We spent four days doing a staycation in Washington D.C. for a Stray Kids concert.

For so many years, I’ve been saying Washington D.C. is my favorite city in the world. Now that I’ve actually traveled a bit more lately, I don’t know if that’s true, especially considering I always gravitate back towards Korea as a place. I don’t know if I’ll ever call Korea home—I can say that Washington feels a little bit like home.

I grew up going to DC because I was from Baltimore, and when we did get a rare field trip to another place, it would always be to DC because the Smithsonians were free. As I got older and moved to New York City, then came back home after COVID, DC took on new meaning for me, especially as I started doing more staycations and even worked at the Smithsonian for a bit.

Regardless, I try to go back whenever possible for a staycation, especially considering it’s so easy to get to. This staycation was mildly unplanned, and we only did it during this time because I had impulsively bought tickets to a Stray Kids concert at Nationals Park. More on that later, as that was one of the most dangerous concerts I’ve ever been to for a plethora of reasons.

I wouldn’t recommend DC in the summer if you can swing it any other season, as it’s not only peak tourist season, but the weather towards the end of June is ungodly hot. Some days we were here became a heat wave, and the heat index literally hit 110 degrees. We were dying, as we had no car, and the sweat was truly dripping down our backs.

We booked an AirBnB that was a five minute walk from Union Market, and eight minutes from the nearest subway station on the red line. I’d never been to Union Market before, but would highly recommend. It was such a nice food hall, and we got some local produce/meat from here that was great.

From Baltimore Penn Station I’m used to catching the Amtrak for $10 round trip during the off season and off hours, but for some reason, during this trip, it was almost $50 one way. So my friend and I booked tickets on the Maryland commuter train, the MARC, which cost $18 round trip, $9 one way. It was a comfortable ride, and we were in DC in less than an hour. The ride back was also empty, so we had places to put our stuff.

Let’s get into what we did! This introduction is getting a little long, and I don’t want to bore you with the more mundane details of how our trip went.

Day 1: Union Market, Errands, Shopping, and K-Pop Club Night

On our first day in town, we decided to get the 11 AM MARC train. We got into DC after an hour, and then it was down to business. Our first objective was to check into our AirBnb, but we had some time to burn (about two hours) before we could do so.

Our AirBnB was near Union Market, so we decided to walk from Union Station to Union Market, which was only about twenty minutes. We had only brought backpacks, so we were able to pick up some ice cream at The Creamery in the market, ate it standing up, and then decided to go to Trader Joes and get groceries before heading to the AirBnB.

Grocery stores are my favorite place to waste time in, plus I hadn’t been in a Trader Joe’s in several years at this point, nor had my friend. We had a blast in there, marveling at how DC grocery stores sold alcohol (it’s illegal in Maryland), and we picked up some goods to munch on and breakfasts for me.

We then hauled our stuff to the AirBnB, where we relaxed for an hour and decided it was too hot to check out the monuments. My friend then decided she wanted one of the juicy steaks at the butcher shop in Union Market, so we went back, bought a pound, then went into Trader Joe’s again to grab some vegetables to eat with it.

And that was how we ended up eating inside our first night! I’ll have to admit: that steak was actually fantastic from Union Market, and it was from a local farm in Maryland. That meal was so satisfying and I’ll be dreaming of it the next time I want a steak in like a year.

Despite that, we did have one plan for the night: we had bought tickets with some other friends back home to go to K-pop Club Night at the Howard Theatre. I had no idea what to expect going into this, and I only went because I was seriously curious about what exactly K-Pop Club Night meant.

It turned out to be the most weirdly wholesome thing. I’ve never seen a situation where people were so nice, and the staff was passing out free waters to make sure everyone was hydrated. I don’t think I’d go to it again because I don’t like to dance that much, but it was fun and they played a lot of old school K-pop, which is all I know really.

We got home at around 1 AM, then passed out at 2.

Day 2: Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Carmine’s, Smithsonian Museum of African Art, Rooftop Bars

Day 2 in Washington came with some prearranged plans: our friend, who is from Kenya, wanted to come down into the city and hang out with us. Turns out she had no idea what people did in Washington D.C., so we were giving her a blast of what it was like to be an American tourist here. She’s moving back to Africa soon (at the time of typing this), so we wanted her to experience some very American aspects of life before she left.

Anyways, she met us at the Union Market parking lot (which is apparently free) at 11:30 AM, then we headed off to the subway to start our day. My friend wanted to go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, as it’s her favorite museum. I had never been, and neither had my friend, so we were happy to tag alone.

On a June Sunday, after school was out, it was a bit of a nightmare around noon crowds wise. It got worse as the day went along, but we had cleared the second floor at that point and decided to head to the next museum, which was much less crowded. I liked the Natural History Museum though, especially the sections with the dinosaur bones.

I want to go to the New York one again I think, although that’s an expensive ticket. We decided to go to African Art, which is one of the least visited museums, and it was indeed a little empty when we went there. We cut through the National Mall and took a peek at the Smithsonian Castle, then wandered into the underground section of African Art.

I’ve been there before, so I was surprised at how empty it was when we came. I think it was in-between exhibitions at the time, so there were some empty rooms and whatnot that led to nowhere. Some highlights for this trip though was the Ethiopian artist who made a shrine to Black elders and women killed through violence, as well as the contemporary and traditional artwork showcased in the second basement floor.

After this, we headed to Carmine’s for dinner, as our friend had never had Italian food before. I figured the best place to take her would be Carmine’s in DC, and while she was underwhelmed by Italian food in general, I think we had a good time in there. We ventured to Crimson Whiskey Bar’s rooftop in Chinatown and had a few drinks and a mocktail, admiring the good views.

