From: adf@cs.utexas.edu (Angela Dappert-Farquhar)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Washington D.C. with toddler (summary)
Date: 14 Dec 92 19:37:06 GMT
Organization: CS Dept, University of Texas at Austin
NNTP-Posting-Host: im4u.cs.utexas.edu

Here is a cut and paste of all your replies.

You netters were great. It seems we won't have enough time to do all
these things! Thanks alot!

    Angela

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- The National Zoo. It's free, except for parking (you can take Metro
- The Connecticut ave metro stop) .  You can rent a stroller and there
is no admission.  The zoo is great, if you get some decent weather.
There are quite a few buildings, but most of the large animals (which
a two year old would enjoy) are outside. It has an indoor rain forest
exhibit that is really neat

- many nice parks:.
In Montgomery County Maryland (Metrostop Bethesda) there is a really nice
park called Cabin John Park, with lots of great slides and stuff. There
are also ice skating rinks around, if you are daring.

- Take him for a ride on the subway (Metro).  My son loves riding the
"train".

- shopping malls and let the child run. e.g.

- Union Station.  It is also on Capitol hill and is a stop on the
Metro red line and has a parking garage.  It is a great building - a
1930's grand train station that has been re-modelled with shops,
places to eat and lots of room for toddlers to RUN!!  My son loves
throwing coins in teh fountains.  There is also a large model train
set up for x-mas.

- The old post office building (Pavillion) is close and contains a
large food court.

- The Children's museum--this is a well-kept secret, located behind the train
  station.  You have to pay to get in, but it is wonderful--several stories
  full of things to do.

- The Air & Space museum--lots of airplanes, rockets, etc

- The Smithsonian "Americana" (?) Museum--I'm not sure I have the name
right, but it's the museum with train cars, assorted interesting
American memorabilia, even a Sesame Street exhibit.

- The American History Museum has X-mas decorations.  

- Also on the mall is the Arboretum with lots of unusual plants.

- The National Geographic Building has interesting exhibits.  They are
somewhere around 16th and K street.

- The Smithsonian Natural History Museum: There are dinosaur bones and
lots of stuffed animals (an elephant in the foyer, a whale hanging
from the ceiling, lots more "stuffed" animals).  Sort of like an
indoor zoo without the hills, cages that hide the animals, etc.  Good
for bad weather (indoors); bad for transportation (parking costs about
$5 unless you're really lucky, and there's probably a walk).

- Art gallerys are good, except there great for making echoes, so
depending on if your child likes to do that or not, you might want to
skip those.

- The National Aquarium too.  The fish are neat and it can be a lot of fun.

- The Mall & Monuments--A toddler won't appreciate the monuments, but there
  are some great places to run around if the weather permits.
(Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Vietnam Memorial, etc.)

- A carousel down on the mall.

- A Merry-Go-Round at Columbia Mall (a shopping mall) in Columbia, MD.

- The National Christmas Tree: Near White House, lots of trees, animals,
sometimes entertainment.  While traffic is slow, there is pretty good
turnover of parking spots.  Outdoors, of course.

- The Airport--If your child is into airplanes, there is a park on the
  Potomac where you can park and watch the jets land at the airport.
  They fly in _LOW_ overhead--it's really something.

- Montgomery County Aquatic Swimmer Center has an excellent pool for
kids ($5/child,$6/adult) with a water fall, easy steps, and lots of
shallow area.  There is a separate lap pool with diving and a huge
water slide.  

- Alexandria, and Georgetown are good place to walk around
and people watch.  Georgetown can get rather congested.  

- Annapolis: wander around the dock area and look at the boats

- Baltimore has the inner harbour with the Aquarium (with many interactive
ehxibits and a new sea mammal show).

- Ellicott City is close by with a Train Museum.  

- Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD has activities for children
too, you may need to call.

- Chuck E. Cheese -- a pizza place for kids. It would keep
the kids entertained for hours with minimal adult supervision.


- Get a copy of Friday's Washington Post newspaper.  Look in the
Weekend section, it has all the weekend activities in the area, including ones
to do with little kids.  There are puppet shows, sing-alongs, plays, book
readings, and a lot of other interesting things.  

- Local libraries have "story time" -- though I do not know what
Christmas schedules are.  (If you call around, ask them to tell you
what they have going on for various ages without committing to the age
of your child.  They may say they have nothing for "23 months", while
a story for 2 1/2 year olds will be just as entertaining for your
son/daughter.)

- making cookies, or buy a waterpaint set and paint pictures.
Newsgroups: misc.kids