On Wisconsin Ave

The journey starts in the center of a fanzy shopping mile - M Street - in Georgetown. You pass a building with a golden dome, formerly a farmer and merchants bank (today PNC is in there). Numerous galleries, nail shopes, restaurants, boutiques etc. are along the quite narrow road.
The more north you get, the broader becomes Wisconsin, less crowded, less colorful, less upscale. Brick buildings here and there, a Safeway, a public library.
Then, on the left, a huge territory and a tall, white-grey building (a hybrid between a palace and a bunker): the Russian embassy.
Further north, just past the intersection is the beautiful National Cathedral, built between 1907 and 1990 (probably one reason why the Indiana limestone-structure is still so clean and nice: it's so young). The central tower is 301' 3" high. Highlights are Woodrow Wilson's sarcophagus and the extensive underground rooms (about half of the cathedral has underground chapels/walkways etc). And ... we're in America ...: one of the busts on the Northwestern Towers depict Darth Vader (I did not see him, it was already dark, but check out the website).

http://www.nationalcathedral.org/about/darthVader.shtml

Beyond the cathedral complex, there are many apartment buildings and you wouldn't get the feeling that you're actually in DC. Just when it get's a bit downhill again, there's Fannie Mae on the left-hand side, the big semi-public (given its inception in 1938), private (since its chartering by congress in 1968) and now entirely public (since Sept. 6, 2008) mortgage enterprise.
Nearby is also the embassy of (the Republic of China on) Taiwan, or how the plate says: "Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US" (the building is much nicer than the name).

Further north is Tenleytown and some American University buildings with radio antennas (WAMU 88.5 FM, National Public Radio). Walking back via Albemarle Street (through a nice neighborhood) and Connecticut Ave (past DC University), I encountered a chanting crowd: protesters call for a free Palestinian state (cf. the recent Israeli action in/against the Gaza strip...).


At an earlier point, but time and again worthwile a visit is the Smithsonian museum on American Indians
http://www.nmai.si.edu/