With the balls, parties, speeches, pageantry, and possible puppy announcement of Inauguration Day coming up in January, right now it seems all travel eyes are on Washington, D.C. While the economy may be hiccupping in general, in D.C. hotel rooms for that weekend are filling up fast, the restaurants are already taking reservations, and swearing-in speech tickets were being sold last week on eBay for truly outrageous prices (hint: these tickets are limited but FREE—just call one of your state’s representatives).

No other city in our country gets to renew itself in quite the same way with every new administration. But as each new cabinet gets ushered in, so do a whole new set of city fads. Cowboy boots are replaced by baseball caps, for example, or Springer Spaniels by Labrador Retrievers (when Millie Bush was in the White House, no less than three Springer Spaniels moved onto my block in Bethesda), and items as varied as jelly beans, broccoli, and "freedom fries" have all had their day in the sun at the local supermarkets.

Lincoln Memorial photo by IgoUgo member Shady Ady

But despite the change in administration, there is so much of Washington that will always remain the same, whether you visit for the Inauguration or beyond. It’s a city of iconic buildings and grand avenues, among them Massachusetts Avenue, where one embassy stands next to another to create the most wonderful juxtapositions. India meet your new next-door neighbor, Estonia. Madagascar, meet Paraguay. Bolivia, meet the United Kingdom.

Walk into the grand rotunda of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and the great elephant will always be there to greet you, and he won’t have aged a day since you last saw him. Lincoln will still be sitting so straight in his tall marble chair, Georgetown’s streets will still be packed to the gills with up-and-comers looking for fun on Friday nights, and political gossip will be served up with the gin in the back-room bars of Dupont Circle and Capitol Hill.

No matter which administration, lawyers, college professors, auto mechanics, and reporters alike will still be promenading up and down the C&O Canal or running around the tidal basin with blackberry in hand. The Beltway traffic will still get everyone steamed, and so will the Redskins. Long and intimate discussions will break out on the Metro or in line at the farmer’s market or in front of the panda exhibit at the National Zoo over where to find the best crabs each season, and whether or not this is the hottest/coldest/driest/rainiest/most humid/most sunny/most thunderstormy season on record, or whether the whole government and school system will shut down over the slightest suggestion of snow flurries in the latest weather forecast.

It’s been years since I lived “inside the Beltway,” but it’s all these things I’ve listed that I look forward to experiencing every time I visit. And while I won’t be able to make it for Inauguration Day, I will be there this Thanksgiving. Yes, that will be me, the one in the rotunda saying hi to the elephant, like he’s an old friend.

Whether you’re visiting for Inauguration Day or have visited in the past, what are your favorite things about D.C.?