Do you or the kids have any particular interests or hobbies?
Some hidden gems that I have not heard mentioned are Gravely Point if you like planes, the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the Library of Congress if you like architecture, Theodore Roosevelt Island if you like the outdoors or TR.
I will dissent from the consensus and recommend the White House. The tour is not that much but it is interesting to see some of what is actually in such a famous place.
I don’t know how long you will be in the area, but if you want to get a little bit out of the city, Great Falls is pretty cool, and the views of the river can be spectacular (particularly after a recent rain). The overlook on the Maryland side and two of the overlooks on the Virginia side are wheelchair accessible. The Maryland side is technically the C&O Canal National Historical Park, but what you’ll want to look for on GPS or a map is the “Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center.”
The line for the pandas takes forever, and you can watch the panda cam anyway.
On the plus side, last time my wife and I were there, we got to watch the giant tortoises making the beast with two shells. I don’t know how often that happens, though.
After all these years, only on his birthday.
Agree, but pragmatically, its hard to keep an area green that can get trampled by tens of thousands of people during a protest/march/rally/inauguration
I really enjoyed the White House tour, and thought the capital was a snore. I also liked the U.S. Mint (also a contact your congresscritter thing).
The best part of the White House tour was the Secret Service people who stand in rooms and answer questions about paintings and furniture. One gossiped - apparently the White House curator has a cow when anyone from the House comes over - they don’t use coasters and put their feet on the furniture - and you know Mary Todd Lincoln picked out that couch. Senators apparently as a bunch were not raised in barns.
http://www.washingtonparent.com/ has a calendar of nearly every activity or event kids might be interested in. It’s still early, so July isn’t up yet.
Unless the exhibit chanced since we were there last, if the pandas are out they can be seen without waiting in line. One of the zoo’s picnic areas overlooks their enclosure.
My kids and I have a picnic lunch at least once a summer at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. It is a lovely oasis in the middle of everything. There is a giant fountain in the middle of the garden, and it is very nice to sit on the (comfortably wide) ledge and put your feet in to cool off and relax. It closes at 5pm, which is early, and you’re better off grabbing lunch from one of the food trucks than eating at the Pavilion Cafe.
A nice way to get a guided tour of some the places off the beaten path, is to take a pedicab tour. There are several different companies with a variety of tours. I used Discover DC Pedicab Tours once to give my daughter a scavenger hunt ride through the city for her 16th birthday. The driver was a lot of fun and she had a blast discovering places you forget about when you live in a city.
An exceedingly cheap way to tour China Town, Georgetown, or any other area is to take the bus. I think it is a lot more interesting to find a bus that goes all the way up and down say 14th St and just ride the length of the trip. The bus drivers are very, very nice, you get to see things you’d otherwise miss by driving, and you get a better sense of the people who live in the city. You can use a Smarttrip card on the bus and subway.
My family happens to love the Newseum. We always go at least once a summer because kids 18 and younger get in free with a paying adult all summer long. My favorite part is the display of that days newspaper from each State. They’re all lined up alphabetically by state outside leading up to the entrance.
The city is rife with short-term rental cars - Zipcar and Car2Go being the most prolific and easiest to use. You’d want to go ahead and set up an account with them now because you’ll need to have a keycard mailed to you in advance. This is very helpful in taking trips out to Dulles, or out to Baltimore to the “real” National Harbor. (There is a new area right outside DC that is being called National Harbor, but it’s not the one most people mean. The one in Baltimore has a great science museum, aquarium, shopping, and old boats to tour.) Baltimore is only a 45 minute drive from DC during the day and it’s an interesting city to visit.
If you decide to drive in DC, don’t freak out if you see a police car behind you with flashing blue & red lights but no siren. They’ve been doing this for a few years now, and I still can’t get used to it. It’s just a way of making the police presence more obvious.