"DC With Kids?" Topic

We'll be going to DC with the family for a long weekend in November.

We are planning on seeing the monuments, National Cathedral, and Aerospace musem. What else is "cool" for a 7 YO girl and 8 YO boy to do or see in the area?

Smithsonian museum
National Museum of the American Indian
National Zoo
National Geographic Museum
Bureau of Engraving and Printing

And I believe the last 4 offer free tours.

Free is good!

The Air and Space museum is a "must see." There are at least two rooms of hands-on experiments/demonstrations explaining aerodynamics and etc. Its also free. The IMAX theaters usually have pretty good movies, but you can see most of them just about anywhere.

The National Museum of the American Indian will hold their attention to about the end of the second floor. After that, its likely to get repetitious to kids of that age as the different cultural exhibits start to blur together.

Similarly, the Smithsonian (the castle) is a wild melange of items that should have something of interest – Kermit the Frog is in there.

The museum of Science and Technology (that may not be the proper name) also has a bunch of moving items.

I would strongly suggest buying the "hop on – hop off" bus tickets as the little guys will get completely wiped out by walking.

Wyatt

We're staying right by a metro stop. I'm assuming I can get som eosrt of 3 day pass that will let me ride all of the trains and buses I can (still haven't dug that far into the details)

Natural History, if they like critters/dinos.

-Kle.

My kids loved all of the museums on the mall. They went crazy at the zoo. They were a bit bored on the tour of the White House & Capitol, though. They were 8 & 10 at the time. That was nearly 20 years ago, though.

Unless the have changed recently – no 3 day pass, just pile money on to the cards (one for each) and use them. Don't be fooled by the SMART CARD it cost you $5 USD just for the card then you add fares. But if you are going to drive to a park and ride, then you do need the SMART CARD to get out of the parking lot.

wmata.com

have fun

STT

The Spy Museum is great for kids of all ages.

spymuseum.org

If you feel like carving out time for a day trip to Baltimore there are MARC commuter trains that run from DC's Union Station to both Baltimore Penn Station midtown and the Camden Yards Station down by the Inner Harbor.

Go see the changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. It is my 8 y/o son's favorite thing to do in DC

I can honestly tell you that I visited DC when I was 8 and I hated the tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. One big line filing you past a bunch of people working on with big machines to make money.

Now the FBI had a heck of a tour and they had an expert fire a Tommy gun.

I concur with the Unknown soldier. Even as a little kid, I caught the gravity of the situation.

When my oldest was 8, he enjoyed Mount Vernon along with everything else mentioned above.

I second the spy museum. It is a little boring for adults but great for kids.

Also there are a number of civil war battlefields in the area, some with self guided audio tours. One of the bigger battles of the civil War, gettysburg, is not far from DC. Depending on what weekend you are going to be there the battlefield, and local hotels, have a variety of interesting events going on celebrating different aspects of United States and world history.

One of the neater places to visit near there is the Eisenhower farm and the nearby Eisenhower conference center. If you have kids in tow there is even a little go-cart thing or something there for them to do while you are doing other things.