Museum+Momma: National Children's Museum

Diggs and Nana Becky and I went to the National Children's Museum in National Harbor last week. We've been meaning to go for quite some time now, but just never quite made it. I had heard mixed reviews from other parents, so I'm glad we finally visited and were able to make our own judgement, for better or worse. So, I guess I'll just come out and say it. We had a great time, it was really interesting, but I'm not sure we'll go back any time soon. First, it cost $30 for the three of us to go. Maybe I'm just not used to paying admission living where we live with all the free Smithsonian museums just a few metro stops away. Second, although it's not hard to get to, I just don't like paying for parking. There's a parking garage adjacent to the museum, so it's handy, but still. Paying $9.00 for a few hours of parking, on top of paying $30 to get into the museum, is just not at the top of my list of fun things to spend money on. Third, there seemed to be a lot of things that babies and younger toddlers would like and a lot of things that the five and over crowd would like, but Diggs seemed a little big for the three and under room and many of the other exhibits were a little over his head. Sure, he loved climbing around (briefly) in the under three padded climbing apparatus and making the lights and siren turn on in the fire truck, but other than that, a lot of the activities seemed geared toward older children. Maybe that's my fault, maybe I wasn't doing a good job keeping him engaged while he was clearly overwhelmed. I don't know. And fourth, the museum itself is a lot smaller than I thought it would be (which is one of the main criticisms I'd heard from other parents) especially given that it cost us ten bucks each to get in. It was also a little beat up and many of the toys were missing parts, but perhaps that's just the nature of a space dedicated to hands-on activities for children.

I know it seems like I'm beating up on the museum, but I'm just being honest. We really did have a good time. And, by far the best activity was the Imagination Playground event being held in the theater space while we were there. There's a calendar of events on the museum's website, but there are also a few activities that were happening at the museum while we were there that weren't listed online. The Imagination Playground falls in that category. Basically there were about a hundred foam building blocks and tubes and such thrown onto the floor and you could build whatever you want. At the suggestion of the attendant, we built a ramp for rolling balls. Diggory could have stayed there for hours and hours if he had a choice. We stayed until the bitter end and "helped" clean up.

After our visit to the museum we walked down to the water to check out the new carousel. Sadly, it wasn't open on weekdays yet, but it is now. Here's the link to the hours. It's $3.00 for a single ride but $5.00 for unlimited rides in any single day. Um, yes, unlimited rides please! The whole area around the carousel is fenced in and there's a plethora of picnic tables and a playground inside, though I assume those are only accessible with a paid ticket.

I think maybe we'll have to check out what else is happening in National Harbor this summer and make another visit. Maybe we'll even take the water taxi from Old Town Alexandria, just for fun!

Here are the pictures to prove we actually went to the museum!

Diggs was pretty serious about Elmo.

The fire fighter uniforms come in a bunch of different sizes. You could make your own crew! Diggs liked driving the truck, but he ran out covering his ears whenever the siren went off!

Here's Nana and Diggs driving the food truck in the three and under room. The "Nursing Mother's Area" are those two chairs in the background. Not exactly what I had in mind when I read about it on the museum's website.