Washington D.C. – the National Mall, White House, and a glimpse into two of the Smithsonians

Visiting Washington DC for several days was one of those hands-on homeschool days you can’t mimic in a textbook. There is so much history to be learned and seen here that you must see in person to really appreciate. Get yourself to DC and see it all for yourself.

What many people don’t know is that almost all of these things are free to explore. The National Mall and all of the monuments as well as all of the Smithsonian Museums and the National Archives building, etc. All we paid for was the parking. We paid the maximum time on the first day (which was four hours for $9) and were parked on the street right outside of the National Museum of the American Indian. We spent those four hours on foot walking around the Capitol Building, the Washington Monument, the World War II Monument, the Abraham Lincoln Monument, the FDR Memorial, and the MLK Memorial. We walked 7 miles in those 4 hours and then had to book it back to the car as time was running out. A longer than 4-hour time frame would have been ideal, but for $9 we made it work.

The first building we walked around was the Capitol Building. We took the time to research different things, like learning that the statue on top was the Statue of Freedom which has been in place since 1863. You can go into the Visitors Center which is underground, however, we had CamelBak’s on that had water in them and were not allowed to go in. (My bad for planning ahead and keeping us hydrated). They also offer paid tours of the Capitol, however we did not partake in those.

There are paid tours offered through many of the monuments and sights in DC, much like you would go on for a class trip (as two of my kids have). It is beneficial as the tour guides are knowledgeable about everything you will see and you will learn more than you ever thought possible. However, there are also audio tours available that you can listen to right on your phone, much like we did in Punxsutawney, PA. View these options below to get an idea of what these are like. Earbuds are recommended!

The next monument, and Aliyah’s favorite, was the Washington Monument which can be seen from just about everywhere we went in DC. View our Instagram video here to really see the size of it.

It really is something to see in person to soak it all in! Aliyah and Emma had to lay next to it and put their feet on it, of course. We learned about why it’s two different colors (from a pause in its creation) and how it was originally the tallest building in the world. They do offer tickets to go into it, but they were sold out for the day we were there. It was just as impressive to see it from the outside. It’s actually the one thing Aliyah has requested multiple times that we go see again.

The WWII monument was impressive in and of itself. The last time I’d seen it was at night when it was all lit up (beautiful to see). But during the daylight with the reflecting water, it was just as memorable. The design of it is remarkable.

What truly left a mark on the kids was the stars lining the wall in the middle-back of the monument. Each one of the stars represented 100 soldiers who died. It is something that really sunk in for them that they will remember for a long time. To read a bit more about this monument, check out this link.

A nice walk along the Reflecting Pool takes you over to the Lincoln Memorial. At this point, the kids were reminding us every step of the way that we should have brought our Lectric Bikes. In hindsight, yes we should have and many people did!

You don’t really understand the size of this statue of Abraham Lincoln until you see it in person either. It’s remarkable. To the right and left of Lincoln on the wall are two of his speeches. There is something powerful about watching your impressionable 10-year-old reading them intently and being able to repeat some of it. We may have to detour back up for a stop at Gettysburg like we had originally planned.

Probably often skipped on your walk around the National Mall are the FDR and MLK monuments, as they aren’t in the same strip as the other monuments already discussed. In between these are the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. Signs are directing you to these, but I imagine them to get less traffic than the other memorials as they aren’t in plain sight. Each is unique and amazing in its own way and you don’t want to miss them.

I definitely suggest at least an audio tour to get the most out of all of these monuments to get the most of your time at DC.

The next day we returned to the heart of DC and visited the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History as well as the Air and Space Museum. Both are free to enter, although at this time you must reserve your time slot at the Air and Space Museum. Both of these museums are amazing. But back to parking – we found a spot on the street that had a max parking time of 3 hours which was $7. Again, super cheap. However, three hours was not enough time. We did not stop in the museums and read every single sign and still ran out of time. I was able to go back on the parking app and add another 3 hours as soon as the time ran out (and not a minute before!) so we didn’t get towed. That gave us more time to explore and then hit the Air and Space Museum.

In touring these museums, we decided that we were due to watch the following movies again: The Croods, Night at the Museum, and National Treasure. We will be streaming these this week on Prime for the history these movies offer and their relevance to what we saw in person this week.

Now that we had paid for an extra three hours of parking, we decided to hit the National Archives, which was a short walk away. It is free to enter this building as well and we were able to see the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence.

Because we were so close and had an hour of parking left, we walked a few blocks to get a view of the White House. Unfortunately, many of the roads around it were closed due to preparation for the upcoming Inauguration. We were able to get some far-away photos though.

And would you know it, in that time walking, our parking time ran out again? I was able to add another hour of time on the app so we could walk back to the truck. I had beaten the clock and only paid about 15 dollars of parking time that day. Would you believe when we got back to the truck there was a ticked on the windshield? How? I had carefully crafted our parking all day. Wouldn’t you know we had missed the sign that said taxi unloading area? A $20 ticket. Still, the cheapest city parking we’ve ever paid!