Once the sun started setting, we hopped on the train and ended up back at Union Market. My friend from out of town grabbed an ice cream before hitting the road, and then my other friend and I decided to chill the rest of the night. I worked on a book I’ve been meaning to read while she watched videos.

We ended the night trying to figure out what to do the next day, only to discover the African American History and Air & Space are both reserved tickets. And it turns out those reserved tickets were completely booked for the next day, leaving us short of luck. Despite this, we decided to find something else to do and went to bed.

Day 3: Stray Kids Concert, Hirshhorn, Founding Farmers, and National Museum of Asian Art

This, and the previous day, were the two days we planned carefully because of the temperature. The only solid plan for me was the fact I had to meet a friend for dinner before going to the Stray Kids concert at Nationals Park, and the friend I was staying with planned on having a chill night back at the AirBnB.

We headed out at around 11 AM, caught the red line and transferred to the silver line to arrive right a the Smithsonian stop. We planned on going to Asian Art, as that was going to be a lot less crowded. This is one of my personal favorite Smithsonian museums, as pan-Asian art as a whole is something I considered going to graduate school for.

Once upon a time, I almost majored in art history and museum professions, but that never happened because I wanted the more comfortable lifestyle financially. Well, that ended up not happening either, but I still love art history. This Smithsonian has a great collection of Korean pottery that I always enjoy looking at, as well as the Peacock Room (look its’ story up—it’s so incredibly fascinating) and the Japanese dividers on the upper floor.

A special exhibit I really liked downstairs was on depictions of Krishna in Hindu and Indian subcontinent art. I liked that exhibit a lot, and there was an instrumental track playing throughout the dark rooms that made you feel like he was watching over you. We finished the museum not long after that and headed over to the Hirshhorn down the block.

This is the contemporary art museum, which I had been to when they had Yayoi Kusama’s infinity room installed in the basement. We only spent about an hour and a half wandering these galleries, and I was proud I could now identify a Pollock, Krasner (both of them), and Frankenthaler upon seeing them immediately. It’s become a talent I don’t really want to have.

At 3 PM, we walked to Founding Farmers in Chinatown for their happy hour, and my other friend joined us. We left for our concert, saying goodbye to my friend who was going back to the AirBnB, and this marked the beginning of a slightly terrifying night.

If you Google what happened at the Stray Kids concert in DC, that will give a more holistic picture of what happened. We arrived at 4:45 PM, saw the lines twisting around and no one knowing what to do, and decided we were going to get a drink nearby before throwing ourselves into the chaos. Despite that, we ended up in line, in the sun when it was 110 degrees, for two hours to get in.

The entire concert venue was disorganized, and it was criminal that they were charging almost $10 for a water bottle. Stray Kids were amazing, even though I felt so bad for them. They were performing under lights and fire with leather and jackets on, which was seriously dangerous for them as well.

However, things progressively got worse, as they kept stopping the concert out of concern for the fans in the downstairs area. I saw from upstairs that there were people passing out and being put on stretchers to be hauled to the medical tents, and it turns out the venue straight up ran out of water.

The problem became so widespread there was a twenty minute medical emergency break, which was much needed because of how many people were passing out, and I decided to flee then in an Uber. Apparently they restarted and then cancelled for everyone’s safety, and it was a madhouse to get out, with more people passing out because of the sheer amount of bodies trying to exit—because, of course, Nationals only had one exit open.

It was later declared a mass casualty event (no one died, thankfully, but several were hospitalized), and I’m glad I hydrated throughout the day and left when I did. I saw it was incredibly dangerous and hot, so it was time to get out when the warning signs were flashing in my head. Stray Kids were fantastic though, and they were advocating for fans and passing out their own water to people.

Day 4: A brunch at Rumi’s Kitchen and a quiet ride back home.

Day 4 of our time in Washington was equally as hot as the previous days. We packed up our belongings early in the morning, leaving behind a single frozen Trader Joe’s palak paneer, and as soon as we stepped outside we were blasted by the humidity and heat.

Our first stop was a restaurant depot store right by the Yellow Cafe location at Union Market. We wandered in there for five minutes during the first day, and I was pleasantly surprised to see they had titanium Korean plates. These are the gold ones you can find at nicer Korean restaurants, and they were only $11 here.

My friend picked up some kitchen utensils and I grabbed two of the titanium kimchi plates, which was quite the happy purchase for me. I’ve been using them constantly ever since I bought them because they’re so beautiful. $22 down, we then walked to the red line to go to Chinatown, as our next stop was Rumi’s Kitchen.

This is my all-time favorite restaurant in Washington, and my family, who has eaten so much Iranian food in our lifetime, agree they have some of the best kabobs around. I got my friend hooked onto Rumi’s the last time we were in DC, and while we were supposed to meet another one of my friends, she called out last minute because she was ill.

It was sad to go without her, but we rolled up right at opening, dripping in sweat from the 110 heat index, and ordered the soltani (so beef tenderloin and minced beef kabobs), two sodas (naranj and passion fruit), and a side order of grilled onion. And it was good as always, although I get the sense I’m kind of tired of Rumi’s because I’ve been there so much.

Regardless, we were planning to do stuff before heading home, but because it was so hot we decided to catch the 1:10 PM MARC home. Thankfully the red line drops you right off at Union Station, so we were able to hope on the train after a quick bathroom break. We were some of the only people left on the train at that point, because who’s on the commuter train at 1 PM on a weekday? Apparently us.

This was such a nice trip, but I would seriously recommend being careful about going to DC in the summer. Last year, I was in Korea, but my family did a staycation around the same time and complained that the heat was dangerous. In the future, I think I’ll stick to fall and spring trips for the sake of my sanity and health.

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