Kid-Size Attractions Abound in the Capital City

Taking your kids on vacation can be a survival test. Sometimes you’d like to strangle ‘em.

So everyone goes camping, to the beach or to Disneyland and Disney World. Or to Washington, where several hundred historic attractions (most of them free) captivate adults and kids alike.

Washington is filled with must-see places, from any one of the Smithsonian’s 13 museums to the National Zoo, but no matter how famous the monument or fascinating the memorial, most kids (especially preschoolers) eventually lose their enthusiasm for sightseeing. They start to whine and drag their feet.

Three Options

You have three options: Endure the sniveling and arm tugging (and the icy glares from fellow tourists) or plop the pouting child in front of the TV set in your hotel room.

Or make them think you’re the most wonderful parents in the world--take them on a special excursion designed just for kids. It’s amazing how fast sulky, fatigued children can recover.

Lots of these nifty places are scattered in and about the capital city; most are relatively unknown. Here are a handful of the best, also chosen because they are within easy walking distance of a Metrorail station. Who needs to spend 30 minutes--with a cranky kid--looking for a place to park?

The Best Place

If you can take your child to only one place, it should be the Capital Children’s Museum, 800 3rd St. N.E. (Union Station Metro stop).

Don’t be misled by the word museum. This three-story, 40,000-square-foot, red-brick building (it once held a convent) isn’t just filled with musty collectibles. It is a place of discovery, a place where children learn by getting involved, by touching, tasting, testing, playing, pretending. By doing.

In the International Hall (one of three major hands-on exhibit areas) devoted to Mexico, children can grind corn and make tortillas in the casa de vigas (log cabin), grind raw chocolate, don a sombrero and serape and join in the Mexican hat dance around a tile fountain, pet Rosie the goat, handle the implements found in a provincial kitchen, create crepe-paper flowers.

Multitude of Attractions

In adjoining rooms, boys and girls scramble onto a Harley-Davidson police motorcycle (with a very loud siren), pump gas, call one another on a free “pay” phone, drive a Metro bus, simulate a satellite launch, test their eyes, send Morse code, record at a radio studio. They can talk to computers, give puppet shows, run printing presses, explore caves, type in Braille, dress up in the uniforms and helmets of mail carriers, policemen and firemen (and slide down a fire pole), dismantle typewriters, negotiate a child-size maze. And much more.

The Capital Children’s Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed most major holidays. Admission $2 for adults and children, senior citizens $1.

The Museum of Natural History, 10th Street and Constitution Avenue (Federal Triangle station), holds some child-appealing exhibits, such as dinosaur skeletons, a living coral reef, a gem and mineral collection, an insect zoo with close-up views of all sorts of creepy critters at work and at leisure. One special treat: the tarantula feedings.

But it’s the Discovery Room, almost concealed on the second floor, with its special hands-on exhibit of plants, minerals and stuffed animals that grabs most children, and vice versa.

Things to Discover

Kids can cuddle a fawn, feel the scaly skin of a seven-foot anaconda, examine whale vertebrae, finger a crocodile’s teeth, fondle animal pelts, stroke elk antlers, poke a porcupine. The staff hands out “discovery boxes,” each filled with assorted preserved specimens for investigation--fossil teeth, tusks, coral, minerals, beetles, amphibians, reptiles.

The room is small, holding only about 30 children with their parents (required), and often limited to 30-minute visits (free). Hours are from noon to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. the rest of the week. On Saturday and Sunday, passes are required, available at the information desk in the rotunda on the main floor.

More special treats are on hand at the National Aquarium (the oldest in America). Promoted as “a hidden world,” it’s also a hidden aquarium in its unlikely basement location in the Department of Commerce Building, 14th and Constitution Avenue N.W. (Federal Triangle station).

Along with 1,000 specimens of aquatic life on display, from eels and dazzling tropical fish to sea turtles and sharks (feedings Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 2 p.m.), is a special touch tank of hermit and horseshoe crabs, spiny sea urchins, snails and whelks.

The rather nondescript beige-gray piranhas appear docile and, in fact, a sign near their tank says: “They are not the vicious, blood-thirsty creatures they are often reputed to be.” Oh, yeah! Come watch them with their razor-like teeth at feeding times (Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday at 2 p.m.).

The aquarium is open daily 9 to 5. Admission $1, children and senior citizens 50 cents.

Just for Gawking

The Washington Dolls’ House and Toy Museum, 5236 44th St. N.W. (Friendship Heights station), is a “look but don’t touch” place. Just about everything on display is behind glass.

But lots of kids (and nostalgic parents) enjoy just gawking at the antique dolls’ houses and miniatures, toys and games, most from the Victorian Era, carefully collected and artfully displayed. On request, the staff runs a model of a 1920 Ives locomotive or a Lionel train.

Dozens of miniatures are displayed such as Noah’s ark, plus all the animals; a tiny Teddy Roosevelt on safari; a circus set up on a sawdust arena floor; a houseboat; a zoo; a fire station; an 18th-Century kitchen with all the appropriate implements, down to a one-inch turkey ready to be popped into the oven of an old wood-burning stove.

Dolls’ houses fill the rooms that once made up four apartments. They share space with shelves and shelves of miniature accessories and furniture, such as the collection of 53 chairs ranging from a Louis XIV to a modern chaise longue.

An Edwardian tearoom (full size) and a museum shop are on the second floor. You can buy miniatures (everything from scale-size yogurt containers to a tiny hand-crafted ivory toothbrush from Scotland for $9.50 or a new doll house for $590--$280 if you assemble it yourself).

The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 to 5 and Sunday noon to 5. Admission: adults $2, children under 14 $1.

A Hands-On Tour

The Daughters of the American Revolution Museum, 1776 D St. (Farragut North station), features children’s furniture, toys and dolls from the 18th and 19th centuries in the Children’s Attic. They also conduct special hands-on tours that allow children to examine Colonial objects, play old games and try on costumes. Call (202) 628-1776, Ext. 254, for tour times.

The museum is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. Closed Saturdays. Free.

If you can vacation in Washington before or after the crowded summer tourist season, there are two splendid opportunities for children to experience live theater.

The Smithsonian Resident Associate Program’s Discovery Theater presents mime, puppetry, dance, storytelling and live theatrical performances (such as “The Ugly Duckling” or “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp”) in the Arts and Industry Building on the Mall (Smithsonian station) from October through mid-June. Performances last 45 to 60 minutes and are scheduled Tuesday through Friday at 10 and 11:30 a.m. and Saturday at 1 and 3 p.m. Adults $3, children 12 and under $2.50.

The National Theater, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W. (two blocks from the White House, Federal Triangle station) conducts a similar program in the Helen Hayes Gallery, September through mid-May. Saturday Morning at the National (9:30 and 11) features clowns, puppet theater, magicians, storytellers and dance. Free.

The gallery is small, with room for only about 300 children, who sit on the carpeted floor in front of the stage, so reservations are usually necessary a week in advance. Telephone (202) 783-3372.

Two blocks away at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., the renovated Old Post Office (1899) reopened in 1984. Take your kids to lunch there. Musicians and puppeteers perform on the ground floor of the atrium during the noon hour, and a juggler-clown on Saturdays from noon to 1.

A large dining area surrounds the stage where you can eat everything from barbecue and New York kosher to Szechwan dishes sold at fast-food stands. Or hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, milkshakes, ice cream, cookies and candy.

What kid could ask for anything more?