Washington DC with kids

[lucky13]

I'm going to steal some of the information on this thread! Mr. Lucky and I are thinking of taking a trip to NYC in April - spend a few days there and take the train to somewhere else, possibly DC. He's never been and it has been a while since I have been there.

I like the idea of doing the memorials at night. Is it safe?

 

[Ocean Lover]

Well, I went and booked a hotel. I'm sort of feeling a little regret. I Hotwired a 3.5 tar hotel in Alexandria/Old Town. It turned out to be Sheraton Suites. ( was going to book a 4 star at Dupont Cr and missed it) I'm hoping the kids don't get put on a sofa bed. Apparently you have to pay extra to park and it's not as close to the metro as I would have liked. The hotel does have a free shuttle to the station which I think is about a mile away. It's on the yellow/blue line. I'm sure it will all work out fine. Anyone ever stay in Alexandria? Now that that is final...I can plan activities. FYI---you can find 4 star hotels well under $150 using Hotwire.

 

[Minnie]

OL, the Suites have either one King with a sofa bed, or 2 doubles with a sofa bed.

If you need the sofa bed with the doubles, I would suggest calling about 3 days prior to arrival and make that request and explain why you need it.

 

[Jdarg]

I'm going to steal some of the information on this thread! Mr. Lucky and I are thinking of taking a trip to NYC in April - spend a few days there and take the train to somewhere else, possibly DC. He's never been and it has been a while since I have been there.

I like the idea of doing the memorials at night. Is it safe?

Yes. We have done this several times- many people do the memorials after dark because they are so spectacular at night!

 

[Ocean Lover]

OL, the Suites have either one King with a sofa bed, or 2 doubles with a sofa bed.

If you need the sofa bed with the doubles, I would suggest calling about 3 days prior to arrival and make that request and explain why you need it.

Yes, that's what I'll need to do. We're staying 4 nights so I would hate to make them that uncomfortable for that long. (yes, I know they're kids but they're getting to be big kids) One kiddo in a double and the other on the sofa bed would be ideal.

 

[Ocean Lover]

Less than a week away! Anyone want to add anything to this? We're staying in Old Town/Alexandria from Monday-Friday. We called our Congressperson and they gave us some great info but we only got on one tour. The Capitol I think. The rest were booked months ago. We're on stand by for the White House. I can't believe my kids are more excited about doing this than the beach! I told you they were geeks!

 

[jodiFL]

The most important....pictures, pictures, pictures. I let my kids take them themselves and when they were young I took pictures of them with EVERYTHING in NYC when we would go. They look back at them now that they are almost grown and cant believe they were actually at some of those places. They have a blast looking at them even today. Sometimes the goofier the better. I have one of my son, wrapped in a blanket at Rockefeller Center skating rink, that you cant even tell its him in it but he still shows people just to prove he was there. But the one of my daughter with the naked singing cowboy still kinda embarrasses her.

 

[Franny]

Monticello is Jefferson's home and the park is Busch Gardens Williamsburg, one of the best in the country.

Thanks Minnie!

 

[Ocean Lover]

The most important....pictures, pictures, pictures. I let my kids take them themselves and when they were young I took pictures of them with EVERYTHING in NYC when we would go. They look back at them now that they are almost grown and cant believe they were actually at some of those places. They have a blast looking at them even today. Sometimes the goofier the better. I have one of my son, wrapped in a blanket at Rockefeller Center skating rink, that you cant even tell its him in it but he still shows people just to prove he was there. But the one of my daughter with the naked singing cowboy still kinda embarrasses her.

Thanks for the reminder! I wish my husband would take more pictures! I'm the photog in the family so you can guess how many pictures I'm in. Who wants to ask to have their picture taken? Half the time it looks like Daddy took them to these cool places and mom stayed home.:roll:
Sam has a nice pocket camera now so at least we'll get more pics than usual.


I have another question! I'm reading that you can't take big purses or backpacks into certain areas...the white house being one of them. What do you do with your stuff? We have to have a backpack if we're leaving the suburbs for the whole day.

 

[ShallowsNole]

Amtrak baby. Catch the rail in JAX and 15 hours later, if I am lucky, we are getting off in downtown DC. My wife has never been on a train so it was her idea. Last time we were in DC my parents flew into Reagan Airport and used the rails to get to the hotel where we all stayed. So we decided to do the same thing via train. I never found much need for an auto in that town. No place much to park anyway.

We did exactly this last year when we visited my brother in Maryland. My first thought when I saw this was "I'm glad it's you and not me." But in all actuality, it wasn't THAT bad. I will probably e-mail you later with tips for a happy voyage.