While we were visiting Washington, DC, we also took a couple side trips. Although Washington has a ton to offer, the weather wasn’t particularly nice while we were there this February and we wanted to make sure we found some places where the kids could play freely. Early on our trip went to the Children’s Museum in nearby National Harbor. In addition, our return flight was from Baltimore Airport (one of the three airports that serves Washington, DC), so we decided to spend the day there just before we headed home. We visited two attractions in the Inner Harbor area – Port Discovery (Baltimore’s Children’s Museum) and the Baltimore National Aquarium.
National Harbor, Maryland
(20 minute drive south of Washington, DC)
National Children’s Museum
Location http://www.ncm.museum/
Address: 151 St. George Boulevard – National Harbor, MD (10 miles from downtown Washington, DC)
Gordie’s Review (3.5 years): “I liked the car ramps. And the crane.” Nicky’s Review (11 months): toys!
Day Pass Cost: $10 for children over 12 months and adults. Seniors $8, under 12 months are free.
Food Services: None. No outside food is permitted.
Age Range: under 8 years old.
Stay Length: 2 hours to half a day.
Worth the Trip?: Your kids will definitely have a good time.
Overall: The National Children’s Museum is the closest Children’s Museum to Washington, DC and had recently opened (Dec 2012) just two months before our visit. On top of it being very very new, we also ended up going on a Sunday during a long weekend. This was definitely not ideal planning. When we got there in the morning, the museum was at maximum capacity, but they offer timed tickets so we wandered off to have a snack and returned at our time 45 minutes later. It’s worth noting that the line-up had disappeared by this point. If you are going on what might be a busy day, I’d recommend going in afternoon if you can.
The 3 & Under area is designed for kids under 3 feet tall. There is a climbing structure that toddlers will love, a food truck perfect for pretend play, and tons of small toys, like trucks and building blocks. There’s a infant section too that is in the separated by a low soft wall to help keep the little ones from being run over. Nicole found it a little overwhelming while she was in there because it was so busy. Gordie actually loved it, he thought the food truck was really fun to play in and loved that they had a bunch of cars to play with too. He’s older than the intended age-group so I think it would be unlikely for your kids to lose interest in this area before they get too old for it.
The rest of the play space is is designed for kids 3-8 years old. It’s split up into two sections – Our Town and Our World.
Our Town
This section is set up for kids to learn through play using familiar city themes. Gordie loved the firetruck set – it has costumes, a play set that looks like the front of the firetruck and even a little window that goes ‘on fire’ complete with a fire alarm.
They also have a cargo loading area with a crane that Gordie thought was awesome. He talked about this days afterwards.
There are a number of other different centres in this area – a store, a pizza parlor, an election area/post office and a bunk bed quiet area.
Our World
This section has different centres to help kids explore the differences in how people around the world, live, cook, travel, and dress.
The What we Eat section has different kids of cooking equipment set up along the wall. This was really popular – the kids loved pretending to cook.
This section also had different puzzles set up that show different kids of meals from around the world.
Gordie’s favorite area was the travel section. They have different cars you can put together and then try to run down the different types of ‘roadways’. The only problem with this is that it’s really only designed for the cars to roll down the tracks and Gordie really wanted to be able to play with them and drive them back up. This wouldn’t be as big of a problem on a less busy day.
The also have a building section about different types of housing and building materials, and What We Wear has dress up clothes featuring special occasion clothing.
Baltimore
(1 hour drive NE of Washington, DC)
Port Discovery – Children’s Museum
Location http://www.portdiscovery.org/
Address: Inner Habor – Baltimore, MD
Gordie’s Review (3.5 years): “I liked the climber.”
Nicky’s Review (11 months): toys!
Day Pass Cost: $10 for children over 12 months and adults. Seniors $8, under 12 months are free. Re-entry is allowed if you leave your bracelet on. Food Services: No food or drink is permitted in the exhibit area but there is an area where you can eat a bag lunch.
Age Range: 0-10 years.
Stay Length: 2 hours to half a day.
