I've never liked DC. I've been there once before and wasn't impressed, but I gave it a second chance since I had to go down there for a conference. First of all, it's an extremely cold city, temperature wise and people wise. In a way, it seems like a city that isn't even real--it's very pretty, but empty, like the set of some movie after hours. We wandered around the first night at about 9:30 pm, and there was no one on the sidewalks, and an occasional car every now and then--this was by the Capitol.
Now New Yorkers have a reputation for being mean, but I would say that people in DC were meaner. At one restaurant, I asked people if they would be willing to move down and fill in the empty seat in the center so that both my friend and I could sit down (this was actually at a bar), and they refused! Instead, they pointed at another table that was getting up to leave. When I went to get into my cab, this random guy pretended that he was going to get into the cab with me, which of course freaked me out--then said to me, "It's only a joke, fucking chill." Which of course I screamed a bunch of profanities back at him. Seriously, the audacity of it!
We visited the white house because a friend of mine happened to know someone...apparently it is somewhat difficult to visit the white house since 9/11. It was nice, but not super interesting. Basically, there was a red room, yellow room, green room, and blue room--and they were named that. My friend asked the secret service guy if he was anything more than a glorified receptionist, to which he answered that he did other important things, like travel with the president on different shifts :P
As for night life, there was this area that did have people. Apparently there is an area with clubs as well, although I only went to a bar. It was just okay, but to be fair I was only there for a two days. Perhaps if I actually lived there I would like it more, but it's really not the best place to visit.
