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Family Adventures in Washington DC
Updated: Apr 23
Discover the best family adventures in Washington DC! Join our adventure-loving crew as we conquer the capital's iconic landmarks and museums.
What Makes Washington DC So Special?
In 1790 Congress established a 100-square-mile territory to serve as the permanent seat of the federal government. The territory was later named the District of Columbia. Today, Washington, D.C. is capital city and federal district of the United States. It is located between Maryland and Virginia along the east bank of the Potomac River. It is home to important buildings for all three branches of government (U.S. Capitol, the White House, and Supreme Court Building), full of landmarks and memorials (the Washington Monument, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and many more), and lined with museums, historical places and national treasures.
Our Family Adventures Through Washington DC
We explored Washington DC during the sweltering heat of late-July. It was tolerable, but incredibly hot. We knew it was not the ideal time to visit, but it worked with our schedule and it was Spider Monkey's big travel request for the year. We worked with the heat by planning outdoor activities, like visiting the monuments, early in the morning. Then we were free to visit air conditioned museums and buildings during the afternoon. The heat, combined with a ton of walking, left us pretty tired by dinner each day. All that said, there are so many amazing places to visit in Washington DC!
Our completed itinerary for our family adventures in Washington DC is outlined below. Follow along with our crazy crew through our linked blog posts along the way!
One thing I knew we wanted to do in Washington DC was tour the White House and go to the top of the Washington Monument! Of course these are not something you can just walk up and do. Each takes planning months before your trip and some flexibility, Visit our blog post here to learn more.
After a delayed flight that was leaving me worried we may miss our tour time, we arrived in DC, quickly dropped our luggage off at the hotel and made our way to the White House. Our tour included the east wing and several of the rooms we see on TV and movies. There are Secrete Service in every room and each is a walking encyclopedia of history and facts. The White House tour ended up being a highlight of our trip (and well worth the last minute scramble to change up our plans!
After leaving the White House, we made our way towards the Washington Monument for our next tour. Along the way, we took in the sights and spotted the Scouting Memorial.
You can visit the outside of the Washington Monument without a ticket, but to go inside and travel up to the top of the monument for amazing views of DC, you have to have a ticket. We arrived early for our tour, and discovered there is very little shade around the monument. It was so hot! The doors to get inside are more national security thick than national park service secure. After passing through security, you take the elevator all the way up and take in the amazing views!
After the Washington Monument, we headed back to check in to our hotel. Along the way, we stopped for a late lunch at Nook in the Reagan Building. The Reagan Building foodcourt was impressive and an easy place to find things the girls would like to eat.
After a nap and shower, it was time to celebrate Dustin’s birthday at Old Ebbitt Grill (make advanced reservations) and then turn in for the night. The girls are seasoned travelers, but it was a pretty long day after our 4am wake-up for our early flight.
Day 2 - Fords Theater, Postal Museum, US Supreme Court, & Library of Congress
Lincoln is the top of Spider Monkey’s favorites, so she was super excited to trace the steps of his assassination at Ford’s Theater, the location where Lincoln was shot. I planned our day around visiting here and some outlying areas I was interested in seeing, including the Supreme Court and Library or Congress. Both Ford's Theater and the Library of Congress require advance planning to visit. Visit our blog post here to learn more.
Much to my surprise, they both loved listening to the audio guide (kid version) that details tales from the civil war to the plot to assassinate Lincoln. They even saw the gun used to shoot the fatal bullet. We could have probably spent another hour in the museum, but we were ushered upstairs for the ranger talk. After the ranger talk, we moved across the street to the boarding house where Lincoln was taken after he was shot and where he eventually died. The girls talked with the ranger and earned the Junior Ranger badge before viewing the various rooms. The boarding house opens into another museum area the details the aftermath of the assassination.
After following the Lincoln assassination, we had lunch at Asian Nine. It was conveniently close to Ford's Theater and decently priced.
Our next stop was the National Postal Museum. This required a little travel, but it was highly recommended (and worth the effort). We walked to the Gallery Place Chinatown Station (about a 2 minute walk) and took the Red Line metro towards the Glenmont to Union Station. The National Postal Museum is right outside the station. I had heard great things about this hidden gem, and it did not disappoint! It was not crowded, offered a kids’ scavenger hunt and had was really interactive!
