Get started at the National Geographic Museum (17th and M NW) – learn more about the continued mystique of the famous tragedy at sea with Titanic: 100 Year Obsession, or cross a different ocean with Samurai: The Warrior Transformed. Discover the fascinating history of the Samurai and check out some seriously awesome swords. Don’t forget to look at the captivating exhibition of photographs unpublished in the magazine.

Head to Kramerbooks and Afterwords Café (1517 Connecticut Avenue, NW) for a bite. Enjoy a generous, gut-busting brunch at this neighborhood icon, where the orange juice is free and squeezed and the menu will satisfy a spectrum of sweet and salty teeth. While waiting for a table, browse through the books.

Work off some of the brunch calories with a short stroll to the Phillips Collection at 21st and Q. Opened in 1921 as the nation’s first modern art museum, the Phillips displays paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Vincent van Gogh, and many others in what was once its namesake’s private home. Relive your recent past with Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party and surround yourself with color in the Rothko Room.

Want more? Take yourself on a walking tour of the Kalorama neighborhood just outside the Phillips’ door. Kalorama is Greek for “beautiful view,” and you can absorb the architecture with an array of historic homes and embassies. Five presidents kept a home here, and Woodrow Wilson retired to a home on S Street after his presidency.