A city rich with many museums and monuments like Washington DC will require a good deal of planning and time to explore.  For the tourist on a time crunch, a guided tour of the city is a great way to maximize your time. Sure, you can use the tried and true “hop-on and hop-off” bus tour. But it’s way more fun to try one of the unconventional tours offered in the city.

City Segway Tours

If you want to blast through the city and enjoy all the must-see attractions while looking cool, take the National Mall Segway tour. You may even learn a few new facts to boost your water cooler knowledge.

For even more fun, you can book the evening tour; there’s less traffic, and you can get an interesting view of the monuments after dark. You can stay at the Sofitel Lafayette Square and, from there, take a metro from McPherson Square to Gallery PI – Chinatown. (meets at 624 9th Street, NW)

D.C. By Foot

Lace up and get ready for an enjoyable tour that will also give you a hearty work out. D.C. By Foot is a free tip-based walking tour that is lead by an entertaining and knowledgeable tour guide.

The tour will take you from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. Now, don’t forget to stretch and stay hydrated. The meeting point is not too far from the Mandarin Oriental Washington D.C. (meets at the northeast corner of 15th and Constitution Avenue, NW)

Bike the Sites

Another way to view the sights and get great exercise is to Bike the Sites with Bike and Roll.  It is a fun way to explore the nation’s capital without wearing out the soles of your feet. There are different tours for you to choose from.

The family will enjoy a chance of bike together with Family Bike Adventures tour. Also, since there are three different meeting locations, it might be a bit more convenient. The most recently opened location is at Union Station near the Washington Court Hotel.

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The Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC is one of the best ways to spend Spring Break with your children.  This event offers many great family friendly activities for the whole family to go along with the world class selection of free museums.  If you plan to be in DC during the Cherry Blossom Festival week, check out these fun events

Tidal Basin Paddle Boat

During Cherry Blossom Festival month (Mar 10 – Apr 11, 2010) kids (and you) can enjoy the view of Cherry blossoms  along the Tidal Basin while riding a paddle boat.

Family Fun Zone from National Park Service

At the Jefferson Memorial – Each Saturday & Sunday from Mar 27 to Apr 11, 2010, the kids learn about the trees of the other national parks and practice writing in Japanese at the Family Fun Zone.

The National Cherry Blossom Festival Family Day

At the National Building Museum – Celebrate the opening ceremony of the National Cherry Blossom festival on Mar 27 with fun family friendly activities including hands-on activities, informative demonstrations, and exciting indoor and outdoor performances celebrating Spring and exploring Japanese arts and design.

National Cherry Blossom Music & Firework Show

At the Southwest Waterfront – On Apr 3, arrive early for family friendly activities and local musical group performances from 5 pm – 8 pm. Afterwards, enjoy the spectacular fireworks show from the Washington Channel. For the best view, head to East Potomac Park or Southwest Waterfront Promenade.

Both the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and the L Enfant Plaza Hotel are within walking distance to the festival area.

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There is no doubt that when you visits Washington, D.C., you will have various choices of great restaurants. But what do you do when you just want to grab a quick bite (that doesn’t break the bank) and you have your little rascals in tow? Food courts are family-friendly and affordable alternatives to restaurant dining, and the food can be delicious! Check out these four food courts that are within walking distance of D.C. attractions:

Old Post Office Pavillion – For an alternative way to view downtown D.C. that isn’t the Washington Monument, you definitely need to check out the Old Post Office tower. Afterwards, you can enjoy your lunch or dinner right there at the food court on the ground floor. There’s sure to be something for every picker eater in the family. It’s only a couple blocks from the luxury W Washington DC hotel. 1100 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Union Station DC - This huge food court will blow your mind with the number of choices it offers for lunch or dinner. Make sure you don’t get lost in the crowd and if you can, try to avoid the rush hour, which can get pretty crowded. After the meal, kids can enjoy exploring the station while you shop at the various stores. The Union Station is only a short walk from the Hotel George or the Washington Court hotel. 50 Massachusetts Ave., NE

