Keep It Local

We like best to go places that we can either walk to or take the train.  The car just means more stuff to pack, more time to whine, and less Starbucks for mom (it's actually much easier to jam a double-wide through the door than to get us in the car, park, out of the car, carry coffee and two kids, and get us back into the car).  Here are our recent local haunts (by general location and alphabetically therein).

D.C.
14th and Girard Street Park (Columbia Heights)

Atlas Performing Arts Center (H Street NE)

Boogie Babes (NE and Eastern Market)

Canal Park Ice Rink (SE Waterfront)

Canal Spray Park (SE Waterfront)

Columbia Heights Farmer's Market

Dumbarton Oaks Garden and the Cloud Terrace (Georgetown)

Eastern Market (Capitol Hill)

East Potomac Park and Hains Point (SW Waterfront)

Forest Hills Playground (Chevy Chase)

Georgetown Waterfront Park

Guy Mason Park (Glover Park)

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens (VanNess'ish)

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (The Mall) -- Suprasensorial: Experiments in Light, Color and Sound; Ai Weiwei "According to What?"; "Out of the Ordinary"

House of Sweden (Georgetown)

Jonah's Treehouse (Georgetown/Glover Park)

Kalorama Park (Adams Morgan)

Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens -- and in the winter (NE)

Kogod Courtyard and National Portrait Gallery (Gallery Place/Chinatown)

Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park Drum Circle (Columbia Heights)

Mitchell Park Playground (DuPont'ish)

Miss Amy's Music Makers (Dupont) -- we've done music classes here since we were very little (3 months for Cam) and love Miss Amy - make sure to sign up for her class over other teachers

Montrose Park (Georgetown)

National Arboretum (and redux); Arb's Fern Valley; Arb's Conifer Collection and Bonsai Museum (NE)

National Air and Space Museum (The Mall)

National Aquarium D.C. (The Mall)

National Building Museum (and Part Deux); Play Work Build Exhibit (Penn Quarter/Chinatown'ish)

National Cathedral Flower Mart (Cathedral Heights)

National Gallery of Art (The Mall) -- I Spy: Photography and the Theater of the Street, 1938 - 2010; Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes at the National Gallery of Art

National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden (The Mall)

National Geographic Museum (Golden Triangle)

National Mall Carousel (The Mall)

National Menorah Lighting (The Elipse)

National Museum of American History -- FOOD Exhibit (The Mall)

National Museum of the American Indian (The Mall) -- Family Story Time

National Museum of Natural History (The Mall)

National Museum of Women in the Arts (White House Area)

National Postal Museum (Capitol Hill'ish)

National Zoo -- Boo at the ZooAmazoniaAmerican Trail, Bird House, and the NEW Carousel, NEW Elephant House (Woodley Park)

Newseum (Penn Quarter)

O Street Mansion (Dupont)

Passport DC's "Around the World Embassy Tour" (Dupont)

Peirce Mill (Mt. Pleasant'ish)

The Phillips Collection (DuPont) -- Pollock Exhibit and Laib Wax Room

Potomac Riverboat Cruise (Georgetown Harbor)

Playseum (Capitol Hill)

Shaw Library's Mother Goose on the Loose 

Smithsonian Discovery Theater and its Tot Rock Series (The Mall)

Stead Park (Dupont'ish)

Stoddert Playground (Glover Park)

Tenley-Friendship Library Storytime

Textile Museum (Kalorama)

Theodore Roosevelt Island (Potomac River -- just north of Roosevelt Bridge of off GW Parkway)

Thomas Jefferson Memorial (The Mall)

Tidal Basin Paddle Boats (The Mall)

Tranquil Space Yoga (Dupont) -- we did both the mommy and me and the yoga for tykes series.  loved them.

Trolley Turnaround Park (Columbia Heights)

Turtle Park (Friendship Heights)

Union Market (NE)

Upshur Playground (16th Street Heights)

U.S. Botanic Garden (The Mall)

Walter Pierce Park (Adams Morgan)

Washington Auto Show (Chinatown'ish)

Washington Nationals Game (SE Waterfront)

Westminster Playground

Woodrow Wilson Aquatic Center (Tenleytown-AU)

Yards Park, and its Friday Night Concert Series (SE Waterfront)

*      *      *

Maryland
Adventure Theatre (Bethesda)

Brookside Gardens and its "Wings of Fancy" (Wheaton)

Cabin John Miniature Train and Park (Rockville)

College Park Aviation Museum

Fort Washington Park (Fort Washington)

Glen Echo Park (Bethesda)

Good Knight Enchanted Kingdom (Beltsville)

Lebanese Taverna Children's Music Hour (Bethesda)

Locust Grove Nature Center (Bethesda)

Maryland Renaissance Festival (Annapolis)

Montgomery County Recycling Center

Montpelier Family Farms (Upper Marlboro)

National Aquarium (Baltimore)

National Children's Museum (National Harbor)

National Children's Museum Launch Zone (National Harbor); Toddler Tuesdays at NCM

Oxon Hill Farm

Patuxent Research Refuge (Laurel)

Playseum (Bethesda)

Shlagel Farms (Waldorf)

Quiet Waters State Park (Annapolis)

U.S. Naval Academy (Annapolis)

Watkins Regional Park (Upper Marlboro); and its Nature Center

Wheaton Regional Park

*      *     *

Virginia
Arlington County Fair

Claude Moore Colonial Farm (McLean)

Clemyjontri Park (McLean)

Frying Pan Farm Park (Herndon)

Gravelly Point (Arlington)

Hidden Oaks Nature Center (Annandale)

Huntley Meadows (Alexandria)

Jammin Java (Vienna)

Jones Point Park (Alexandria)

Long Branch Nature Center (Arlington)

Mount Vernon (near Alexandria); President's Day at Mount Vernon; Christmas at Mount Vernon; Museum and Education Center

National Air and Space Museum - Udvar-Hazy Center (Chantilly)

Potomac Nationals Game (Woodbridge)

Potomac Overlook Park (Arlington)

Reston Zoo

Riverbend Park (Great Falls)

River Farm (Alexandria)

Virginia Renaissance Faire (Lake Anna)

Winkler Botanical Preserve (Alexandria)