??? For Those Went to The White House Easter Egg Roll

[prncess674]

Don't drive into DC if you don't know where you are headed. I mean that in the nicest way possible. Take 66 to Pentagon City mall. Coming up 66 you just stay right on it until you are just about into the city and you'll see the exits for Pentagon City mall. It's huge and on the right hand side of the road so you'll exit right off 66 and be directly in front of the parking garage for the mall. Park and make your way to the bottom level (food court) and the metro entrance is right there back left corner if you are standing at the bottom of the escalator.

Not to burst your bubble but Pentagon City Mall isn't on I-66 it is right off of 395.

As I stated previously, if you are coming in from I-66 then Ballston Common Mall is right off of I-66 with ample parking and right near the metro. You will take the Orange line towards New Carrollton (only line at Ballston) all the way to Federal Triangle.

 

[vicki_c]

I'm not familiar with the Metro stations on that side of town so can't give any advice on which station, but I want to echo what everyone said - don't drive downtown. Find a Metro and use that. It is so easy.

We only made the mistake of driving our own car into DC ONCE since we moved here 4 years ago -- never again. It is way too difficult to navigate, find parking, etc. The Metro is super simple -- don't be intimidated by it.

 

[delmar411]

Not to burst your bubble but Pentagon City Mall isn't on I-66 it is right off of 395.

As I stated previously, if you are coming in from I-66 then Ballston Common Mall is right off of I-66 with ample parking and right near the metro. You will take the Orange line towards New Carrollton (only line at Ballston) all the way to Federal Triangle.

I know that! I have no idea wth I was thinking when I wrote that.

I was trying to picture road names as I was typing since I don't really drive by following road names, I drive it by sight and memory. The metro entrance really is the back left corner of the food court though!

 

[princessmorgan]

So any reviews for those who went this year? The weather was gorgeous yesterday!

 

[bnhasak]

It was really nice! Not too much of a goody bag but the activities were fun for the kids and the weather was just gorgeous. We were on the lawn when the president and first lady spoke so that was cool. We were very far down the lawn but thanks to zoom on our cameras it looked like we were close. LOL!

The large amount of walking in the heat was pretty rough on all of us but all in all I am very glad we went. It was a once in a lifetime experience for sure.

 

[My2BabiesLexis&Dill]

We did drive into the city. That part wasn't the worse part since we had a GPS. The only problem we had was walking. LOL. We couldn't get back to the parking garage. We asked several cops and they just kept sayin...walk 3 blocks. We ended up walking 10-12 blocks. We luckily ran into a bus and I asked him where our parking garage was and he said, I go right by there...SWEET!! So we got on and he dropped us off a block from it. We were soo excited to see the car!

I will post later on our adventure. It's off to work for me!

 

[bnhasak]

We were only there for 2 days and our kids really missed our car. LOL! They aren't used to walking 10 blocks to get anywhere.

I never thought I'd hear my two begging to ride in the minivan.

They have some HUGE city blocks and with all the letter and number streets it isn't that easy for a newcomer to get around. Great fun though and such a beautiful city.

 

[andrews_dad]

I have a 2 year old and an infant. What would be the ideal ages to try to get into this event? 5 and 3, perhaps? 7 and 5?

Is it tough to get a spot, or was it pretty easy? Should I just try annually and go evenever I get in or can I be more selective and sort of "count on" getting a spot?

 

[JoyG]

I have a 2 year old and an infant. What would be the ideal ages to try to get into this event? 5 and 3, perhaps? 7 and 5?

Is it tough to get a spot, or was it pretty easy? Should I just try annually and go evenever I get in or can I be more selective and sort of "count on" getting a spot?

If they leave the selection process the way it is, you should try every year and hope you get lucky. They changed it this year to a lottery, and we have no idea how many thousands (or millions?) of people applied to get in. So you have to get lucky to get picked.

We went four years in a row but didn't get picked for the lottery this year. None of the people that I know personally were selected.

I would love to hear reviews from people who went. If you could leave them as comments in my blog that would be great. It gets a lot of hits around Easter time from people looking for updated info on the WH Egg Roll.

http://www.travelblog.org/North-Ame...trict-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-390411.html

 

[My2BabiesLexis&Dill]

A gentleman I talked to while there, said that there was 60,000 peeps that entered into the lottery.

I went this year and truthfully, I think it will be my last. We did enjoy ourselves BUT there was wayyy too many people there. For the most part, it was organized.

The only thing I didn't like was the wait in the sun...I got sun poisoning while there...and the rush of ending the event. We had the last slot. At 5:30 they were rushing the characters to their tents b/c they had to be off of the lawn at 5:45.

Ask any questions, if you have any.