Children's activities in Washington D.C.?

My husband and I are wanting to take our children, ages 9 and 7, to Washington D.C. this summer for 2 days. What museums and exhibits would be fun for children with these ages? Also, any good ideas for places to stay would be helpful. Thanks for the advice in advance!! :-)

I'll do places to stay first, because it is much shorter.

The Red Roof Inn Chinatown is right downtown, in a colorful, interesting neighborhood with a huge variety of inexpensive restaurants from exotic to hamburgers, and everything in between. It runs about $120 a night.

The Hotel Harrington is a great place if you are budget conscious - very inexpensive, with a variety of family rooms, and right near the White House and the Mall. Rooms start at $100, but a room for 4 will be a bit more expensive. This hotel is basic but clean and comfortable.

If you are interested in a more expensive place, Marriott has a number of properties, including a Residence Inn (with a kitchen) south of the Capitol.

I recommend staying in town for families with kids, since sometimes families want to take a rest in the afternoon, and it's hard if you are staying in the suburbs.

There is a lot of stuff for kids of those ages. The Air and Space Museum, both the one on the mall and the Udvar-Hazy Center out near Dulles Airport are excellent for that age kids. Also the National Museum of Natural History has great stuff for exactly that age group, including many children's corners, and an insect zoo.

Your kids are a little young for the Holocaust Museum, and the youngest is even a little young for the Spy Museum.

The Smithsonian's American History Museum will reopen this summer, not sure when, or when you will be here.

The National Gallery of Art has some programs for kids, in particular the sculpture garden, but check out their web site so you can see what they have to offer - they have a whole NGA for kids section. Their sculpture garden really does engage kids with art and is worth visiting.

The National Archives contains the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but the exhibit in the Vaults is great for kids, very interactive and interesting.

The Smithsonian's Postal Museum is very kid-friendly, also.

Don't spend a lot of precious time going up the Washington monument, crowded, and the view is not that great, since the windows are not very big or very good. Very difficult for kids to see out. Instead go a block north of the mall, and go up in the tower of the Post Office Pavilion - the view may be better, it works better for kids, and it is much less crowded.

Of course there is the zoo, and there is an aquarium in the Commerce building on 15th street - small but great and low key, a great stop if your kids are getting over-stimulated.

I also recommend, of course, visiting the monuments and memorials. This can be done in the evening - since there are park rangers on duty until midnight at these sites. The memorials are beautiful at night - the Korean War Memorial is very impressive at night. You might also check out the Navy Memorial on Pennsylvania avenue - it's very interesting.

Hope that helps.

The above post is great (and worthy of the points) but I wanted to add a double recommendation for the aquarium at the Commerce building. It's very cheap (I think about $3 each), has lots of hands on stuff (including touching horseshoe crabs) and best of all is air conditioned! I went there with my nephews when they came to visit, and they were a little younger than that. Both of them loved it, and it was a very welcome break for me and my sister in law during the middle of the day.

in dc, there are many great places for children. the top choices for shorter attention spans are the zoo, the national air and space museum, and the spy museum. the zoo is very big and has great panda exhibits. the spy museum is unique and a good experience, and the space museum will keep you interested. if you go to the space museum, be warned about the simulators, and if that is in your childrens interests, bring money for it!