Vacations Blog

I’m a pretty big fan of Dan Brown, so of course I purchased a copy of The Lost Symbol the week that the book came out. I read it in a day and really enjoyed it (though “Angels and Demons” remains my favorite of the “Robert Langdon” books). More than any other reaction I garnered from the book, I was left with an increased desire to visit some of the historical landmarks of Washington D.C., which is where the book took place.

I’ve always wanted to go, but now I really want to go. Without giving away any of the plot lines of the books, here are four of the landmarks featured in “The Lost Symbol”:

The Library of Congress, along with being the largest library in the world, is “the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and serves as the research arm of Congress.” The Thomas Jefferson building, which hosts the Library of Congress Experience, is located on 1st Street S.E., between Independence Avenue and East Capitol Street, on Capitol Hill. It is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday. There is no charge to visit, though entrance wait times sometimes exist, and vary from 15 to 45 minutes. Tours occur daily, and various concerts, exhibitions, and other events occur throughout the year.

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Not every vacation is a family vacation. Sometimes—either before, after or just without kids—a person wants an adult place to go. Sure “adult” could mean a coffee shop or the symphony, but sometimes “adult” means, you know, adult. (In case you can’t tell, I’m winking my eye and smirking like a teenager right now.)

In the 1990s, Rudy Guiliani and New York tourism and redevelopment offices cleaned up New York and swept away the adult bookstores. Even Times Square became Disneyfied. So how could an adult attraction stay open in New York’s age of clean storefronts and political correctness? Simple. Get a board of distinguished advisors, collect educational research materials, charge admission, and call it a museum.

A vistor to new York City's Museum of Sex disregards the sign.

New York City’s Museum of Sex opened in 2002. To some critics, it may seem like no more than a museum of porn and raunch. But it’s actually much more.

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