Longworth Cafeteria – Touring Capitol Hill is a must-do for any visitor to the capitol. After a tour you can head to Longworth cafeteria, located in the basement of the Longworth House Office building. It’s a great place to rub shoulders with politicians as you stand in line for a variety of dishes. Just a couple blocks from the Residence Inn – an excellent kid-friendly hotel on the Hill. Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street

Ronald Reagan Building Food court - Top off your visit to the White House with a quick meal only a block away at the food court in the Ronald Reagan building. It is conveniently located within easy access to the metro station and the InterContinental The Willard hotel. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave NW

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We have been to various types of vacation with our kids ranging from visiting the happiest place on earth, floating on the big ship to the carribean, or playing in the sand by the beach. But one of the best place to vacation with kids is actually our capital city – Washington DC. There are endless possibilities for things to do with kids that our week long vacation couldn’t fit it all.

When I asked Mr. Z what was his favorite place during our visit to DC, his answer was ‘the train museum‘. He meant the National Museum of American History. I didn’t think he would remember because we only spent just over an hour there.

It was our third stop for that day. Yes, it was a lot when you traveling with kids. But with a short break for ice cream, the kids found their hidden energy to explore the museum after all.

I knew that we won’t have enough energy to explore the whole museum or even wait in line to check out the famous exhibits. So after a quick walk through Spark Lab. We headed straight to American On the Move exhibit.

This fun and interactive exhibit take us on the journey through American transportation history. Knowing Mr. Z’s love of all things trains, it’s a sure bet that this will keep him entertained.

We walked through the history of locomotives in America. Kids loved that they could touch, sit or push the button. They enjoyed the fact that they could ride the bus even though it wasn’t moving.Mr. Z spent quite some times studying the train models displaying through out the exhibit. I think he was planning his own train trip one day. Or maybe he was thinking about the sleeper car that we enjoyed in Chattanooga.Miss J and Mr. Rojo loved to pretend to be one of the passengers waiting to get on the cable car.

We ended our visit with a little shopping at the gift shop and then headed back to the hotel for a good R & R.

If you plan to visit this museum with your kids, don’t forget to download the family guide for this exhibit.

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Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

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This is the shot of the White House as close as we could get. We went to DC during Spring Break which coincided to the Cherry Blossom festival and added that to the new president who just recently moved in, we competed with a lot of people to secure the ticket to visit the White House and luck wasn’t on our side. But that didn’t discourage us to make our final destination on our last day in DC to be the White House.

First we stopped by at the White House Visitor Center. We were a bit late to watch the free video about the White House history. But there are plenty of other interesting things for you to see. The exhibits throughout the room show the history of the White House. Kids could sit down and enjoy some game or craft. Parents can shop the White House souvenir like jigsaw puzzle of the White House.

Then we continued along the 15th Street NW to check out the exterior of the White House. I was determined to get the most famous pose with the White House front lawn. Unfortunately, the access to that section was closed that day. So we continued our walk to the Lafayette Square to get the backyard shot of the White House. The square was a nice area with only foot traffic so it’s perfect for kids to roam around. After we fueled up at Old Ebbitt Grill, we walked all the way to the Tidal Basin for one last shot of the Cherry flowers.

Adios DC, till we meet again.

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I love to talk to Miss J and Mr. Z about our trip even long after we were back. I love to hear about their view on each trip and learn about what they like or dislike on the trip. Sometimes the answer is fairly predictable and sometimes it surprises me.

For our recent trip to DC, here are their choices:

Favorite Activities:

Miss J: The walking tour of the monuments with DC by Foot. But she said ‘Next time, I want to go up the Washington Monument’. Almost a month after the trip, she still remembered what we learned from the tour that the Washington monument that we saw wasn’t the original design.. Wow! I didn’t even know that she paid attention.

Mr. Z: The Metro ride all over DC. But he said ‘Next time, we have to ride the Green line. We didn’t ride the Green line this time’. He also likes the Transportation exhibit at the National Museum of American History. Surprisingly, we spent the least amount of time here than other museums we visited. But the boy has his obsession with trains and all thing with wheels.

