Happy 2023! May this new year bring you joy and good memories.
My more recent New Year celebrations have been with family that I typically only see once or twice a year (2020 being an exception). This year I opted to celebrate 2023 by doing something I haven’t done in a long time on New Years Day: venture into my home city of Washington DC and visit the Smithsonian Museums.
It was a wonderfully nostalgic trip.
The last time I was in the Capitol city on New Year’s Day was 10 years ago. I remember being severely hungover and sleep deprived, one of my poor friends chose to come with my family, and it was incredibly crowded.
However, it is still a fond memory - though I may have been fighting hard to not revisit the things I ate and drank the night before.
I’m not sure when the tradition began, but one day my parents decided it was a good idea to go downtown and see the museums. Now, if you aren’t from the DC area, you’re probably unaware of the fact that the Smithsonian Museums only close Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. They are open (for the most part) on New Years Day.
For a long time this was a locals only secret (and in someways it still is). The first year my family did this, it was cold and rainy without any hint of snow in the grey sky. We went to National Archives and progressed to Air and Space, ending at the National Conservatory. We stayed all day and admired the People’s Tree in front of Congress and the States and Territories’ Trees by the White House. I’m sure there were other stops on our trip - as we did spend the whole day on The Mall.
After that first year, if we stayed in the DC area for the whole holiday season, New Years Day was spent visiting the Smithsonians and, eventually, wandering into Chinatown for noodle soup and dumplings. The addition of Chinatown started when we were visiting the National Portrait Gallery and got very hungry. Instead of eating at the generic cafe in the museum, we walked a block over to Chinatown and found a wonderful noodle restaurant.
This year was the first I could come down on New Years Day in a long, long time. In preparation, I decided to see if I could get a ticket to one of the museums I hadn’t yet been to: The African American History Museum. Though all Smithsonian Museums are free to go into, this particular museum has a high demand for entrance. To help with crowd control, the museum offers timed tickets (for free) for entry. I managed to snag an 11:30am ET.
However, I wanted to start my day earlier than that as the Smithsonians open at 10:00am ET (daily). I started at National Archives, then spent about 10 minutes in Natural History, before making my time slot for African American History.
I could have easily spent days there and will probably have to go back soon. The most popular part of the museum is 1.5 miles long and is beneath the main building. It covers the 500 years of African slavery and the civil rights movement. The most moving area was the funeral of Emmett Till.
The top three floors of the museum are dedicated to African American achievements in sports, arts, entertainment, music, politics, and culture. A beautiful exhibit of political and activist art was probably my favorite.
Additionally, there is a waterfall inside the building that is amazing to see.
(Side Note and Quick Tips for Visiting: get an early timed ticket and do the downstairs exhibits first as there can be lines as long as an hour to get in. I was lucky enough to basically walk into the exhibit, but by the time I got out, there was a 25 minute long line and even later one that reached the next floor.)
My final stop today, was in Chinatown for noodle soup and dumplings. Thankfully, Chinatown Express is still in operation and still has some of the best noodles in the area.
Though Washington DC may not seem like the place to be on New Years, it’s one of my favorite. I didn’t even visit half the cool places I know are open (timing and sore muscles played a part). This year didn’t seem as crowded as other years, but that could be because people are traveling again. If you’re a DC local and haven’t yet done this, I highly recommend it. As for the tourists…maybe wait for tourist season (ours starts in April) and let us locals enjoy our city.
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Until next week!
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