A few weeks okay, The Washingtonian published “The Great Washington Bucket List: 50 Things Every Local Needs to Do“. Reading through this list, I realize I have been missing out on a lot of great DC activities and foods, even though I’ve visited as a tourist and as a semi-local.

So why not try to make my way through the list?

Starting today, 5 April 2014, I’m going to try to do all 50 items on this list. With the Cherry Blossom festival upon us, I can make some festival-related ones happen very soon. (Although I have already missed the kite festival, so that’ll have to wait until next year!) Again, some of these I have done before, but I figured it’d be nice to try to do them as part of a little blog series here, if you will.

Here are the 50 things on the list, with links to the Washingtonian’s description of each activity. As I complete each bucket list item, I will add a [x] with the link the the blog post recapping that experience.

1. 50 States Bike Ride
2. Air Force Memorial Concert
3. Annapolis Day Trip
4. Arlington National Cemetery
5. Blossom Kite Festival
6. Boundary Stones Tour
7. Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin
8. City Sights — From a Metrobus
9. Civil War Battlefields
10. Congressional Cemetery
11. Ford’s Theatre
12. Fourth of July Fireworks on the Mall
13. Frederick Douglass House
14. George Washington’s Mount Vernon by Boat
15. Great Falls Rafting
16. High Heel Race
17. House of Representatives Debate
18. Inaugural Ball
19. Kennedy Center
20. Kingman Island Bluegrass & Folk Festival
21. Library of Congress Main Reading Room
22. Lincoln Memorial
23. Marine Corps Marathon and Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run
24. Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon
25. Monument Tour
26. Mount Vernon Trail
27. Museums Around the Mall
28. National Arboretum by Moonlight
29. National Archives and DAR Library
30. National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial
31. National Zoo Elephant Trails Tour
32. Old Rag Mountain
33. Only-in-Washington Food Experiences
34. Passport DC Embassy Tour
35. Peking Duck at Peking Gourmet Inn
36. Political Protest
37. Pope-Leighey House
38. President Lincoln’s Cottage
39. Prime Rib at the Prime Rib
40. Rock Creek Park on Horseback
41. Rolling Thunder
42. Round Robin Bar
43. Sculpture Garden Ice Rink
44. Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center
45. Supreme Court Oral Argument
46. US Holocaust Memorial Museum
47. Washington Monument
48. Washington National Cathedral Tower
49. The White House
50. White House Correspondents’ Dinner Event

It would be hasty to just try to dive into this list in this alphabetical order, so I’ve broken it down for you all in the following categories:

• Free, year-round, in DC proper
• Occur once a year, during certain months, etc.
• Need to travel outside of the District
• Food/drink

The only items not on these lists, I believe, are:

• City Sights — From a Metrobus
• Frederick Douglass House
• Kennedy Center
• President Lincoln’s Cottage

This won’t be an easy list to accomplish, and it’ll take at least a year. I just missed the kite festival and the sculpture garden ice rink is already closed. Also, how am I supposed to get into the Correspondents’ Dinner?

Anyway, it’s nice to give some structure to my goal of getting to know The District a little bit better. Most of these items I have never done before, so I’m really excited!

How many of these activities have you done?
Which ones do you think are the must-do DC activities?