From the National Postal Museum, we walked about 15 minutes to the US Supreme Court. Along the way, we came across the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial. The US Supreme Court is located on First Street NE between East Capitol Street and Maryland Avenue, adjacent to the U.S. Capitol and the Library of Congress. The Supreme Court was a self guided "tour" where you roam around the halls and look at all the exhibits. They do have scheduled lectures, but this was not something the girls would have been interested in. You enter the building from the Plaza doors located on each side of the main steps. It offered an interactive scavenger hunt for the girls (these are so amazing). I would have loved to grab a lecture, but settled for exploring the halls and taking in the exhibits.
From the Supreme Court building, we hopped next door for our timed-entry pass to the Library of Congress … and wow!!! It is so beautiful!!! The girls completed a scavenger hunt while we soaked in everything! We explored Jefferson’s library and examined the Gutenberg Bible. Then we opted to register for a reading room card. We followed the big orange arrows to the back room where we were photographed and issued our special Library of Congress library cards. From there, we were free to explore all the reading rooms and the kids reading room. The Library of Congress made Buttercup’s top list of places we visited (she is already asking to go back).
Afterwards, we grabbed dinner at Ted’s Bulletin (another option I considered was We the Pizza) and bumped into Bernie Sanders as we were leaving. I am admittedly terrible with names and faces, so I was clueless. Dustin recognized him right away and said "hi". He asked the girls where we were visiting from and snapped a photo with us. Fun, yet random memory from our adventures.
Day 3 - National Mall & Memorials, Air & Space Museum, & Natural History Museum
We started our day early with a visit to many of the memorials. Up first, Jefferson Memorial. This was my favorite one … maybe in part because we were the only ones there for a while, but I also loved the architecture and watching Spider Monkey stop to read and study each of Jefferson’s famous quotes. From the Jefferson Memorial, we rode the DC Circular to the Lincoln Memorial (mostly because I missed signally the stop for the MLK Memorial). So, we spent some time explore the monument dedicated to Spider Monkey’s favorite president, Mr Lincoln. It was also under some construction, but we were still able to visit the exhibits and the girls were able to earn their Junior Ranger badges.
The girls enjoyed watching the baby ducks in the Reflection Pool before we trekked onward. Then we walked over to the Korean War Veterans Memorial to search the names on the wall and the over to the MLK Jr Memorial. The MLK Memorial was so crazy and crowded! It was covered in field trip groups and you could hardly move around. Buttercup had a DC adventure book that gave her mysteries to solve at each memorial / major attraction, but keeping up with her in the crowds was challenging. We stopped by the new US Park Police Horse Stables on our way to the DC War Memorial.
Another one of my favorites was the Rosevelt Memorial. It was shaded and spaced out … best of all it was not crowded at all. We enjoyed our time reading the inscriptions, while search for the the answers to the mystery clues in Buttercup’s book. The World War II Memorial was Buttercup’s favorite. It was an amazing memorial, but it was already getting pretty hot out. Dustin and Spider Monkey relaxed by the fountain, while Buttercup and I explored the memorial to find the answers to her mystery clues.
For lunch we took an Uber to the Wharf to Gordon Ramsey's Fish & Chips. The shakes were amazing! After lunch, we made our way to the Smithsonian Space and Air Museum for our timed entry. This turned out to be my least favorite place of our trip. It was so crowded and there was no way to move around inside. We love space museums (and enjoyed the telescopes they had set up outside), but the crowds made it not enjoyable. The Wright Brother exhibit was its only saving Grace for me. Otherwise I could not wait to get out of that madness!
After jetting out of the Air and Space Museum, we cut through the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden on our way to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. The weather was looking questionable, so we didn’t spend too long exploring the garden, but the optical illusion house was very entertaining for the girls. I loved the Natural History Museum! We stayed until closing, exploring all the exhibits, including the Hope Diamond, Human History, a part of the meteorite from the Meteor Crater we visited last month, and of course the animals.
We enjoyed dinner at Elephant & Castle (yum!) during a downpour that we thankfully missed. After dinner there was an amazing rainbow during our walk back to the hotel.
Day 4 - Arlington National Cemetery, National Archives & American History Museum
We started our day with a visit to Arlington National Cemetery. It was an overcast morning, but temps were looking to rise, so we took the tram tour (which you can book in the gift shop area upon arrival). First stop was the Kennedy sight and Supreme Court Hill. Here we saw the final resting place of several notable Supreme Court justices and the Kennedy family. Buttercup was 6 when the last measurable death occurred in our family, and Spider Monkey has yet to experience it, so they loosely grasp the concept. They understand war, but there is this dance around the finality of death the they are still struggling with. The eternal flame is moving and the sheer number of headstones is almost incomprehensible.
