National Building Museum: The BEACH

The new temporary architectural installation at DC's National Building Museum is at once incredibly awesome and my worst nightmare. I know I tend to think of myself as more laid-back than I actually am, but The Beach turned me into a germaphobic, claustrophobic lunatic convinced that my children were going to suffocate under a sea of clear plastic balls. It was not a pretty afternoon for me.

Keep It Local: The BIG Maze at the National Building Museum

For the past few years, the National Building Museum has set up pretty awesome architectural putt-putt golf courses. And we've been excited. And we've waited and schemed for the optimal time to go. And then we bombed.

So we were really psyched when we heard that this summer's feature was going to be a BIG maze instead. I mean, you're talking to the kid who asked mom if she could set up a labyrinth with live minotaur (AKA Uncle Steve in costume) for his birthday party. A BIG maze is a BIG deal (and we also now know the difference between a maze and a labyrinth).

We went early one morning this week and had no problem getting tickets (which, to be honest, seem a little ridiculously overpriced even with our membership discount) and ran the maze over and over and over again. Then we spotted a buddy in the maze when we were on the second floor and went back for more. We took a break at Play Work Build, and then went back for more maze. So, it's safe to safe that we got our money's worth at least. Mom loved the grand reveal design and we loved that we could do it endlessly.

It is pricey, but it's worth a visit (given that you get admission to the other museum exhibits) before it disappears on September 1st.

Keep It Local: Play Work Build at the National Building Museum

It had been a while since we'd been to the National Building Museum -- we seem to have outgrown the kids room a bit and aren't quite up to the regular exhibits just yet. But mom and I went last week with some buddies to check out the new "PLAY WORK BUILD" exhibit and were thrilled to find an interactive exhibit that was well suited to a wide age range of kids. I made a beeline for the giant light table (mom wants one!) and played for a bit with the mini Imagination Playground. Then mom directed me to the regular people-sized Imagination Playground and I was hooked. I mostly liked stacking, climbing, and defending my structures from the advances of children smaller than me. But I also spent some time building a ship with mom.  The "room" housing the Imagination Playground is pretty awesome and is set up so that you can even build onto the walls. It would be a perfect padded room.

Mom tried to lure me over to the interactive video screen where you can "knock down" virtual building blocks, but I wasn't that interested. We did make a loop back to check out the Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs, about which mom was pretty psyched. We went on a weekday morning right at opening time (10 a.m.) and it wasn't crowded at all.

We are big advocates of the Building Museum membership -- besides our National Zoo and Mt. Vernon memberships, it's the only other one we regularly renew.  If you're not a member, admission is $8/adults and $5/youth (2 and under are free).  The exhibit is set to stay at the NBM until next November and we're sure to be repeat visitors. Also, KidFriendly DC recently posted a more in depth review, which is worth checking out.

that would be mom judo kicking some blocks. very gracefully.

not too shabby.

Perfect Blue Buildings: Mini Golf at the National Building Museum

This has been the hottest ticket of the summer -- we've officially tried to go twice and been shut down by the crowds.  Seeing as this is one of the few weeks between summer camp and the start of school that we are in town, mom was determined to make it happen.  To ensure we were out of the house bright and early, mom first decided that we needed to pick up a mystery package from the Post Office when it opened at 9 a.m.  None of the following story actually has anything to do with mini golf, but it was too choice not to share.

Every now and again, mom's online shopping habit ensures that we receive a package pick-up notice, but have absolutely no idea what it is.  And this time, mom was really stumped.  We headed to our local post office branch with 10 minutes to spare, only to realize that it has been closed down as part of the condo-conglomeration of 14th Street.  We then turned back around and headed back up by our house to the post office that purportedly had our package, parked, spent ten minutes in line with mom hissing for us to keep our lovies off of the grubby floor, and then were told that our package had now been sent to the new post office back down by the old one -- at the Frank Reeves Municipal Center.

Have you ever been to the FR Municipal Center?  It's in mom and dad's old 'hood, which appears to only have gotten grubbier.  When mom pointed out their old apartment building, Kane and I both said "what?  that's not right.  that doesn't make any sense."  We lucked out on a parking spot, walked past the MPD Truancy team doing some serious shake downs, and through the metal detectors at the muni center (which was a miracle given Kane freaks out at all metal detectors because he thinks he is going to have to take his shoes off like at the airport).  And were then told that there is actually a separate entrance for the post office that didn't require any metal detecting at all.  Of course.

