What would you put on a list of quintessential Washington experiences? For Steve Halter of Herndon, Va., that list would include taking a walk on the Mall on a late-autumn day.
What if your tastes run more to the vertical than the horizontal?
“Run ‘The Exorcist’ steps in Georgetown,” writes Ralph E. Kipp of Fairfax Station, Va.
Looking for something a little more relaxed? Robin Shuster suggests a visit to the “Spanish Steps,” the handsome stairs on 22nd and S streets NW in Kalorama.
Not long ago in this space, I pondered the concept of the Washington “bucket list” and asked readers to chime in with their suggestions. My marching orders were squishy: A bucket list is typically more aspirational than achievable, more “snorkel in Tahiti” than “walk on the Mall.”
But many people wanted to share things that are eminently doable — if we just get up and walk out the door, especially things that might get overlooked in the clash between This Town and Our Town.
The District’s Stan Wellborn suggested paying homage to Alain Locke, a key member of the Harlem Renaissance, a Harvard graduate and the first African American Rhodes scholar. Locke taught at Howard for several decades. Wrote Stan: “His house is at 1326 R St. NW. There is a historical marker in the front yard.”
Also from Stan but harder to find — the pile of moss-covered stone blocks taken from the U.S. Capitol when it was expanded in the 1950s. They are unceremoniously stacked near the horse stables in Rock Creek Park. “They are like finding relics from an earlier civilization,” Stan wrote.
And while we’re outside, Paul Lojewski of Berlin, Md., was among several readers with this recommendation: “Check out the percussion jam on Sundays at Meridian Hill Park. (Or you can call it Malcolm X Park.)”
Want something even louder? “Go to the end of Gravelly Point closest to Reagan Airport and observe the aircraft either taking off or landing directly over your head,” wrote John Stewart of Manassas, Va.
For Steve Eller of Aldie, Va., there’s nothing more Washington than marching in a protest for a cause that you care about. “Have fun with the like-minded people and find the best signs,” he wrote.
From signs of the times to ties of the flies: Nicholas Elgas is an angler who grew up in the Virginia suburbs. When he started working in Foggy Bottom three years ago he put “catching a snakehead in the Tidal Basin” on his D.C. bucket list.
Start, he said, by attending a Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders’ happy hour at Whitlow’s on Wilson to learn how to tie flies. “Then buy feathers/flies at District Angling and return to the Tidal Basin,” Nicholas wrote. “Park near the Ohio Drive Bridge and catch a snakehead. Don’t forget your pliers.”
Charlie Fontana of Adams Morgan, a 37-year veteran of federal employment, wrote that living in the District “has nothing to do with civil service and everything to do with the city’s rich, non-tourist cultural life.”
His D.C. bucket list includes jogging along Southwest Waterfront Park between the marina and the Titanic Memorial, attending a Spanish-language play in the beautifully restored Tivoli Theatre at 14th Street and Park Road NW and seeing an afternoon film at the National Gallery of Art.
Polly Choate’s list includes a visit to Great Falls Park in Maryland on the C&O Canal, to take the walk out to the falls overlook. “Going over several bridges you are mesmerized by the rushing waters below, and finally rewarded by the overlook where you see the Great Falls of the Potomac,” wrote Polly of the Palisades.
The District’s Vicki Boehm treats friends and relatives to a tour of “Vicki’s Washington.” It includes visiting the spot in front of St. Matthew’s Cathedral on Rhode Island Avenue NW where John-John Kennedy saluted his father’s casket; the Children’s Chapel at Washington National Cathedral, where Jesus’ hand has been worn down over the years from all the people high-fiving it; the Adams Memorial in Rock Creek Cemetery (“to the memory of Clover Adams, but never mentioning her name,” Vicki wrote), and the moving Grave of the Female Stranger in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Alexandria, Va.
Speaking of graves, there’s Aspin Hill Memorial Park, the Silver Spring, Md., pet cemetery where J. Edgar Hoover’s dog, Spee De Bozo, is buried. “There’s no other place like it in the Washington area,” wrote Silver Spring’s Julianne Mangin.
Finally, Sarah Zeigler of Dumfries, Va., writes: “You aren’t a Washingtonian unless you have spent a relaxing day at home rather than accompanying yet another house guest on a futile quest to cover every monument and museum in D.C. in one day.”
Tomorrow: More bucket scrapings.
Twitter: @johnkelly
For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.
