I may be moving from Detroit, MI to the DC area in the near future due to a new job with the BLS.  I am an avid bowler, and would like to continue bowling, but I have no clue as where to start as far as good leagues/tournaments/bowling centers are, especially sport/PBA Experience leagues/tournaments.  I am looking into living outside of DC, either in Maryland or Virginia.  Thanks for all responses.

Unfortunately almost all of the houses in the Balt/Wash/NoVa area are "corporate owned", i.e. Bowl America, Brunswick or AMF. Therefore, their focus is predominantly on birthday parties and glow bowling. However, there has been a resurgence of tournament bowling in the area BUT, the willingness and ability of houses to put down anything other then modified house shots is not great. There are PBA leagues in the summertime but most of the houses do not put down shots that play near the real thing. The reason is simple..they either don't have the machine to do it or the people doing it don't know what they are doing. For the best sport shot league (and practice) you will want to come to the bowling alley on the base at Fort Meade. They not only put out reasonably challenging shots but they also put out shots for practice every weekend in summertime and the cost is less then the other houses around here.

Funny you should say that.....while there are some good bowlers in that league I think there may be only one or two who average over 200. I don't think ther are any lefties averaging over 200.