As Washingtonians flee the District in August, now is the perfect time to take advantage of the plethora of free museums and art galleries around town. But don’t just settle for Smithsonian museums, check out The Kennedy Center.

Opened in 1971 to commemorate the life and legacy of President John F. Kennedy, The Kennedy Center brings some of the best performers from around the world to its state of the art facilities. While some of those events may be pricey, The Kennedy Center also has free nightly performances at 6PM on its Millennium Stage. No tickets are even required, just show up. For example, tonight acclaimed jazz pianist and vocalist Deanna Witkowski leads a trio blending Brazilian and Afro-Cuban jazz music.

If you’re not in the mood for sitting though a performance or can’t get there for the 6PM start time, I would still recommend checking out The Kennedy Center. It’s free to walk throughout the premises and its roof deck has some of the best views of anywhere in D.C. There’s even a café up there.

The easiest way to get to The Kennedy Center is either to walk from the Foggy Bottom Metro or hop on the 80 bus, which goes directly there. The Kennedy Center is located at 2700 F St. NW with more info on getting there here.

So I thought about several topics to write about for my first Social Capital Correspondent blog, and then realized that I should at least start out by talking about some local attractions. At this point I consider myself a DC native despite the fact that I still hold a Pennsylvania License and have no intention of becoming a resident of another state, but that’s another story. Even though I’ve been in school in DC for three years, and lived here for over two years now, I still sometimes forget about all of the free activities that make DC, such a fantastic place to live.  So here is confession number one: I still haven’t been to every Smithsonian museum, and I’ve never seen a show at the Kennedy Center.  In some ways, I felt like checking out every museum to see that “one amazing exhibit” would be like the time, I tried the “best pizza ever” and almost ended up in the ER.

So I ended up spending this Sunday with my roommate at the Air and Space Museum, and Museum of the American Indian, despite some other ideas  I had on how to plan the day.  Sure, we had to put up with several million little kids running around plus a thousand adult tourists, but we got to see some incredible artifacts from the Space Race, and got snow cones, so it really wasn’t too bad despite the children.  Once we left the Air and Space Museum we were only a couple blocks away from the National Museum of the American Indian, which is the first National Museum to focus on Native Americans.  The Museum has a huge amphitheater, lots of really intriguing exhibits, and it’s new enough that it doesn’t attract the crowds in the same way that the Air and Space Museum does.  Plus if you’re hungry it has an amazing cafeteria featuring “native foods”, it’s a bit pricey but you can try some really exciting foods you won’t get anywhere else.

While you’re in DC you should definitely check out at least one if not all of the Smithsonian Museums.  Sure, you’ll feel really nerdy spending your weekend in a museum, but you’ll survive.  You can always go out to Apex, Phase, or one of the other clubs afterwards, but there are a couple advantages to the museums.  First of all the permanent exhibits are all free and they’re air-conditioned, which is a big plus in the summer heat, especially when your trying to keep your utility bills down.  The only downside to hitting the museums up on a Sunday is that they are covered in tourists which can make getting it more difficult to see the more popular exhibits.