Favorite Food:

Mr. Rojo: He loved the hot dog we got from the stand right in front of the National Museum of American History. It was the spicy polish sausage that was the size of a pipe. Yum-O

Me: My softshell crab at Old Ebbitt Grill was to die for. The atmosphere there was so DC. All the suits and ties at the bar reminds me of the West Wing. :)

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As we approached our last full day in DC for our week long vacation, we had already dreamed about the next time we will visit this fun-filled-family-friendly city. We hardly scratched the surface of what DC has to offer us. But today, we couldn’t go home without visiting the most visited museum in this country – The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

We had planned only one stop today knowing how big the museum is. We started our day early and headed to the metro. After a quick breakfast on the bench along the Mall, we headed to the National Air and Space museum entrance. The line was long but it moved rather quickly. After we got in, we found out that we just missed the 11am tour. A quick stop at the information desk was very helpful. A volunteer pointed us to the ‘How Things Fly’ room. This room is amazing and perfect for kids of all ages. Kids get to learn about what makes thing fly with an interactive hand-on exhibits. Each one teaches them the concept of air and space. We spent almost an hour in this room alone.

The next stop was to check out the Skylab space station on the second floor. Along the way, we also checked out the Apollo 11 and the Man on the Moon displayed. Do you know that all exhibits in the museum are the original items not replica. It made the experience even more surreal to see all these amazing items that had been out in the space. A line to the Skylab was long but don’t get discourage. It moved rather quicky. The kids got to walk through the space station and check out what living and working in the space was like.

The tour started at the Wright Brothers & the Invention of the Aerial Age exhibition. A gentleman who leaded the guide was very knowledgeable and nice. We got to learn about what it took for the Wright brothers to get that first plane up in the air. It was a long tour so it might not be suitable for younger kids. We stayed for half the tour and figured that it was enough for Miss J and Mr. Z so we headed down to the Museum store. The Museum store was a fun place for them in itself. Don’t forget to go down the basement to check out the original model of the U.S.S Enterprise Model, used in the filming of the first Star Trek series. I think it was the highlighted of the trip for Mr. Rojo..

By this time, we were done as in.. physically tired and couldn’t check out any more exhibits. This museum would require more than one day to fully explore. And we would have to save them for next trip. :) We walked outside to take a quick snack break on the lawn in front of the museum. The weather was perfect. It was such a nice day and everyone enjoyed sitting there and peopel watching for a while…

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One of my favorite spot during our spring break trip to DC was the Lincoln Memorial at night. We went there during our walking tour with DC by Foot tour guide.

It was one of the highlighted of our trip. It’s a must-do in my opinion. The tour was fun, educational and very affordable. We walked from the corner of 15th and Contitution Ave to the Washington Monument. From there, we got to learn about the history of the monument and the Capitol Hill in which we could see from the distance. Then we walked to the World War II Memorial. Along the way, we heard the story about the White House and the Jefferson Memorial. My most memorable part of the tour has to be the Vietnam Veteran Memorial Wall. Do you know that it’s not the War memorial because Vietnam war is not official war?

Once we got to Lincoln Memorial, the Sun had already set. The memorial was well-lit and had a lot of visitors even during night time. I love to just sit on the steps and look out to the reflecting pool.

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When traveling with kids, we plan our trip around them. This trip is no difference than our other family trip. With that in mind, we took them to the National Zoo for a break from all the museum and history. The weather during our visit was so varied from day to day. The first day we were cold and pulled out our sweater and jacket. But today, it was a nice sunny day.

We got on our train from our hotel and hopped on the Yellow line and connected to the Red line at Gallery Place/China Town stop. We felt so comfortable traveling around DC with the Metro now that we could figure out our stop or even exchange to different line. Then we hopped off at Cleveland Park stop. The National Zoo is actually located between Cleveland Park and Woodley Park stop. But if you got off at Woodley Park, you will be walking uphill to the Zoo instead of walking downhill from Cleveland Park stop. A little tip I received from the Tripadvisor forum..

