What to see/do in DC?--adding trip reports, page 11 to start

[jillyb]

Thanks for your report! We're going to Mt. Vernon on our way home so the information to hit the mansion first is good to know. Did you go into the visitor center at all? Also, was the White House visitor center worth it?

 

[Christine]

golfgal,

Glad you had a good time. Sorry about the Spy Museum. My son, when he was about 11 or 12, went there with my parents. They all thought it was lame. I usually keep my comments to myself about it because: 1. I haven't persoally been, and 2. I'm always hearing "Oh you MUST go to the Spy Museum, it is so cool." Apparently not. I hate to be negative and discourage anyone from trying it, but my son was just NOT into it at all and neither were my parents.

Glad to hear you liked Mount Vernon. I should try to go there, haven't been since I was kid and it is all of 15 miles from my house. You know how it is when you live somewhere, you never think of touring those types of places.

 

[Green Tea]

Day 6:

We had tickets to the Spy Museum but Grandma and Grandpa did not want to go so the kids and I went. Waste of time. It would have been fun if the kids were like 8 or 9. It is a pumped up Children's Museum basically. We were in and out of there in about 30 minutes. We decided to go to the Natural History Museum. DS16 loved this museum. He wanted to stay longer but we had to meet Grandma and Grandpa in Georgetown for lunch.

We took the metro to Foggy Bottom, caught a bus over to Georgetown. That was not like I was expecting either. I was expecting a quaint, tree lined town, not the hustle and bustle you saw there--traffic is CRAZY there. We at at 5 Guy's. The french fries there were amazing. The burgers are pretty good too. If you like burgers and fries it is worth a stop to one of these places.

We got on the bus after lunch to head back into DC. We got caught up in traffic to find that there was a huge sink hole in the road so we got off the bus and walked to the metro stop. We took the metro to the White House and got some great pictures. We went to the front of the White House, took a bunch of pictures and then around to the back. We had to wait a bit to get to the back-something was going on on the lawn. We took pictures and then went over to the White House Visitor Center.

We headed back to the hotel and got some pizza for dinner and crashed. I think we walked about 100 miles last week. The metro is a great way to get around. We got a 7 day unlimited pass and that was slick. I am sure we got our moneys worth out of that pass.

We had left this morning open if we wanted to go back and see something but we were just too tired so we hung out at the hotel this morning and then took the metro over to the airport. Our fights were on time so that is always a plus. I thought I might have seen Marine One landing at the airport when we took off but looking at the news reports for the Obama's plans this weekend I don't think it was.

All in all it was a great trip. Too bad Dh had to miss it. The kids' favorite thing was the Holocaust Museum and Mount Vernon. I think the Archives were my favorite and Mount Vernon after that.

Did you make it to the Newseum?

 

[golfgal]

Thanks for your report! We're going to Mt. Vernon on our way home so the information to hit the mansion first is good to know. Did you go into the visitor center at all? Also, was the White House visitor center worth it?

We did the visitor center at the end of our tour. The kids watched the movie and the rest of use just walked around. Don't miss George's dentures. They are behind a wall, I was the only one that saw them out of our group. No, they are not made out of wood. The White House visitor center is nice. It is basically one large room with displays around the room. We were in and out in about 30 minutes, no lines, no real crowds to speak of. It was on the way to the metro stop. It doesn't take hours like the museums.

Did you make it to the Newseum?

No, we didn't make it there. We had it on the list but just never made it.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

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We went back to the hotel and everyone was pretty wipped out so we didn't do much. The boys stayed at the hotel for the evening and DD, Grandma and Grandpa and I went into Old Town for dinner. We got caught in a downpour after dinner so we stopped at the CVC Pharmacy and bought umbrellas.

Where did you eat in Old Town? I am thinking that DH and I may try to get out to have dinner on our own one night and just order pizza in the room for the kids. Any suggestions? It must be someplace we can dress casual. I do not plan on packing any nice clothes. Would love to get some good seafood.

