I am very excited that CFUnited has moved to the Washington Convention Center this year as the facility and the surrounding area are awesome. I may well be biased though: I live two blocks from the convention center!  Here is a review of what to expect in the center and the area beyond.

The venue

The Walter E. Washington Convention Center (as it will be renamed soon) is a lovely convention center boasting the largest public art collection in DC. Spread over six city blocks the center is well designed and avoids the "big hall" mentality of many older convention centers. One small criticism I had of the Bethesda location was that session rooms where spread out over multiple floors. Having been in the Washington Convention Center many times and talking to Liz it seems that this year all session rooms will be off one hallway about a city block long. Hallway is an inaccurate description since its a 4-5 story glass viewfront of the street. As CFUnited gets bigger I like the idea of it staying intimate and I think that will happen this year.

The conference hotel is a top quality hotel, but one big plus this year, is no need for a shuttle for the overflow. Within walking distance are four or five other hotels and for the bigger conferences I see people walking up to half a mile to the center. Not a fan of hotels then try the Morrison-Clark Historic Inn (ColdFusion site :)) and the DC Guest House. June is a popular month in DC so book your hotels soon.

The area

The convention center is located just a few blocks north of downtown DC (an area also refered to as Chinatown, Penn Quarter and Gallery Place) and right above the Mt. Vernon Square / Convention Center metro stop. Downtown DC has been revitalized over the past 5 to 10 years and is now full of bars, restaurants and museums all partially inspired by the building of the Verizon Center (at the time it was the MCI Center). I'll start with the bars since thats probably of most interest.

Bars

In the convention center but accessed from 9th Street is the Old Dominion Brewhouse.  My favorite is the basement Rocket bar with a good beer selection, pool tables and shuffle board. There is also a good Irish bar, the Irish Channel, a so-so one, Fado's and a beer hall, RFD, with over 30 beers on tap and 300 (yes, 300) others in bottles. An American classic is Clydes (ColdFusion site :)), a fashionable bowling and bar called Lucky Strike, which is above Bar Louie a casual American bar and a sports bar called The Green Turtle. All of those will pretty much take you wearing whatever (and make good places for watching Euro 2008 or other sports) but if you are looking for something more upscale these are your bars: Indeblue, Zaytina, Oya, Zola and Poste.

Restaurants

Downtown DC caters for every budget and time of day. At the high end are the four restaurants listed above (Indeblue, Oya, Zola and Poste) in the bars section -- DC liquor licenses are such that most bars are restaurants as well. Of special note is Zaytina which serves tapas sized portions of Mediterranean fare at good prizes. It also has two sister restaurants, the original Jaleo serving Spanish tapas and Oyamel featuring Mexican tapas. Rosa Mexicana also serves up full portions of Mexican food.

If you love wine you will love Proof, part wine bar, part restaurant. Likewise, if you love Vegetarian food go to Vegetate (the only restaurant listed thats north of the center). Two good Indian restaurants are Mehak and the much more fashionable Rasika. Trendy pizza is served up by Ella's and Matchbox which has more of a scene. Burma, serves, well Burmese food (well worth trying even if its just to eat cocaine chicken) and is above the excellent Kanlaya serving Thai, sushi can be found at Sushi Go Round and its sister restaurant Thai Chili serves well you can guess.  Chinatown, is extremely small, but has many Chinese restaurants including China Garden.

Interesting, quick to places like California Tortilla (headquarters in Maryland!), Chop't serves up salads and Teaism won't break the bank but will fill you up. Fast food can also be found with McDonalds, Duncan Donuts, Chipotle, Five Guys and Burger King all around. There are some chain restaurants as well like Legal Sea Foods, Ruby Tuesdays and Hooters. Coffee wise there are enough Starbucks around (5 off the top of my head plus one in the center) to cafinate us all plus some more local places also serving breakfast like EuroCafe, Breakwells opposite the center and Cozy Cafe Corner which also has free wi-fi.

Museums & Monuments

Popular sites include the White House, Washington Monument, Holocaust Museum, Vietnam Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, National Gallery of Art, Portrait Gallery (currently featuring Stephen Colbert) all of which are free. And that is a distinctive feature about many of DC's popular museum: they are free. All of the Smithsonian museums are free thanks to donors (including the Federal government) and many others also follow this model. The National Building Museum, my favorite, is a stunning building and with interesting exhibits including one on DC which explains its history and relationship with its federal overlords (we have no representation in Congress).

Moving in to paid museums the most popular is the Spy Museum, looking for wax then there is Madame Tussards, and opening by this summer are the National Museum of Crime & Punishment and the Newseum. Plenty of good art galleries like the Corcoran and the Phillips Collection.

There are also plenty of theaters (second to only New York in tickets sold), blockbuster movie theaters and indie movie theaters.

Everything I've mentioned, except for a few of the memorials and museums, are in walking distance of the convention center and Hyatt hotel but there is more to DC if you are prepared to get on the metro or bus. So come to CFUnited and add on a day or three to visit DC. You won't be disappointed!