Our daughter spent about 7 years in the DC area starting in 1994, 1st at American University then another 3 years as our son-in-law worked in Arlington VA. We visited the city many times during her stay. We stayed at Little Bennett Regional Park out on I270 every time but one, when we braved the traffic across the top of DC on the Beltway to Cherry Hill RV Park, never went back, awful navigating traffic in the motorhome and way to noisy for us. We have driven to the mall several times and taken the metro after boarding at the Shady Grove Station many more times when wishing to visit The Capitol . We drove into American University 9 times out of 10 which was about 6 miles inside The Beltway on Massachusetts Ave.