Looking for opinions on my itinerary

Hello,

Our family of 5 (kids 12,8,and 7) will be visiting the area for the first time from April 5-April 10. We%26#39;ll be staying at the Residence Inn Alexandria April 5, then moving to the Mayflower from the 6th through the 10th. This is our tenative schedule. I%26#39;d appreciate any input from area experts, as nothing is set in stone. Once we check in to the Mayflower, we plan on using the Metro as our means of transportation.

April 5th - Mt. Vernon, Old Alexandria.

April 6th - Drive from Alexandria to check in at Mayflower, 12:30 Congressional Capitol tour, lunch at Union Station, Air and Space Museum.

April 7th - Museum of Natural History (including butterfly exhibit), Museum of American History.

April 8th - 8:30 Congressional Library of Congress Tour, quick walk-through of Supreme Court, Ford%26#39;s Theater, Spy Museum.

April 9th - Washington Monument, WWII Monument, Vietnam War Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial. We%26#39;d like to fit the DC Cruises Cherry Blossom River tour in as well.

I think, from our location at the Mayflower, we%26#39;ll be able to walk to the White House. Unfortunately, we were unable to get tours for the White House, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and National Archives. I%26#39;ve been told that we will be visiting during the busiest week of the year; I don%26#39;t know whether we should try to get %26#39;same day%26#39; tickets to the Bureau or the National Archives.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Tricia

Looking for opinions on my itinerary

Only you know your children, but it%26#39;s a tall order to have them in two museums all day on April 7th. Maybe consider getting to one museum early in the day, then spend the afternoon outdoors with some of the memorials you%26#39;re planning on seeing the following day. Then do the same thing the following day, visit the other museum and continue on with the rest of the memorials/monuments that you missed previously.

If you don%26#39;t have tickets to the Bureau of Engraving, I%26#39;d skip it considering the week you%26#39;re visiting will be very crowded. But the Archives is a different story, I%26#39;d line up for that one, just my opinion. I%26#39;ve heard that lines are not so long in late afternoon,and last entrance is at 6:30, so maybe you can slip in while everyone else is starting to head for dinner. :)

Do you have tickets for the Washington Monument? If not, consider the Old Post Office Tower instead.

Looking for opinions on my itinerary

Thanks for your input! I hadn%26#39;t thought of splitting up the monuments/museums; that%26#39;s a very good idea. Do you think we%26#39;d be able to fit the Post Office museum in either our April 6th or April 8th schedule? I thought it would be an interesting tour for the kids, but my husband was sold on doing the Spy Museum instead.

I don%26#39;t know much about the Postal Museum, I had a brief walk through it on my lunch break a couple years ago, but I do know a lot of parents have raved about it for kids. Check out the reviews here on TA.

I%26#39;ve never been to the Spy Museum, probably never will, too many free places in DC to get to without having to pay $20 a head or whatever they get. Bear in mind I would expect the Spy Museum to be a mob scene the week you are here - not sure if they do advance ticking or not...

My family loved DC by Foot to see the monuments...it%26#39;s great and lead by a former teacher (and it%26#39;s FREE to boot) dcbyfoot.com

Another thing we did was see the monuments at night...it was nice since many of the sights are closed early PM and we didn%26#39;t have anything to do (other than collaspe on the bed!) We did the tour by Old Towne Trolley.

We did the Natural History and American History the same day and just took it nice and slow. The kids were fine with lunch between the two.