even with taking in the Cyclorama, the museum displays, the light-up map demo and a car tour of the battlefield.
The only way you really take more than a day is if you take one of the very detailed tours with the more obsessive National Park Guides. Loads of info, but a lot that they cover. I come across them on the PA cable channel around early July and they really do know a lot of stuff but man they could talk about the battle for twice as long as it lasted.
Thanks. We’re leaning toward making it a day stop on our way to DC.
You might want to stay near there the night before you do the touring, however - e.g. spend the day in Philly or en route to Gettysburg, then spend the day doing Gettysburg, and drive down to DC in the evening.
You don’t want to do the hotel the night after you do Gettysburg. Well, that’d be fine… but if you’re then heading to DC in the morning, you’d be on the road with several hundred thousand other cars. Not good at all.
The trip from Philly to Gettysburg: you should make a leisurely drive of it - it’s pretty countryside (at least the Lancaster area, I haven’t been east of there in decades), the Amish countryside is nice, there are places to look at Amish-made things like quilts, there’s a fun railroad museum in Strasburg not too far from Lancaster…
it was on a trip to that same railroad museum that I saw the funniest “cognitive dissonance” moment of my life. We were stopped at a traffic light, and observed an Amish man driving a buggy.
Through the drive-through banking lane across the street.
I really, really wanted to snap a photo, but I figured it would be rude.
Oh - speaking of DC-area hotels: The suburban hotels which are near / on the Metro might be just as good an option as staying in the city itself. And might be considerably cheaper.
Some areas to consider:
Crystal City ( Arlington VA) - some of the hotels there connect to underground shopping areas and then directly to the Metro. May be pretty pricey.
Rosslyn (another part of Arlington VA).
Courthouse / Clarendon (ditto).
There are some nice hotels fairly near the Eisenhower Avenue subway stop in Virginia. Ditto the King Street station.
Bethesda MD.
Silver Spring, MD
I don’t know the MD side of things well at all, I admit, but other Dopers can chime in.
The tradeoff is a few more minutes on the Metro to get to the museums.
Many hotels also run shuttles to/from the nearest Metro, but the tradeoff there is what hours the shuttle runs, and also having to wait for it to come get you.
http://www.wmata.com/rail/maps/map.cfm
As you get further out along the suburban lines, you will generally find that accommodations are not necessarily walking distance to the subway station.
You can use Google Street View to get a feel for the neighborhood, and also what kind of a walk it would be.
Thanks again to all. We’ve pretty much got our time line set now: Eight nights in NYC, a night with friends in Connecticut, four nights in Phillly, a night somewhere near Gettysburg, eight nights in DC, then back to NYC and stay near the airport on the last night, maybe venturing back into the city.
After learning Valley Forge is on the way to Gettysburg, I decided we’d go ahead and do an overnight. Thanks too for the DC hotel suggestions; I haven’t had a chance to look closely into that yet, been so busy making sure we’ve got something in NYC secured.
We stayed downtown - walking distance (though a long walk) to the Mall. It was nice to not have to take the Metro (we took it once, to get to the Zoo, and a few cab rides). But downtown DC is a big East Coast downtown. When we took the Metro out to the zoo, you can find hotels in neighborhoods - much more charming if not as convenient.