Relishing hidden gems in Washington, D.C.

Visitors to our nation's capital glimpse the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian, watch primates play at the National Zoo and take selfies in front of the White House. But beyond these must-sees, there are plenty of off-the-beaten-path spots to enjoy, from the restaurant at the Museum of the American Indian to a weekly drum circle.

You feel the rhythm in your bones before you hear it, long before you glimpse the spirited percussionists of the Meridian Hill Park Drum Circle. People of all ages, faiths and skin colors come to this 12-acre urban oasis each Sunday, and they make more than a cacophony of bongos, snares, tambourines and washboards.

"To beat a drum is to just make noise, but to stroke a drum is to make it come alive. You find your place in the music and you transform the music," said longtime drum circle member William H. Taft, who holds the city permit that allows the weekly convergence.

If the rhythm itself isn't enough to draw you in, there are the old-timers who reach out their arms like snake charmers leading newcomers into the circle where there's always a willing dance partner.

Hafez Harris, 50, a freelance stagehand for D.C.-area theaters, has been coming since he was 5. Now he is a regular who beats a djembe to set a tempo for the ever-changing group of players. Drummers come and drummers go throughout the afternoon and into the night. Sometimes they are briefly joined by a saxophonist or even a bagpiper, whose skirls are barely audible over the visceral rhythms.

The drum circle is a nod to the freeing of Washington, D.C.'s slaves in 1862, a year ahead of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, Taft said.

No one is sure just when the modern drum circle started, but some point to Feb. 21, 1965, the date Malcolm X was killed. The assassination drew throngs of African-Americans to the park to mourn, drum and rally, said Taft, who remembers being there that night.

"Everybody came, and we drummed all night long, and our spirit still wasn't full enough, so we came back again and again," he said. "Since then we've kept it alive to transform our community and make this — the highest point in D.C. — an urban village of peace to celebrate freedom and liberty for all." (nps.gov/mehi/index.htm)

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The National Museum of the American Indian offers glimpses of an Aymara tribe's reed boat and the Ojibwe's birch bark canoe, but the main reason to go may be its Mitsitam Cafe.

Mitsitam is an unexpected pleasure on the National Mall, where hungry tourists and Hill staffers with discerning palates indulge in foods made with Native American cooking techniques and fresh, seasonal ingredients in flavorful combinations. During peak tourist season it may serve 2,000 customers a day.

Where else can you find cherry and herb-braised rabbit, fiddlehead fern salad, duck burgers, octopus salad, cedar-planked wild salmon and maple-brined turkey?

The menu changes frequently depending on what tribes across the country are growing; chef Richard Hetzler frequently buys the surplus. Bumper crops of North American acorns and chola buds last year meant new additions to the menu, an acorn-foam soup garnish and a zingy asparagus-and-chola salad.

Entrees range from about $12 to $30; beer and wine is served (mitsitamcafe.com).

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Secret societies meet here, presidents dine here, rockers play here, artists exhibit here, weary travelers rest here, Rosa Parks lived here. For $10 you, too, can step within the walls of five connected brownstones that form the district's most eclectic residence, Mansion on O Street.

There are 100 rooms, but don't be surprised if you see only a few dozen on your visit. The most fascinating parts — including a stone wine cellar and a two-story log cabin — are hidden behind secret doors that are yours for the finding. Is that a hinge in that bookcase? Is there something behind that mirror? You're welcome to check.

Most visitors are lucky to find four or five secret doors. Only mansion founder H.H. Leonards Spero and husband Ted Spero know where all 70 of them are, but don't ask them where they are.

"It's not about finding the secret doors; it's about the journey. You're walking through this house and there's a possibility that that thing might open up and lead to something else," Spero said.

And almost everything inside — from the furniture to the knickknacks piled on every surface — is for sale. You can pick up a pewter coffee urn for $75, a chandelier for $2,000, a fainting sofa for $125.

The mansion comprises five connected brownstones. It serves as a home, but also as a boutique hotel, a virtual flea market, a meeting space and a hall for wedding receptions. It's also a venue for public concerts by artists from Vanilla Ice to Wilco's Pat Sansone.

For $10 you can explore for an afternoon, for a few hundred you can rent a hotel room, or for about $35,000 you can rent the mansion and have access to its 14 kitchens, 23 themed guest rooms, 32 bathrooms, billiard room, 1920s-style barroom, back-yard swimming pool and antique barber chair.

Don't worry if you can't easily find your way back out.

"We like people to get lost because that's how they really find themselves," Leonards Spero said (omansion.com).

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Find another feast for your senses at Dupont Circle's Sunday year-round Freshfarm market.

Take in the scent of pizza baking on a grill and the tunes of street musicians as you walk among dozens of vendors peddling everything from gourmet Popsicles to tomatoes in shades of yellow, orange, red and purple.

You can pick up a skein of hand-spun wool, a taste of strawberry tarragon gelato, a bowl of Soupergirl's broccoli apple soup or a jar of green garlic pesto — all produced by the vendors selling them.

For Ella Lusty, a 10-year-old who frequents the market with her family, the food isn't the best reason to come. "I love the scene and the music and the people-watching," she said (freshfarmmarkets.org).