Capital expenditures? Ha! Lots to see in D.C. for free

If you want to go to the top of the Washington Monument, the same-day allotment of free tickets gets snapped up early, so pay the $1.50 per ticket fee to order them in advance at www.nps.gov/wamo/planyourvisit/.

The free Smithsonian museums (www.si.edu/museums) have something for every interest. Two newer museums — the International Spy Museum ($17) and the Newseum ($20) — could give you sticker shock, www.spymuseum.org and www.newseum.org. But maybe you can justify their expense if you cost-average those tickets with all the free stuff.

Too often overlooked (and free): The U.S. Botanic Garden (Capitol South metro stop) is a cool and soothing refuge, www.usbg.gov.

It's worth leaving the mall area to check out the National Portrait Gallery, www.npg.si.edu/ and the Smithsonian American Art Museum — www.americanart.si.edu. Both museums share a newly renovated historic building at Eighth and F Streets, at the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro stop.

At the National Arboretum in northeast D.C. (www.usna.usda.gov), you'll forget you're in Washington — until you see the original Corinthian columns from the U.S. Capitol. It's not near a Metro stop, but there's ample free parking. Bring a picnic lunch.

Don't miss the zoo: The National Zoo (www.nationalzoo.si.edu) is free, and the Asia Trail offers great panda viewing. Take Metro's Red Line to the Cleveland Park stop — not the zoo stop. (If you get off at the Woodley Park/Zoo/Adams Morgan stop, you've got to walk uphill to the zoo. By going one stop farther, you walk the same distance downhill.)

More for kids: The zoo is by no means the only big attraction for little ones in Washington. Check out the Muppets exhibit, "Jim Henson's Fantastic World," at the underground International Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution, www.sites.si.edu/henson, through Oct. 5; the "Building Zone" gallery at the National Building Museum, www.nbm.org, with blocks, toy trucks and tools for kids through age 6, or the National Air and Space Museum, www.nasm.si.edu.

People-watch: Check out the competitive chess players who congregate at Dupont Circle. Tryst, a coffeehouse/bar at 2459 18th St. N.W. (www.trystdc.com), has terrific people-watching and dessert in the heart of the happening Adams Morgan neighborhood, but expect about a 15- to 20-minute walk from the Woodley Park Metro stop. Watch the Ultimate Frisbee players on the National Mall on Saturday afternoons, www.ultimatefrisbee.meetup.com/30/.

CONCERTS: In summer, free military concerts abound. The Washington Post's Weekend section details week-to-week particulars. Every Friday in the summer and into the fall, there are free outdoor jazz concerts at the National Gallery of Art's sculpture garden, an unbeatable setting, www.nga.gov/programs/jazz.

For a jaw-dropping display of military pageantry, attend the Evening Parade at the Marine Barracks at Eighth and I Streets (Eastern Market Metro stop), offered on Friday nights in the summer, www.marine-corps-video-evening-parade.com. Tickets, which are free, are booked up months in advance, but you can line up to snag unclaimed seats that are released at 8:10 p.m.

Get out there: You will never spend a better $8 than to rent a kayak for an hour from Thompson Boat Center on the Potomac River in Georgetown, www.thompsonboatcenter.com/. You also can rent bikes there for $8 an hour, and pedal yourself all over town, or along the 18-mile trail to the historic Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate, in Virginia. Mount Vernon is free on Presidents Day; $13 most days, www.mountvernon.org.

Cheap seats: The Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center — Foggy Bottom Metro — offers a free concert every night at 6 p.m. No tickets required, www.kennedy-center.org.

Take in a ballgame at the new Nationals Park in southeast D.C. — Navy Yard metro station, or park free at RFK Stadium and take a shuttle bus. There are $5 same-day grandstand seats. Or pay $14 for a hot dog, soft drink and a seat in the upper right-field terrace.

Coming soon: The Pentagon Memorial to those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is due to open in September, http://memorial.pentagon.mil. The underground Capitol Visitor Center, eight years in the making, is scheduled to open Dec. 2, giving tourists someplace interesting — and sheltered — to experience while awaiting a tour of the Capitol, www.aoc.gov/cvc.