We finally had the mystery package in hand and everyone buckled back in the car.  Mom opened it to find a package of Ravensburger Octonauts puzzles she purchased a LONG time ago that had been held up at customs.  She's pretty sure her morning was karmic payback for all of the German wooden toys she has made daddy assemble, but Kane was pretty psyched.  I was not -- I wanted to know where my Dora puzzle was.  Kane tried to explain that even if mom had ordered me a Dora puzzle, which she had not because his was a "special present, right mommy?," a Dora puzzle wouldn't have been held at customs because it wouldn't have come from Germany.  And on the morning went.

We actually did arrive at the Building Museum right before its 10:00 a.m. opening hour and scored a pretty sweet parking spot there, too.  We bought our tickets and were pleased to find only a handful of others were playing.  Then the clerk told mom there was a "six stroke maximum for each hole."  And she laughed out loud (for a variety of reasons).  If your kids are a bit older or, well, just not us, this would be a pretty cool mini golf.  We liked it, but we have our own way of doing things that was just not conducive to this kind of restrictive mini golf -- Watkins Regional Park is much more our speed.  We were out in 20 minutes, which did not line up with mom's plans to head over to the nearby Kogod Courtyard for lunch -- it doesn't open until 11:30.  So, lucky us, mom took us to see a movie at Gallery Place just a few blocks away.  Sometimes, things just have a way of working out for everyone.

Take a look. It's in a book: National Building Museum's Storyhour

We can't quite figure out the situation with the NBM's storyhour, which the museum purportedly holds the first Tuesday of every month at 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. in the Building Zone.  We've been there on other first Tuesdays and NADA, NOTHING, ZILCH.  But, we lucked out last week and were there to participate in the reading of "The Night Worker," by Kate Banks.  I thought this book was pretty cool -- it's about a little boy who lucks out when his daddy takes him to visit his nighttime construction job.  Plus the reader demonstrated all kinds of construction things from the book with the toys in the Building Zone.  There was even a related activity afterwards, but by that point we were READY to go.  (Luckily the NBM posts an activity worksheet online and we are hoping to do that soon).  And it only went downhill from there as mom had to take the only remaining doctor's appointments for us smack during our naptime.  Argggg!

We Built this City: National Building Museum Part Deux

So we know there is a lot of griping going on about the National Building Museum starting to charge admission to the galleries and, most importantly, the Building Zone.  There are several reasons that news didn't cause much anxiety at our house, including (1) the fact that we are already members and get in for FREE, yo; (2) most everything else in D.C. is free; and (3) partially because of (2), D.C.'ers are spoiled and this city is generally just filled with complainers (present company included) and we figure you just can't possibly get wound around the axle about every little thing.  Plus mom currently chooses to focus her complaining efforts on the rampant pedestrian mid-street crossing that we encounter daily.

One morning after dropping Kane at summer camp, mom and I hit up the NBM for our first post-admission trip.  It did generally appear much slower than usual, but we picked up our VIP wristbands from the Info desk (that's right, I said our VIP wristbands. what what!) and headed to the Building Zone.  We literally had the entire thing to ourselves for as long as we wanted.  It was AWESOME.  And I may be romanticizing things a bit here, but there actually appeared to be less filth and disorder, too.  One of mom's favorite, and completely unrelated, things about this particular trip to the NBM was the new "pay by phone or mobile app" parking that's been put in around the museum, which has notoriously bad parking (its tucked in between all kinds of law enforcement, all of the courts, and the Verizon Center).  She downloaded the app while we parked and we will never have to bring quarters again!
 

NB -- we have since been back for another post-admission trip and had a not quite as awesome time.  Although we were still able to get our VIP wristbands, the entry to the BZ was timed -- we had a specific time to go in and were told we could only stay 45 minutes.  Hmm.  Lesson learned - even if you're a VIP, get your bands when you get there so you can visit the galleries, check out a toolbox kit (also free if you are a member and Kane's favorite thing to do), or rush the fountain.