Washington DC Encounter

Like few cities in America, Washington is both a beneficiary and a victim of perception.

One version comprises marble, monuments and museums in the shadow of the Capitol dome. Great restaurants, wild clubs. More culture the Smithsonian, the Kennedy Center, the Folger than a city this size deserves, plus a National Mall thats the front yard and public podium of the American people.

The other version of Washington is where too many wake up to a morning-after hangover of the American dream, transplants and aristocrats float above the fray, and the federal government seems to turn a blind eye to its own home.

Which is the real Washington? All of the above. Yet the two-cities-in-one stereotype limits this great town. Like the nation she governs, DC is defined by her compromises, not her extremes. And conversations about where that nation is headed occur here with more frequency and passion than anywhere else in America.

Contrary to popular belief, this conversation occurs among out-of-town politicos and folks, as they say here, from around the way. The ones who remember Danny Ferrys fast break at DeMatha and Mark the Ripper at RFK. People who know Kissinger preferred Chinese at Yengching Palace before it closed, even though Full Kee does better duck. Guys who would never eat on the Mall, but know it well enough to recommend Constitution Gardens for the sunset (17th and Constitution, by the way).

When it comes to politics, DCs homegrown will argue you under the table. Thats the soul of this city: not divisions or iconography, but a population thats as intellectually stimulating as any Manhattan dinner party, and as comfortably down-home as moms mac n cheese (which our soul-food joints cook best).

But dont take our word for it. Real Washingtonians might be opinionated as hell, but theyre also twice as warm, so come visit, and see a global capital thats local enough to love.

A bronzed third president standing proud at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial
GREG GAWLOWSKI

We love Washington, DC for what lies beneath her majestic facade, but if beauty is skin deep, the District is still pretty hot thanks to her most recognizable landmarks. Whatever else DC is, shes a capital first, and as such is dotted with the most potent symbols of the American narrative. Gleaming buildings, memorials and sculptures are scattered throughout town, but reach their greatest concentration here.

These icons combine with museums that house the countrys knowledge, monuments to heroes and a 1.9-mile scabby lawn to form the great public green of the American consciousness: the National Mall, heart of not just Washington, but perhaps the USA as well.

Whether youre a skeptic of or fervent believer in the American dream, that story informs the nations vision of itself, and you cant find more concrete symbols of this abstract ideal than the towering structures that frame the Mall. Wandering from the is like entering a cathedral: simultaneously humbling and inspiring.

And in many ways the Mall is essentially a house of worship: a secular place of pilgrimage for those who profess faith in democracy, and a patriotic temple to the American experiment. The deities this country enshrines are all here. The real potential for growth, change and a better life feels evident, and the value of intangibles such as freedom and liberty obvious, in written records from the .

Yet the Mall is not just overwhelmingly grand. When an Ultimate team member from Arlington yells, Little help! after they toss their Frisbee into a Punjabi family picnic, or an Angolan couple takes pictures of Bob and Fran from Indiana in front of the , you realize the act of experiencing the Mall is made up of small intimate moments, which are somehow very accessible amid all the grandeur.

Visiting the Mall for the sake of the Mall itself, rather than any one individual museum or monument, takes the better part of a day. Come here in a mood as reflective as the pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial, and prepare yourself for a walk through, with and into American identity.

The Reflecting Pool on National Mall, with Lincoln Memorial in background
LEE FOSTER

Georgetown is the name of both one of the premier universities in the world and a neighborhood that has long been the seat of Washingtonian royalty: a brick-and-old-stone tangle of leafy avenues, cobbled alleyways, diplomats walking their kids to prep school and professors deconstructing experimental theater over glasses of merlot. But come Thursday night, this neighborhood sublimates all of the above and becomes, basically, a big river of boiling hormones.

Theres a distinctly upper-class crust to the Georgetown scene that sets it apart. Whether you love or loathe the local nightlife, the fact is you may never get the chance to see so much American Old Money and aristocracy acting the fool in bars such as outside of Harvard Sq.

Of course theres a reason the moneyed classes love this hood, although the appeal extends to anyone who hikes here. Dining is romantic (JFK proposed to Jackie at Martins; is the oldest building in DC making it a magical place for a stroll in the early evening, as long as you avoid the traffic-clogged main drag of M St.

Historic Georgetown in Washington DC. Georgetown was once a Colonial tobacco port
GREG GAWLOWSKI

Popular wisdom holds that in America, baseball is embraced by the Northeast, football by the South and basketball by African Americans. Washington incorporates people from every one of these demographics, and no one in this town limits themselves to any one game.

DC loves sports. For locals who resent the way New Yorkers, Baltimoreans and Philadelphians categorize their town as a city populated by transplants, game days are a reminder that competitive and community roots here run deep. For actual transplants, watching teams like the Nationals at .

JEFF HUTCHENS / GETTY IMAGES