Another Gem of a Find

I regularly try to find cheap and free ways to entertain my brood and luckily for us, living in the Washington Metropolitan area, it's not too hard to come up with a venue that will provide entertainment for them and not hurt my pocket. This weekend I decided to take them to the National Building Museum to check out the exhibit "LEGO Architecture" and see what else this unique museum, housed in a former government building, had to offer. We had never been to this museum dedicated to the building arts (or so says wikipedia) so I was really excited. And who doesn't love legos? This was sure to be a win-win situation.

According to the website (www.nbm.org), this is a "museum devoted to architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, construction, urban planning, historic preservation, and the many fields of design and development that compose our built environment" that is celebrating 30 years this year. And the fact that there was a lego exhibit as well as a hands-on building zone area where my boys could actively play and build stuff was a definite pull for me. Unfortunately due to its popularity we weren't able to see the exhibit - it was sold out for the day by the time we arrived (admission to the museum is free but this particular exhibit has an entry fee of $5 for ages 4 and up) - but we did take advantage of the beautiful building and the play areas. Luckily, the LEGO exhibit will be there for another year so we'll have plenty of chances to see it before it leaves. And since Davon currently has aspirations to be an architect, it might be better to visit when all of us go so he can check out some stuff there too.


We hung out in the Building Zone play area (designated for kids ages 2 through 6 - the exact demographic of my crew minus two) until it closed at 4pm, hung in the lobby area playing with large lego bricks, duplo bricks and myriad other "building" material and even tried our hand at building a foam block arch with some other folk. We walked through the exhibit "Washington: Symbol and City" which was very interesting which explores Washington, DC, as both the seat of government and an evolving city. This was kind of cool as a DC native. We left when the building shuttered for the evening at 5pm.

Nic getting his build on with the giant legos in the main hall

now it's time for the duplos

Dylan posing by the interior fountain before he makes a wish

Dylan and other kids building in main hall

Dylan near my built structure - before . . .

and after demolition

play house inside the Building Zone

Dylan and his new friend Lily building according to Lily's "vision"


Nic getting in on some play in the Building Zone's garage play area


checking out the interior of the play house

Then we walked across the street and did a quick drive by the National Law Enforcement Memorial - dedicated to the over 18,000 members of law enforcement enscribed there (according to a worker who was there helping with a restoration) who have lost their lives in the line of duty. This was a very humbling memorial. I was initially drawn across the street because of the lion statues, not even really knowing that this was a memorial. I bet it is amazing at night.

I didn't know that lions represented law enforcement

mama's cubs

the lioness and my own little Simba

We weren't quite ready to head home yet so we hit up another spot - the Museum of Natural History - for a quick walk through, starting with the big elephant in the main hall. We just stayed downstairs and hit up the mammal exhibit, the human origins exhibit, dinosaurs and fossils, and finally through ocean hall.

Nic checking out one of the displays in the dinosaur exhibit

in Ocean Hall (I think)

my men folk with the bear in mammal exhibit

another mammal display

Overall, it was a great way to spend an afternoon. And all for the low, low price of about a dollar or two that I put in the meter at the National Building Museum. When the tourists all go home for the summer (which as you can imagine is the most popular time of year for the Smithsonian and any other areas of interest in DC), we'll have to spend more time on the Mall and in the outlying areas. There's so much to see and do.

I plan on making a trip to the Newseum (which is offering free entry for children up to age 18 through Labor Day) soon because I've never been there either. There is such wealth of things to do in this city that I can't understand why more locals don't take advantage of them. I also want to do one of those tour bus tours one of these days. Dylan has already put his vote in for the double decker bus (because what's cooler than a double decker bus?).