Washington, DC & Baltimore

Night is the perfect time to see the capital, when white marble monuments and silvery pools glow in the floodlights. See the geometric memorials of the Mall—the imposing rectangular Lincoln Memorial, and the line of the Washington Monument bisecting the sky—as well as the innovative and moving monuments to the veterans of the Vietnam and Korean Wars.

Homeless for much of its history, the Supreme Court has wandered between stock exchange buildings in New York, various chambers in the Capitol, and even a private home in Washington before this permanent building was completed in 1934. The national symbol of American justice, the building incorporates American materials (you'll find marble from Vermont, Georgia, and Alabama and American quartered white oak throughout the building) and may represent a first and only accomplishment in American history -- the public building came in under budget, and the builders returned $94,000 to the Treasury. The court, comprising nine presidential appointees, meets to debate cases from October through June.

One of the iconic symbols of the United States, the Capitol building dominates the Washington skyline -- with the exception of the Washington Monument, buildings taller than the Capitol dome are prohibited in the city. America's two congressional chambers, the House of Representatives and the Senate, meet here to propose and debate legislation. The Capitol has also seen ten presidents, including JFK and Ronald Reagan, laid in state beneath its dome before their burials. George Washington laid a silver-plated cornerstone here in 1793, but during a recent remodeling, no one was able to find it, not even with a metal detector.

George Washington so liked his estate at Mount Vernon that he placed the capital nearby so he didn’t have to move when elected president. Tour his gardens and mansion, where George and Martha lived from 1761 until his death in 1799. Don’t look for any cherry tree stumps in the garden, though—Washington never actually chopped down the tree as a lad. (We hate to ruin the story, but we cannot tell a lie!)

Created on the former estate of the family of Robert E. Lee’s wife Mary Anna Custis Lee (herself a descendent of Martha Washington), the Arlinton National Cemetery contains the remains of more than 245,000 persons, mainly comprised of veterans and military casualties from every military incursion—from the American Revolution to the Iraq War. At the cemetery, make sure to visit the Tomb of Unknowns. Comprised of Yule marble quarried in Colorado, the tomb weighs more than 75 tons. And see the eternal flame that marks the grave of President John F. Kennedy.

Visit the Air & Space Museum and choose between the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the American Indian Museum or the American Art Museum. In a tomb in the Smithsonian Castle lie the remains of John Smithson, an Englishman who left his fortune to the U.S. government in 1829 for the establishment of a museum in his name. (The government was a bit at a loss, given that Smithson had never visited the U.S., had no connections to the U.S., and never told anyone why he was leaving his money to the U.S.) Since then, the Smithsonian Institution has grown into 16 museums, covering everything from art to zoology. See the giant squid and the insect zoo in the National Museum of Natural History, check out the Wright Brothers’ plane in the National Air and Space Museum, or venture with your Tour Director into the further reaches of this world-class institution.

With more than 900 artifacts, 70 video monitors, and four theaters screening historic film footage and eyewitness testimonies, the Holocaust Museum provides a comprehensive -- and moving -- account of the Nazi persecution of Europe's Jewish communities and others during the 1930s and 40s. See newspapers and newsreels from the period, recreations of ghettos and concentration camp barracks, and a room filled shoes stolen from deported Jews that helps make real the sheer number of people killed during this tragedy.