It was pretty busy at the Zoo today. I guess everyone came out when the weather was really nice. We checked out the map and decided to start from the back. We stopped by the stroller rental booth to rent a double stroller. Eventhough Miss J and Mr. Z are already capable of walking on their own, we knew that the amount of walking today would be too much for them. The best decision we had made that day!!

The Zoo itself wasn’t that impressive in my humble opinion. But the kids enjoyed them tremendously. We checked out the baby gorilla, the Ape House (make sure to hold your breath.. The smell was the worst I have ever experienced!!), the Tigers and the Lion.

At lunch, we ate at the Mane Restaurant. It was packed by the time we got our food. The food was pretty decent for the park food. Afterward, we walked around to check out other animals and of course the Panda and the Elephant.

By the afternoon, we were wiped out. We headed out to the Woodley Park station and stopped by Open City for early dinner. This is a great restuarant with the neighborhood feel. They had breakfast all day so I satisfied my craving for pancake and ordered the Organic Wholewheat Oatmeal pancake. It was delish!!

I originally planned 2 stops today. The Zoo and the Air and Space museum.. However, things never go according to plan. We were so tired from the walk all day. We decided to do the Air and Space tomorrow and headed back to the hotel for an early night.

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Today was the day with great plan and great expectation. I had secured tickets for the Capitol Hill tour and planned for the evening tour of the monuments from DC by Foot. But things don’t work according to plan…

We started of early enough (or what we thought..) and hopped on the Yellow line to head to Capitol Hill. Once we arrived at the Visitor Center entrance we found out that there was a long line to go through security. Our tour time was 10:15am and now it’s 9:50am. I was hoping that they might be a little bit flexible with time.. Oh.. No.. We missed our ticket time by 5 minutes and there was nothing they can do. If we still want to do the tour, now we had to go wait in the walk-up line that can be anywhere between 30 mins-1 hour wait. So consider yourself warned, if you have your Capitol tour, be early!

Since we didn’t have any other big plan till the evening, we decided to wait. Mr. Rojo was an ever loving dad waited in line for us while Miss J and I walked around and checked out the information room. It was a great place to spend time there. There were so many information of the House and the Senate, short movies to tell you about the history and what the Senate and the House do.. We didn’t walk around and check out everything. I went back to check on Mr. Rojo and Mr. Z. The line was moving along but it was still a long way to go. So I took them to have a quick snack at the Capitol Hill cafeteria. It was a really nice cafeteria. I would think we probably would enjoy our lunch time there if we had a chance. But before we could even finish our snack, the fire alarm went off!!! We headed to meet up with Mr. Rojo and followed the evacuation route out of the Capitol Hill. So that was pretty much our Captitol Hill experience. :)

Well, it was a nice day so we took our time in front of the Capitol Hill and the Union Station park. Then we headed to the Union Station for lunch. It was crazy busy there. Too many food to pick from… After a fulfilled lunch, we decided to head back to the hotel to take a quick break before heading back to town again for our walking tour.

I found out about DC by Foot tour from the TripAdvisor forum. It was a FREE, tip based walking tour of Washington DC. The tour took us through the heart of National Mall by visiting Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, Lincoln Memorial and Korean War Memorial. It was such a great, high energy tour that was full packed with history that won’t bore you to sleep. The walk started from the corner of 15th and Constitution Ave. NW and ended at the Lincoln Memorial.

We learned a lot of fun facts like the current Washington Monument wasn’t original design. Or if you look closely, you will see 2 different color stone. That’s because the construction was stopped for a long period of time before they finished the monument.

One of the highly recommened activity is night tour of the monuments. We didn’t plan but by the time the tour ended it was already dark. But the Lincoln Memorial was still packed full of visitors. And it was breathtaking indeed! We just took it all in with all the beauty and sense of pride for the history of this country.

It took us approximately about 2 hours for the whole tour. I highly recommended anyone who will visit DC to check them out. After the tour, we walked through George Washington University to take the Metro back to the hotel. By that time it was already dark but we felt pretty safe walking in DC. It’s one of the thing that we really love about DC. It feels very safe to walk around even at night in the downtown area. I’m sure there are certain areas that not safe but as far as the popular tourist places we have no issue there.

