Washington, DC: fun, educational, relatively close to home, and reasonably priced: About a 2 1/2 hour trip for us and although our children are a little young to appreciate most of it, we plan to visit every few years since we're so close. Believe it or not, this was the top vote when asked where we should go! They watched TV coverage of the Innauguration of President Obabma, and Disney channel's "Corey in the House" is one of their favorite shows... So although their idea of a visit to DC included a tour of the White House (and the thought that we'd run into Corey or the President in the hallway!), the trip far exceeded our expectations.
HOTEL: Of course, for the little ones, half of the fun of any trip IS the hotel!! We suggest staying outside of the city in Arlington, where more hotels offer a pool. We stayed at Embassy Suites in Arlington, VA (Crystal City). All the rooms in the hotel are 2-bedroom suites, there was a manager's reception evey evening (veggies and chips for appetizers with free drinks!), PLUS a full made-to-order breakfast((which contributed to the notion of a "reasonably priced" weekend!)) The hotel offers a complimentary shuttle to the METRO (which is about 8 blocks and easy to walk) and it is a 10 minute train ride to get into the city.
DC: As you know, there is SO much to do in DC... but one of the BEST parts is that most of it is FREE!!! We packed a picnic lunch and checked out every site from the Lincoln Memorial, to Arlington Cemetery, stopped for a quick view of the White House (where they were both convinced that they may get a glimpse of Obama when they heard a tractor, insisting that maybe HE'S the one mowing the lawn!) then we moved onto visit a few of the 14 Smithsonian Museums! Of course we didn't get to ALL of them, but our favorite was the Museum of Natural History, the lobby is pictured on the left...one of the highlights was in the OCEAN exhibit: not only did we see a Nemo fish, but also a Dory one!... once we saw all we were interested in, we moved on to the next museum, the Museum of American History to get an up close look at Dorothy's Ruby Slippers and Babe Ruth's uniform... (and didn't feel guilty when we only spent 20 minutes at this each location, because, after all, we didn't pay an admittance fee!) it was too crowded, so we checked out the next one:Air and Space Museum...
With more time, we would have spent another day and visited the PANDAS at the National Zoo (yes, you guessed it... admission is FREE!!!)
For our family, DC was truly the place to BE!!!
DC over July 4th: What better place to celebrate America's 233rd birthday than Washington, DC? To plan your trip, check out washington.org.
Where do you suggest? We'd love to hear...
