Spend a day exploring a dazzling array of colors, unique shapes and textures, and rich fragrances of gorgeous floral displays and gardens at the nation’s best-known horticultural event. Sara Do-Zhu, horticulturist at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia, leads the tour.
From the Capitol dome to the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building, the work of architect and builder Montgomery Meigs is still part of our region’s landscape. Spend a day focused on Washington history and architecture to discover the many facets and achievements of the former Civil War officer who helped define and develop an enduring vision of the capital city. Lecturer in history, urban studies, and architecture Bill Keene leads the tour.
Visit Pittsburgh—a city of smokestacks and steel miraculously reborn as a cultural capital—for a three-day art-filled tour with art journalist Richard Selden that features the 58th Carnegie International exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art. Other exciting art venues and historic sites are also on the itinerary.
Discover the spring splendors of the Potomac Gorge, a 1,900-acre natural area spanning Maryland and Virginia, and one of the most geologically diverse places on Earth. Join naturalist and author Melanie Choukas-Bradley on a hike along one of the most scenic sections of the river, trekking north from Turkey Run Park along the Potomac Heritage Trail. Along the way, you can admire lush upland forests, view floodplains brilliantly decorated by Virginia bluebells, and keep an eye out for great blue herons and other native fauna.
Hop aboard a private charter of an early 20th-century self-propelled railcar called the Doodlebug and take in the spring sights along the historic Wilmington and Western Railroad line. As you ride, tour leader Joe Nevin, a railroad historian, covers the colorful background of the W&W and offers stories of the once-bustling industrial towns along the branch line.
Brooklyn offers plenty of delights for lovers of art, music, nature, and of course, food. On this two-day visit, arts journalist and former Brooklynite Richard Selden introduces you to several of the borough’s top attractions.
The timeline of America’s military history, marked by national and international conflicts and struggles, reaches beyond the founding of the United States and into the present. Much of this history is connected to the capital area—the backdrop for a day that explores three significant sites in a bus tour led by Brent Feito and Matt Seelinger of the National Museum of the United States Army. That relatively new museum is one of the stops on an itinerary that also includes Mount Vernon and the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
Frank Lloyd Wright left an indelible signature on the American Midwest: a legacy of buildings that trace the arc of his career as one of world’s most significant and innovative architects. A 5-day tour led by historian Bill Keene offers a one-of-kind opportunity for a close-up look at a wide range of Wright’s designs in Illinois and Wisconsin, as well as visits to seminal works by other architects of the early and mid-20th century. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)