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Then we headed across the lawn to the National Museum of Natural History. It was really big and impressive to say the least. We know that we won’t be able to see everything in detail having a 5 years old whose attention span is shorter than 5 minutes. So we just let them lead and take us where they wanted to see.

After wandering for a while, it was time for lunch. We headed to the Old Post Office Tower. I have read that they had a great selection of food at their food court. And if the sky opened up, we might get a chance to enjoy bird eye view of the downtown DC from the top of the tower.

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Last week we enjoyed our spring break in our capital city. It was our first family trip there but it was my third trip to DC. We had done quite a research using my normal site – Trip Advisor to gather all the information. We stayed there for 7 days/6 nights at the Sheraton Crystal City. I snatched such a great deal for $80/night during the busiest week in DC from Priceline. It was the same week as the Cherry Blossom Festival.

We managed to save during our vacation with a great planning this trip. I checked out a few restaurants in the area and was able to purchase $10 certificate from restaurant.com for $0.30 for a couple restaurants. Since we stayed in the normal hotel this time instead of condo or apartment rental, cooking is out of the window. Dining out was planned so that we won’t break the bank. There were plenty of cheap eat around town if you know where to look.

We lunched at the Ronald Reagan’s food court, the Old Post Office Tower’s food court, the Union Station’s food court and even had snack at the Capitol Hill’s food court.. You see the theme here… :) But I had to say we really enjoyed the polish sausage we got from the food stall right in front of the National Museum of American History.. We also tried out a few local restaurants like the Open City when we went to the National Zoo or the Old Ebbitt Grill next to the White House..

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I know it has been a while since my last update.. I have been busy planning our Spring break trip to DC. It has been overwhelming with all the information… What to do, where to stay, where to eat. Well, I think I have done all I can and finalize our plan. Here are a few things we plan to do during our trip.

1) Tour Capitol Hill – This has to be done in advance. We called our senator and requested tickets for the tour. We also did the same for White House tour but unfortunately we didn’t get the tickets. Apparently, we picked the busies week to go there. It will be the Cherry Blossom week in DC.

2) National Museum of Natural History – There are so many museums in DC that it can be the case of too many choices. So I narrow it down to a few museums that will be more interesting for Miss J and Mr. Z. Nothing will beat seeing a big Dinosaur and other types of fossil.

3) National Museum of American History – Miss J has learned so much as a first grader. I hope that she will enjoy checking out this museum

4) National Zoo – We love animals especially if we don’t have to take care of them ourselves. :)

5) National Air and Space Museum – I admit I think I’m as excited or even more so to check out this museum than my kids

6) Old Post Office Tower – A lot of reviews mentioned that this is much better place to view than Washington Monument. Plus great place to have quick lunch.. hmmm.. someone mentions food?

7) Union Station – I think Mr. Z will be happy with this choice. Can’t miss Union Station when you have train obessessed kid.

8) Cherry Blossom Lantern Walk – One of the perk about visiting DC during Cherry Blossom week is variety of activities available. I’m looking forward to night tour.

9) DC By Foot – I have read about this free tour guide (tip only). I can’t wait to check them out. They will provide the tour for the monuments..

10) White House Visitor Center – Eventhough we didn’t get the ticket to the White House, a visitor center will provide plenty of information for us to get started.

11) Arlington National Cemetery – If we have enough energy left, I would love to see the change of guard at the Arlington. It will be a great tribute for the fallens.

12) Rent Paddle boat at Tidal Basin – And if we have energy left from all above activities, it will be a fun afternoon to rent a paddle boat at the Tidal Basin

13) Visit Old Town Alexandria – We will be staying in Crystal City which is only 1 stop from Old Town Alexandria. It will be neat to go check this old town out one evening.

These are just things that I have planned for our 5 days visit. I didn’t realize how many things we can do in DC. Maybe we might need the revisit trip in the future as well.

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