longhorn55...so disappointed to hear that. That was a pretty cool tour! Glad I did it before they stopped doing it.

My daughter found the changing of the guard at Arlington facinating.

Baltimore aquarium is excellent.

Natural History at the Smithsonian.

Remember that Air and Space has two facilities - one in town and the other with lots of planes at Dulles, it's excellent.

Duck boat tour is lots of fun - it's on land and water.

Plus the Native American museum has loads of history.

One thing I remembered and is very cool to see is the parade that is put on at either the Marine Corp barracks in DC or the one at the Iwo Jima monument (I think that's on the Arlington or Alexandria side of the Potomac river) Both parades are the same but they do a great silent gun drill routine which I have always enjoyed seeing. It's pretty short too, so not too boring for a 9 yr old.

Personally, I think that any of the museums that charge are expendable on a normal 2-4 day tourist visit to DC. You can spend weeks at the different Smithsonian Museums--and they don't charge. For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would choose the Spy Museum.

The best of the museums you have to pay for is the Newseum by far, but you have to make the decision based on your limited time. By the way, last I heard, the Newseum was not charging for kids during the summer. Many of the pay museums have special deals all the time because no one wants to pay "list price" to get into them.

Might sound like a snoozefest but the Smithsonian's Postal Museum is a total hoot. It's slightly off the beaten track from the Smithsonian's on the mall. It is directly across the street from Union Station (metro stop there) and is very engaging -- and in places totally hands on -- for a 9 YO. Many relatively inexpensive lunch options at Union Station.

>>For the life of me, I can't figure out why anyone would choose the Spy Museum.<<

One can be reasonably assured then that you are not a 9 YO boy nor the parent of one who thinks their boy would enjoy it.

yentakvetch, well, the Spy Museum was my kids' favorite museum, so to me it was worth it. Figure all the money we saved on the Smithsonian museums made it easy to pay for one.

I haven't been to the spy museum (one of these days!), but I have been to the Newseum, and think it's fantastic, if you have an interest in history and/ or are a news junkie. I'm not sure I'd take a 9-year old even if it were free, unless the child in question has a particular interest in history.

For the record, MonicaRichards, the Smithsonian Museums are FREE so you saved no money by not going to them.

I think she means she paid $0 so she "saved" by not going to all the things that cost money (I read it the same way as yenta at first, but upon reflection...)

OK, sf, maybe you are right. Anyone of the Smithsonian Museums is better than the Spy Museum in my opinion. Kids tend to do the Spy Museum in an hour or less. Definitely not worth the money.

Luv2travel, that's an excellent suggestion about the Marine Corps Sunset Parade. It is held every Tuesday evening at the Iwo Jima Memorial through August 23rd, which is easily reached by going to the Rosslyn Metro stop. It lasts about an hour and you may stand, sit on the ground or bring chairs. It is an outstanding performance by the Marines and I think any 9-year-old would love it. (I know my son would have loved it at that age!)

http://www.marines.mil/unit/barracks...setparade.aspx

yentakvetch, yep, I just meant considering that I had not paid for any museums up until that point, paying for the Spy Museum did not bother me. And I get that you don't like it, but my kids really did and I think we were there closer to two to three hours and could have stayed longer. There are interactive things for them to do like climb in an air duct to spy on the people below and (more importantly) it's a lot different than the other stuff we'd seen. We were pretty museumed out at this point (which is why we went to the National Aquarium as well).

My daughter and I had a great time at Mt. Vernon. We kind of blew through the house, but she loved the grounds, especially where the horses were. There were people down there with huge baskets for separating wheat from chaff, which she got to try, plus there was livestock and lots of pathways to explore. Personally, one of my favorite places in the DC area is the lawn in front of the Mt. Vernon house, overlooking the Potomac.

For kids the most interesting parts of Mount Vernon would be the pioneer farm and the Education Center (Don't miss the film where Washington crosses the Delaware as it will knock your socks off).

However, public transportation to MV takes a bit of doing and a lot of time. You take Metro to Huntington and then a bus. If you have a car it is a lot easier.

We caught a tour to Mount Vernon that left from the Washington Memorial. This was a while ago, so I don't know if it still runs.

Our daughter also loved Mt. Vernon. We also loved the shopping in the gift shop. Got some really cool Xmas ornaments to add to our "places visited" collection.

Mt. Vernon's setting is so beautiful.

Our daughter pretty much liked everything we did in DC:

Archives
Ford's Theater
Capitol
White House(outside only)
Monuments- Lincoln & FDR Memorial
Natural History(gems and jewelry collection, giant squid, mammals exhibit)
US History - 1st Ladies gowns
Arlington - everything
Mt. Vernon - everything
Air & Space - not so much, I liked it better since I can remember John Glenn, Apollo 11 etc.

Have fun planning, but don't wear you and your son out! So much to see and so little time.

Can't you take a boat to Mt. Vernon?

When I was that age, I loved the Smithsonian - the Medical and now the Aerospace Museum.