I almost always have trouble figuring out what I want to do for Mother’s Day. This year, though, I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. My girls love dinosaurs, and they had a blast hunting for fossils on our last trip to New York, so why not take them into D.C. to the Museum of Natural History? The idea and excursion snowballed from there leading to one epic Mother’s Day!
After parking our car up near Chinatown, I unloaded our Bob double stroller from the trunk. Pebble is 5 and capable of walking, as is Rainbow who is 7, but I knew both tired easily. Plus, the stroller had plenty of places for me store things, from extra clothes for Pebble, to water bottles, to sunscreen, to a picnic lunch I’d packed to save us a little money, etc. We set off walking down toward the Mall. None of the girls had yet experienced the Mall or any of the monuments and museums down there. Three kids in D.C. is not an easy jaunt to plan out and execute, and not one I’d ever attempt on my own. The girls were looking everywhere as we walked, and Stormy noticed the historical signs. She wanted to read everything, but we just didn’t have the time, or patience on the part of her sisters.
We walked through the National Museum of Art’s Sculpture Garden, stopping briefly at the fountain, before emerging near the Mall. Stormy stopped and looked up and down the Mall, seeing the Capitol and the Washington Monument for the first time. Pebble and Rainbow, though, were focused on an event going on on the Mall called “Celebration of Construction on the National Mall.” Every kind of construction truck was there, and people could climb up into the cabs of most of them. All 3 girls were scrambling from one truck to the next, clambering up and down from the cabs, exploring everything! Diggers, cranes, cherry pickers, bulldozers, backhoes, etc. Pebble is our truck fan, and she was in heaven!!
I’m hoping the exhibit returns next year as well, and, now that we know how much the kids enjoyed it, we can just devote our day to that one event. On this day, though, we rounded the kids up after a half hour or so, and took them across the street to the National Museum of Natural History. It is a big museum, and we didn’t see everything or even close to everything. We wandered, and let the kids lead us. The first area we ended up in was the Hall of Mammals. The girls looked around in wonder, and then asked us if the animals were real animals. When we said yes, they wanted to know how the animals had died, and why the museum had a hall of dead animals. Yep, that section of the museum went over like a lead balloon!
As the morning crept into afternoon, we visited the Ocean Hall, the Hall of Fossils, Geology, and the Hope Diamond. Stormy didn’t like the amount of people crammed into the Gems and Minerals, so we skipped that. At one point, we popped into one of the cafes for coffee, and ate our lunch. When the girls had had enough, I had planned to take them outside to see the construction trucks again. Stormy, though, had a different idea. She is a history lover, and badly wanted to go to Ford’s Theater.
After much debate, we caved, and left the museum to walk to Ford’s Theater. We stopped at a food truck nearby for ice cream for the girls. Whoa, when did food trucks get so expensive!?? Crazy! The girls happily ate their very expensive cold treats as we walked.
When we reached Ford’s Theater, we secured free tickets to go inside the theater. We listened to one of the ranger talks, and saw the box where Lincoln was shot. Then we walked across the street to the see the Peterson House. It was a wait to get in, and, honestly, not really worth it. Most of the furniture inside is reproductions or from the same era. None of the artifacts that were there when I went through years ago are still there. The new museum next door to the Peterson House, though, is excellent! The tiny museum that was once housed in the basement of Ford’s Theater now has its own home, and has expanded.
Understandably, Rainbow and Pebble were in full revolt by the time we got to the museum, and didn’t want to see any of the exhibits. They were hot, tired, and ready to head home. Stormy, though was in heaven, and needed much coaxing to get her back outside. She and I were both awed by the giant, multi-level, tower of all books related to Lincoln. As we descended to the main level, and the street, we stopped to read titles. I saw several I had read myself when studying for my master’s in history, as well as several that I owned on my own bookshelf at home. We promised Stormy that we would bring her back to see the museum another day, and we still had other museums to visit as well as the monuments. Without this promise, she would have stayed in the museum all day.
Our first jaunt into D.C. with three children went surprisingly better than I’d hoped. The stroller, as large as it is, was a godsend. We didn’t hear a single peep from Rainbow that her feet hurt, which was amazing. Important things we learned was to always bring a picnic lunch, avoid the food trucks and their expensive wares, avoid the gift shop, know where the bathrooms are in advance, and try not to cram in too much in one day. In hindsight, we should have postponed Ford’s Theater to another day, and gone back to the Construction exhibit. Both Rainbow and Pebble were historied out by the end of the day. Stormy has been asking and asking when we will next go into D.C., but that excursion will wait till the heat and crowds of summer subside.
If you haven’t been to D.C. with kids before, I do recommend it, but just try to remember when picking things to do, don’t go overboard, and try to select things that interest the kids. All three girls loved the fossils, the ocean, and the dinosaurs at the museum, but there weren’t overly awed by much else. The construction trucks were a hit with all three as well, and Stormy loved seeing Ford’s Theater up close and in person. It was a very memorable Mother’s Day. Happy trails!