Note: For this itinerary, you should call in advance for restaurant and ticket reservations.

Your second day takes you to the National Mall and the Smithsonian museums, to venture through gardens and inside some of the buildings you passed the night before on your moonlight tour. Last stop on the Mall will be at the National Archives before crossing Pennsylvania Avenue into the heart of D.C.'s fastest growing neighborhood, the Penn Quarter. Penn Quarter is also home to so many excellent restaurants that you can plan on staying here for both lunch and dinner. Start: Metro on the Blue Line to Smithsonian.

1. Hirshhorn Museum Sculpture Garden -- If you've gotten off to an early start, meaning 7:30am, you may find the Mall fairly deserted. Then again, Washington is a town of early risers, so there's just as good a chance that you'll find yourself scooting out of the way of joggers and suit-clad workers scurrying to offices. At 7:30am, the only museum site open is the Hirshhorn's Sculpture Garden, which is a sunken, green landscape displaying some 60, large-scale sculptures. Don't miss Barbara Hepworth's Figure for Landscape, striking at any time of the year.

2. Smithsonian Castle (Information Center) -- The Smithsonian's Information Center opens at 8:30am, as does its Seattle's Best coffee kiosk. Stop at the information desk for brochures and information, then at the kiosk for coffee and a muffin, and sit outside in the Enid Haupt Garden to plan your moves for the day. You won't have time to tour every museum on the Mall, and at least one Smithsonian -- the National Museum of American History -- is undergoing such an extensive renovation that it may be closed anyway.

3. Freer Gallery -- This handsome building, with its Italian Renaissance architecture and arched courtyard is devoted to Asian art, with one major exception: its Whistler holdings. Visit the spectacular Peacock Room, so called for the golden peacock feathers that Whistler painted upon the walls of the room, which was once part of a friend's London townhouse (it's a long story). Continue through other chambers of the gallery to admire ancient jade objects, early Buddhist sculpture, Islamic art, and a wealth of Asian works.

4. National Air and Space Museum -- Nothing attests to human ingenuity better than this vast display of machines we've created to fly through air and space. And yet, one of this museum's enduring attractions is something that puts those human accomplishments in perspective. The Albert Einstein Planetarium (you'll need a ticket to enter) coaxes you to wonder about the dimensions of the universe and where it leads.

5. National Gallery Sculpture Garden -- With its evening jazz in summer, ice rink in winter, and cafe all year-round, the sculpture garden is as much an urban park as a sightseeing destination. People tend to come here just to hang out. Too bad it opens so late (10am Mon-Sat, 11am Sun) and closes so early (5pm-9pm, depending on the day and time of year).

6. National Archives -- Area residents are slow to catch on, but the National Archives is in the midst of transforming itself into a multimedia complex, mounting major exhibitions, screening documentaries, and hosting talks by contemporary authors. Its finest feature, however, will always be its display of the original Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and Bill of Rights.

7. Bistro D'Oc -- You've been on your feet since 7:30am! Treat yourself to an apperitif and a delicious taste of something French in this sunny bistro. tel. 202/393-5444.

8. National Portrait Gallery & 9. American Art Museum -- Before this building was even finished in 1867, it had already served as a Civil War hospital and as the site of Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural ball. Upon completion, the building housed patent offices, whose clerks eventually issued patents to Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and 500,000 other inventors. The Smithsonian took over the Patent Office Building and remodeled it before opening two-museums-in-one in 1968.

By 2000, the structure was again in need of renovation, this time requiring six years and intense improvements. When the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum reopen in July 2006, the public will be able to tour the Hall of Presidents, use interactive displays to learn about our national characters, and view American masterpieces that have been on traveling exhibits or in storage, during the time the museums have been closed.

10. International Spy Museum -- Filled to the gills with spy lore and facts -- sometimes scary, sometimes silly -- the best exhibits are those at the beginning, which employ interactive games to test your skills of observation and detection. At the end, you watch videos of real-life agents talk about their experiences.

11. Zola -- Zola, in the same building as the Spy Museum, plays upon a sleuth theme in its decor. The food's for real, though and highly recommended. tel. 202/654-0999.