Overall it sounds like you had a nice trip. Can't wait for our trip. We will be at Monticello in one week from this very moment.

 

[torinsmom]

golfgal,

Glad you had a good time. Sorry about the Spy Museum. My son, when he was about 11 or 12, went there with my parents. They all thought it was lame. I usually keep my comments to myself about it because: 1. I haven't persoally been, and 2. I'm always hearing "Oh you MUST go to the Spy Museum, it is so cool." Apparently not. I hate to be negative and discourage anyone from trying it, but my son was just NOT into it at all and neither were my parents.

Yes, I HATED the spy museum too! Of course, we did end up paying $20 each, because we paid on line and then my mom decided not to go, so I was out $60 for the two of us! I gave the extra ticket away to someone standing in line, so at least HE didn't waste his money.

I just thought it was a gimmicky place. The only cool thing was the crawl through spy tunnel in one of the rooms. They take you through this whole spiel or learning a spy's information and keep saying you will be tested. So I learned my spy's info exactly as it was stated and it never came up again. Then there is a cheesy movie and then they let you loose into the exhibits. It was really crowded and it just wasn't that cool to me. DS liked the gift shop, because there were lots of gadgets, but didn't really care for the museum.

Marsha

 

[golfgal]

Where did you eat in Old Town? I am thinking that DH and I may try to get out to have dinner on our own one night and just order pizza in the room for the kids. Any suggestions? It must be someplace we can dress casual. I do not plan on packing any nice clothes. Would love to get some good seafood.

Overall it sounds like you had a nice trip. Can't wait for our trip. We will be at Monticello in one week from this very moment.

http://www.warehousebarandgrill.com/ . This is one place we ate. The food was pretty good. We were in casual clothing and we were just fine. Most people around Old Town were dressed casually and I didn't see any restaurants that had a dress code. We tried to eat at the Warf, right on the river, but they were full-on a Tuesday night. You might want to make reservations if you want to eat there.

 

[golfgal]

Yes, I HATED the spy museum too! Of course, we did end up paying $20 each, because we paid on line and then my mom decided not to go, so I was out $60 for the two of us! I gave the extra ticket away to someone standing in line, so at least HE didn't waste his money.

I just thought it was a gimmicky place. The only cool thing was the crawl through spy tunnel in one of the rooms. They take you through this whole spiel or learning a spy's information and keep saying you will be tested. So I learned my spy's info exactly as it was stated and it never came up again. Then there is a cheesy movie and then they let you loose into the exhibits. It was really crowded and it just wasn't that cool to me. DS liked the gift shop, because there were lots of gadgets, but didn't really care for the museum.

Marsha

I know that it is too late but I ordered 7 tickets and only 4 of us ended up going. They did refund me the other 3 tickets. I just asked when we picked them up at the museum. There was someone else doing the same thing in the line over from me too. It took FOREVER because no one working there seemed to know how to do anything.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

I know that it is too late but I ordered 7 tickets and only 4 of us ended up going. They did refund me the other 3 tickets. I just asked when we picked them up at the museum. There was someone else doing the same thing in the line over from me too. It took FOREVER because no one working there seemed to know how to do anything.

Oh that looks wonderful. Prices don't appear to bad either.

Thanks so much.\\


Edit: Looks like I clicked on the wrong quote. I was talking about the restaurant.

 

[torinsmom]

I know that it is too late but I ordered 7 tickets and only 4 of us ended up going. They did refund me the other 3 tickets. I just asked when we picked them up at the museum. There was someone else doing the same thing in the line over from me too. It took FOREVER because no one working there seemed to know how to do anything.

Oh, I wish I had known! Of course, I guess I spread a little pixie dust in DC by giving away the ticket.

Marsha

 

[golfgal]

One thing we kept thinking while we were walking around is that I wished we had our GPS with us. Sometimes it was hard to get your bearings if you couldn't see the Capital or the Washington Monument. We saw a couple families with them so if you have a portable GPS it would be worth bringing!