Our tour continued to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Another concept a little hard for Spider Monkey to grasp, but the Changing of the Guard was so moving! During the Changing of the Guard, the military guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is changed in an elaborate ceremony which happens every hour on the hour from October 1 through March 31, and every half hour from April 1 through September 30.
After Arlington, we had time entry passes to the National Archives (although, we just walked through the shorter line and no one ever asked for or even glanced at our tickets). The building was very bland, and although we talked about the importance of the documents we saw, it was hugely anti-climatic for the girls. So yes, we saw the building blocks upon which America was built, but the girls could have honestly cared less. We did hunt for signatures and typos, but that only got me so far.
After our brief visit to the National Archives, we moved over to the Smithsonian National American History Museum to check out the entertainment exhibit and the President’s exhibit. I loved the entertainment exhibit and Spider Monkey enjoyed looking at the First Lady dresses. Towards the end of these, we were pretty tired and headed to dinner at Capitol City Brewery.
Day 5 - National Zoo
Today was a Buttercup's day at the Smithsonian National Zoo! Top priority, the bird house and bird show. Honestly, the bird show alone was worth the visit!!! We were there early and got seats in the front row (it didn’t fill up until right at show time). The show lasted over an hour and was so informative and Interactive!! Buttercup was selected as a volunteer early on to demonstrate how a bird builds a nest. Spider Monkey got to hold one of the sticks for the build. Both girls had a blast and Buttercup won’t stop talking about it!
Later in the day, the girls were interacting with the seals (they loved Spider Monkey's shoes and were chasing the field’s fingers). It was amazing overcast and sprinkled a little, but got hot later when the sun finally came out. We made it a shorter day and just chilled at the hotel before dinner at the Wharf.
Day 6 - US Capitol
We were up early today and set off to turn in the girls’ Junior Ranger booklets for the President’s Park and the White House. We stopped to explore the World War I Memorial along the way. One benefit of being early birds is that we often have a window of time when we are one of only a couple people at a location.
From the visitor center, we made our way to the Capitol. We were a little early for our tour with our Congressman’s staff, so we explored the grounds. One of the friendly guides Dustin spoke with told us how to request House and Senate Gallery passes, so after exploring some of the exhibits, we made our way to the Longworth House building to track down the right office for our district. Once we checked in with Rep. McCormick’s office, we requested our House and Senate Gallery passes and started on our tour with a member of his staff. The tour was amazing! We used the underground tunnels that connect the buildings to the Capitol and the Library of Congress. It was just our family on the tour, so the girls got to ask lots of questions and really experience the Capitol. We ended up spending over 5 hours in and around the Capitol.
We saw pieces from the original building, including bullet holes from the War of 1812 on the tour. After the guided tour part, we had lunch in the Longworth House cafeteria before returning to the Capitol to visit each of the Galleries. I highly recommend visiting the Galleries! They are in session right now, but neither room was in use. The Senate Gallery had staff there to answer questions and share interesting facts. One fun tip we learned is that there is a “candy desk” near the Republican side that must always be filled by the Senator that sits there. Usually it is the Republican Senator from Pennsylvania. All the Senators grab a handful of the candy when they come in.
We had planned to visit the Spy Museum, but ended up spending more time in the Capitol than originally planned.
Day 7 - Train and Flight Home
On our last day, we slept in a little later before taking the train to DWI and boarding a flight home.
My Travel Philosophy
Our action-filled itinerary may not work for everyone. When planning, I follow 3 basic rules. First, aim to see everything that sounds important or interesting. There are so many places we want to see in the world, so we do not routinely return to the same place more than once. I try to map out as many of the highlights or the "only available while you are there" activities.
My second traveling rule ... too much "downtime" makes my girls bored and drives me crazy. So we keep moving. We don't have to get to everything, but at least I have something planned to ward off the boredom whines.
My third traveling rule ... you will never please everyone with your planning! Each of us gravitates towards different adventures and activities. I try to balance it all out, but we have worked with the girls to understanding that today's adventure may not be a top priority for one of them, but tomorrows likely will.
The Family Verdict
It was hot and we covered a ton of miles each day, but the girls got to see the historical places they have been learning about and experience a small piece of life in the city. Overall, there is a majestic quality to Washington DC. We enjoyed the history and spotting famous places we recognized from movies. So while it was not the perfect time of the year to visit, we had a ton of fun!
Follow along as I explain each leg of our adventures through Washington DC!
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