New Year's Day is the best day to go to Washington. Everything is open, but the traffic is minimal. Seriously, it was like driving in Kansas, not Maryland and Virginia. I have never gotten to and from Washington so quickly. The crowds are low. We parked right in front of the museum we wished to visit.
This New Year's we visited the National Building Museum, and we were big fans. The museum had several interesting exhibitions about architecture and city planning. Plus it has two (TWO!) play areas for kids. It is always refreshing to go on an outing that has something for everyone.
The National Building Museum has an enormous, beautiful atrium. We ate our packed lunch (supplemented from the museum cafe) amidst the gigantic Corinthian columns.
Felix was quite enamored with the fountain. What he wanted most of all was to climb into the fountain, and he cried on the floor when I told him he couldn't.
One of the play areas at the National Building Museum is only for younger children. They have a set number of spots per hour. We reserved a spot and then ate our lunch and looked at the exhibition about Los Angeles as a family. Then Nate took the kids to the little kid play area, and I visited two other galleries. After playtime was up we went upstairs and saw the house exhibition all together. Then I took the kids to the other play area while Nate visited the rest of the galleries. Beckett really liked both of the exhibitions he visited. There were models of buildings and famous houses that he enjoyed. He also liked watching the video clips and listening to the accompanying headsets. He especially liked looking at the restaurants in the stereoscopes.
The little kids play area is okay, but the second play area that is open to all ages is really where it's at. Beckett spent a long time at the building table working away.
The kids also had a great time with these life-size building blocks. I think Felix had his tongue out in every picture. He was concentrating so hard.
After our trip to the National Building Museum we drove over to the Jefferson Monument. It's hard to get there without a car, so we thought we'd cruise on over there while we had wheels.
I think I spent most of my time at the Jefferson Monument freaking out about the kids and all the hard, marble stairs and the walkway that drops off into the tidal basin with no fence. (Felix loves water way too much.) Everyone survived.
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| Brothers holding hands with Mr. Jefferson in the background. |
We are thinking about going back to the National Building Museum next New Year's and bring along some friends.
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