Worth the Trip?: Your kids will definitely have a good time.
Overall:
Port Discovery is ranked as one of the top Children’s Museums in the US. It’s the biggest Children’s Museum I’ve been to – we only saw about half the exhibits before we had to leave for dinner. Some of the exhibits look a little tired, but others are brand new.
In the centre of the museum is a 3 level climber – Kid Works which is designed for kids 5 and up. The climber is pretty cool – Stephen took Gordie up and he loved it. The one problem with taking little kids, is that it has a number of exits onto the different floors so it’s pretty easy to lose your kids if they are not old enough to roam around alone.
On the main floor, they have a gas station and grocery store which provide great opportunities for pretend play. 
On the 2nd floor they have a wooden train that you can pretend to drive with a crane that you can use to load cargo from the shops just above it. There’s nothing really spectacular about it, but it was definitely Gordie’s favorite part. (what else would you expect from a little train fan?) 
On the third floor, they have a diner where kids can pretend to make and serve food. Gordie thought this was pretty fun too. A couple times he’d pick up the ‘olden days phone’ and take an order for the train for sandwiches and then go to the kitchen to make them. 
Tot Trails is one of the best toddler areas I’ve been too. It’s beautiful throughout with ocean and forest themes. They have a soft area for babies and a spot with ramps and small steps to challenge crawlers and early walkers. 
On the other side, they have a Mountain Trail, where toddlers can climb in and around – it looks great but it is hard to photograph. They have a little interactive ‘pond’ which Nicky found captivating and a spot where you can catch little fabric ‘butterflies. 
They also have a neat block area, a quiet area and a spot for sand play too. 
There are a number of other exhibits that we didn’t even get to (a number of which were aimed at school-aged kids). If you are looking to do something with the kids while you are in Baltimore, this would be a great pick.
Baltimore National Aquarium
Location http://www.aqua.org/visit/baltimore
Address: Inner Habor – Baltimore, MD
Gordie’s Review (3.5 years): What was the best part? “Seeing all the fish!’
Nicky’s Review (11 months): “fish!” (signing)
Day Pass Cost: $30 for adults, $21 for ages 3-11, under 3 is free.
Food Services: There are a few cafeterias.
Age Range: all ages.
Stay Length: 2 hours to half a day.
Worth the Trip?: Maybe. The cost is high but if your kids are interested in fish, dolphins and sharks, there’s plenty to see.
Overall: The kids loved the little fish tank at the Natural History Museum so much I thought that it would be fun to take them to the aquarium. I’d heard some good things about it and it really is huge, they have everything you’d want in an aquarium. I have to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I had been to the Georgia Aquarium when it first opened, and they have a lot of large ecosystems set up that you can along by or even under. I wasn’t expecting much and was really blown away. At the moment, the Baltimore aquarium is more of a traditional aquarium with smaller separate aquariums. There are currently doing some renovations on one of the levels – black tip barrier reef will be coming summer 2013.
It does have plenty to offer though, and tons and tons of fish and other water creatures. In the main part of the aquarium, each floor represents a different kind of habitat and geographic location. 
They have lots of little eco-systems set up for the different fish to swim around in. 
One of the things I thought was really neat is how they have it set up so part of the ecosystems is below the water but they also have the above water area visible as well. 
The top floor has a rainforest area complete with tropical birds.
They even have a section with a number of different sharks including ones that look like Bruce from Finding Nemo. The dolphins, Jellies Invasion and the Discovery Centre are in a 2nd area down a corridor. I’d suggest checking when the dolphin shows are going to be when you get there so you can plan your trip around it and don’t miss out like we did. 
If you are planning on going it’s important to know that you can’t bring a stroller. If you don’t have your own carrier, they have front and back carriers that you can borrow when you check your stroller. Since we had two little kids, I found this limited the amount of time we were able to spend at the aquarium and so we missed the Australian glass pavilion completely and didn’t manage to catch the dolphin show. We had a good time, and the kids both loved seeing all the fish.
Have you ever been in the Washington, DC area? Did you take any side trips?