Winter in Washington, D.C: Day 3

Wednesday morning we woke up to snow again! The temperatures were colder but we still enjoyed a snowball fight before our first stop at the Smithsonian Institution Bldg, known as the Castle.

The Smithsonian Castle

A LEGO replica of the castle. Our LEGO loving children thought it was fun to see.

We had a snack, then headed over to the Air and Space Museum. We toured the early aviation section and America by Air, and then on the second floor we found the Amelia Earhart exhibit.

The Lockheed 5B Vega flown by Amelia Earhart. In this plane she set two records: flying alone across the Atlantic and then nonstop across the United States, both firsts for a woman.

After a break for lunch we spent some time in the children's discovery area (How Things Fly) and the kids each sat in the pilot seat of a little Cessna.

Flying an airplane.

We saw the Apollo lunar module and touched a moon rock on our way out.

Anwyn in front of a lunar module.

 By this point we had visited the top sites we had really wanted to for this trip and we still had some time, so we headed down the road to the American Indian Museum. We were advised to start on the 4th floor by watching the Lelawi video presentation, so we did that. There was a nice sculpture of George Washington and some members of the native tribes that had assisted during the Revolutionary War.

Sculpture at the American Indian museum.

On the third floor we discovered imagiNATIONS, the children's discovery area. This was the best children's discovery area I have seen in any museum, seriously! The children each were given a passport and moved from station to station doing great activities: balancing on a kayak, riding a skateboard simulation, exploring various native homes (igloo, teepee, adobe hut, stilt home), and learning about the "3 sisters": corn, beans, and squash.

It was a really well done exhibit and a great end to our day. We made the trek back to our hotel via the metro (in near freezing weather) and stayed inside for the rest of the evening (after discovering Thor on one of the TV stations--the kids watched their first adult superhero movie). Jared was kind enough to trek back out in the cold and bring us all Subway dinner.

Thursday morning we checked out of the hotel and headed out of town, passing the Washington and Jefferson Monuments on our way.

After two trips to Washington, D.C. in less then a year, I felt like we covered the city decently (at least the parts that are most interesting to children). There is really so much to see and do there, and we are grateful for the experience we had, and the time we got to spend as a family!