After a wet, drizzly winter and a colder-than-normal March, all of a sudden, it got nice again in D.C. As genuinely lousy as D.C.’s weather tends to be, when it’s nice out, it’s really nice. And there are plenty of places to enjoy it—parks, outdoor museums, sidewalk cafés and courtyard patios. Some of these places you’ve probably already visited quite a bit, others, perhaps not. But they’re all great examples of how lovely D.C. can be in the springtime. So enjoy them now, because come July, when it gets to be 95 and humid every day, all you’ll want to do is stay inside and make love to your air conditioner.
Photo by Jason Vines
HIRSHHORN SCULPTURE GARDEN: I used to go there during lunch breaks when I worked near L’Enfant Plaza and either just sat there, staring at the sculptures, or walked around while listening to Bluebrain’s The National Mall app. Always a good detox from work. —Valerie Paschall
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is located at 700 Independence Ave SW.
Photo by Christopher Chen
MERIDIAN HILL PARK: On Sundays, this is about as close to a West Coast commune as D.C. Between the drum circles, tightrope walkers, jugglers, and couples doing sexually charged acrobatic yoga in public, it’s a slice of Berkley in Columbia Heights. —Alicia Mazzara
Meridian Hill Park is bounded by 16th, Euclid, 15th, and W streets NW.
Photo by Craig Moe
POSTE BRASSERIE: Enjoying a tasty beverage outdoors in the courtyard at this Penn Quarter restaurant is always a wonderfully surreal experience, especially when coming in through the Eighth Street entrance, which was once a carriageway passage for horse-drawn carriages. It feels as if I’ve been magically transported to Europe thanks to the surrounding architecture of the former General Post Office, built in 1839, which is patterned after the ancient Roman Temple of Jupiter. —James Calder
Poste Moderne Brasserie is located at 555 Eighth Street NW; (202) 783-6060.
Photo by Kevin Harber
KENILWORTH PARK AND AQUATIC GARDENS: Absolutely stunning, especially in the springtime. Massive lily pads, herons everywhere. Seriously, it’s like a whole different world in D.C. —Pablo Maurer
Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens is located at 1550 Anacostia Avenue SE.
Photo by zizzybaloobah
ELIZABETHAN GARDEN: TheFolger Shakespeare Library has an herb garden that features plants mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays, play-related sculptures, benches, and giant magnolia trees. It’s fenced in, so it looks like you’re not allowed to go in there, but you are. It’s open to the public 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It’s a secluded little oasis on Capitol Hill that’s a great spot to eat your lunch. I’m sure the people who do know about it will be annoyed that the secret is out. —Elisabeth Grant
The Folger Shakespeare Library is located at 201 East Capitol Street SE; (202) 544-4600.
Photo by owash
MONTROSE PARK: Squeezed between Oak Hill Cemetery and Dumbarton Oaks on Georgetown’s northernmost end, Montrose Park is an urban oasis. Whether you want to have a picnic, play tennis or take your kids to the playground, the park feels detached from the bustling city it resides in. And though the park itself is worth a visit, it can also serve as a useful jumping off point for an entire day outside—the park slopes down towards Rock Creek Park, where it connects to a set of trails that can take you as far north as the Maryland border. —Martin Austermuhle
Montrose Park is located on the 3000 block of R Street NW.
Photo by James0806
ROCK CREEK PARK (all of it): Is this a conventional choice? Sure, but it really can be quite lovely. This verdant valley in the middle of the city offers a shady, recreation-filled respite from the everyday bustle. Yeah, the bike path down to the Tidal Basin has gone to shit and motorists on Beach Drive and Blagden Avenue should really cool it, but this is still a great place to bike, run, hike, have a picnic, or see how well your body handles that parcourse. Beach Drive north of Blagden on a weekend is an easy route for a long and leisurely ride. The deer population just got thinned out, which should only do good things for the plant life (and cut down on those near collisions on low-light bike rides). The late, great, Donald Byrd produced a classic song about it. Oh, and did we mention there’s a zoo in the middle of it? —Benjamin R. Freed
Rock Creek Park is a 2,820-acre park in the middle of Northwest D.C. You can’t miss it.
