Will be in DC on Sunday, Monday, and half of Tuesday in late July ahead of driving over to the Homestead resort with my wife's family. I already have tours of the WH and Capitol in the works.

What else would the board recommend?

Will be staying at Pentagon City directly across from a Metro station.

stuff I remember from when I visited at that age:

National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
Smithsonian Air and Space.
Go up the Washington Monument.
Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials
Vietnam Memorial (not as fun a visit, but nice to pay respects to those who gave all. Kids should know about it)

If older elementary, would recommend the Spy Museum.

Natural History Museum is pretty cool for kids. It has the dinosaurs and some pretty neat stuff all around. I would also try to hit up an iMax showing or two. The nice thing is that pretty much everything is going to be all at the same stop (museums, WH, Capital, monuments), but it is going to be a lot of walking and it is going to be really hot. It's not quite as hot as Texas, but it is still pretty bad.

So many options, it's tough to pick. I'd factor in what their interests are.

We recently did Mount Vernon and although some of it is closed off due to restoration, it was a great place to "set the scene" for much of what they will see.

The Metro is great. You can put SmarTrip cards on your phones/smart watches.

If you want to introduce them to the Holocaust without overloading them, the Holocaust museum has an exhibit that you can walk through that is outside the ticketed area (but still inside the museum). It walks you through a boy's life as the nazis take over. You can go through it without ever entering the main exhibits.

The American Indian Museum is less traveled, so if you need to escape some crowds or fill some time, it's a good place and their cafe is surprisingly good...expensive, but that is everything in DC.

Take advantages of bathrooms wherever you can. Lots of public restrooms are behind the security entrances and long lines, which are everywhere.

Make sure the kiddos have comfortable broken in shoes. My son packed a new pair of shoes and paid the price.

The pandas at the zoo are pretty cool to visit.

I found the American History Museum to be more cultural history and more interesting for me (seeing things from my youth) than it was for my son.

The Archives was great, but didn't require tons of time.

The Library of Congress (across from the Capitol) is beautiful inside and imparts a greater appreciation of literature...if any of your kids are big readers, it's worth a quick walk through. There is also a tunnel which connects it with the Capitol...underground and air conditioning is good thing in the summer.

Th senator and representative offices are in buildings around the capitol. If you reach out to them you might score some special Capitol tours up into the dome or have the opportunity to meet with them.

The Bureau of Engraving tour - it was alright, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone there for just a few days.

Have a great trip!

Air museum at Dulles is the easy answer for young kids.

Was just there with 6th graders.

Capitol public tour was pretty lame considering we had done 3 tours by congressional staffers

They loved Smithsonians are great. We only had time for the American History. They have The star spangled banner. The tophat worn by Lincoln and an outfit of Selena. Air and Space had timed tickets required.

Gotta make them walk the mall and see the war memorials. If there is a connection to anyone on the Vietnam wall, have them look up the name in the book and find the name on the wall.

There is now a WW1 memorial. Not on the mall though, but really cool.

Having had ancestors in every war, my kids have to go to all of them and hear about who fought in them.

Lincoln is right there by the war memorials. Bonus points if they can recite the Gettysburg Address. We had a few kids who did that.

FDR, huge for some reason. MLK is a nice spot.

Nighttime on the mall is special. Few things better than Washington Monument after dark.

Library of Congress they found boring. I found the art amazing.

Arlington, it was raining when there, but had the kids stand in the rain to watch the changing of the guard and while they went to JFK and a few other sites, found my way back to a grave for a friend of mine.

Fords theater had a cool museum. And got to tour the house across the street. A product was going on so couldn't go into the actual theater.

Mt Vernon is under renovation. Went in George Washington's House, but much better when its done.

Also did Monticello. I think Mt Vernon and Monticello both do a good job of balancing the fact that these founding fathers fought for liberty but held slaves.

Also did Gettysburg. A huge hit.

The Smithsonian Air and Space, plus Natural Science museums are both really good. And it's an amazing zoo if you want outdoors.

I'd also recommend walking the mall at night - it's safe and secure because there are so many people, and there is just something really cool about the monuments after dark.

If you've never ridden the Metro before or havent since they added digital payments, we put this quick rider guide together.

Great list.

Gravelly Point is a great place to hang out. Depending on wind direction flights from DCA will either be landing or taking off right over you

The pandas at the zoo and Space Shuttle Discovery at Udvar-Hazy.

There are so few places in the US where you can see pandas or a space shuttle that I recommend taking advantage of both opportunities.

My parents took me on a similar trip when I was about that age, and seeing the changing of the guard at Arlington is a memory that really stands out in my mind.

MasonB said:

---

If you've never ridden the Metro before or havent since they added digital payments, we put this quick rider guide together.

---

Mason - great video... thank you! Would you say taking the Metro is pretty safe?? Thoughts on Hop on/off tour busses to get around??

I just made a post asking for recommendations for our trip next week to DC, however I will have a 9 month old! See link below if anyone has any recommendations/tips!

https://texags.com/forums/54/topics/3546042/replies/70388207

sorry - just saw this.

I felt safe everywhere we went on the Metro and we covered just about all of it. That being said:

* There are some stops I wouldn't get off at to go exploring, but none of those were near places of interest.

* You will occasionally get a car with a crazy/drugged person. We just moved to a different part of the car.

* All our Metro rides were in daylight hours.

* All the stations had WMATA people on duty and they looked aloof and like they didn't give a damn, but if we needed something or had questions, every single one of them were helpful.

we didn't use the hop on/offs, but I've heard several people say it was a good way to cover a lot ground and have flexibility.

we weren't in any time crunch, so we usually just focused on one area each day.

Mount Vernon is a great one for that age. They have some great living history parts. If they still do the live running commentary by "Martha Washington" its great. An actor in costume stays completely in character discussing her husband George and the revolutionary era. You can drop in a sit an listen for 5 or 30 minutes, whatever you like. Was very well done when I saw it. Also a nice blacksmith shop working.

On the day of our visit, the character in costume was George Washington's personal secretary,

If you asked a question like "were you with him when he died?" he would respond that Washington was very much alive.

Just be aware that the house is under renovations and many rooms are closed off. Still lots to see on the grounds and great for helping put history in context.