What to see when you have three days in Washington DC
By Meg Brunson
I lived in Washinton, DC before having kids, and I love the city... a US-road trip also would not be complete without a stop in our nation's capital! There is really so much to see and do in DC, and so much of it is free! We only had 3 days to visit, and I wanted to share a quick look at what we saw and did over that time!
We stayed in Maryland and took the Metro into the city every day. Because we knew that we'd be relying on the Metro for most of our transportation throughout the city, we grabbed a 3-day unlimited pass from the first metro stop we visited. I held on to all of the passes, and then when we got to the terminals I scanned them one at a time, allowing the family to pass through, and went through last myself. This way, none of the passes got lost!
I used the Metro map when planning my trip, and grouped attractions based on their proximity to the Metro stations, so that we'd spend as little time as possible commuting, and more time enjoying!
The Smithsonian Museums are all free - but they can get crowded. We only visited one of the Smithsonian Museums on this trip - because we had so many other things that we also wanted to see. We visited Air & Space, and enjoyed seeing an exhibit on the Wright Brothers (which we could relate back to our visit to the National Park in Kitty Hawk) and vairous airplanes and rockets. You could spend a full week in DC and only spend time in the various Smithsonian Museums, but we wanted to see more, so we picked this one and packed our 3-day visit with other things as well!
Most of the Smithsonian Museums are located around the National Mall, along with a lot of the memorials that ae synonimous with Washngton DC. We spent time at the Washington Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, World War II Memorial, and Lincoln Memorial. We were able to see the Capital (though we didn't actually trek down to see it up close). We did venture a bit off the beaten path to visit the White House.
My eight year old loves US history and really wanted to see the Declaration of Independence and Constitution - so we visited the National Archives (which was FREE!). The documents were all on display on the second floor and while we were not permitted to take pictures, those memories will last her a lifetime.
An attraction that you may not think of when you think of Washington DC is Starbucks - specifically the location on H Street, which is the nations ONLY Signing Starbucks. All employees at this location are Deaf, or fluent in Sign Language. If you don't know ASL they have tablets where you can write your order. I worked with the kids to learn some basic signs so that they could order in ASL.
During our visit we also visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and International Spy Museum - we wrote separate reviews on those two venues for you to check out!
Read about some of the other adventures we're having on our Year-Long Road Trip!
© 2019 Meg Brunson
All opinions expressed are my own. See more on Instagram!
Meg is a mommy blogger, Facebook marketer, and much more. She is a mom to four kids who live full-time in an RV exploring the US! As a former Facebook employee, Meg remains a Facebook addict and handles KidsOutAndAbout.com's Social Media Marketing in addition to providing freelance services for other small businesses on how to best leverage Facebook as a part of their marketing strategy. Meg also hosts the FamilyPreneur Podcast, a podcast for parent entrepreneurs raising entrepreneurial children. Learn more about Meg at MegBrunson.com!