On yur first day after church you could drive down to Mt Vernon.

http://www.mountvernon.org/

Furledleader, there are no one-day passes. You have to pay for each trip.

I agree that a drive down to Mt Vernon on Sunday afternoon would be nice. That would also allow an extra day in the city, maybe to see one of the Smithsonian museums. They really are fascinating. It would be a shame to miss them.

I agree that you are missing a great opportunity to see the Smithsonians. I would highly recommend the Portrait Gallery, Air & Space and American History based on my trip from 2 years ago. All of them are great. Even if you just make a list of specific exhibits and just do them.

Louisa,

Yes there are......

http://www.wmata.com/fares/purchase/passes.cfm

Forget going to the top of the Washington Monument. Instead, go to the top of the Old Post Office Pavilion Tower (corner of 12th and Pennsylvania). It's free, no ticket is required, it's open & spacious at the top, and there are no lines. Just take the 2 elevators up and enjoy the view from the 3rd highest point in the city. It's 2 1/2 blocks from Ford's Theater on your way to the Museum of American History.

Checking the Ford's Theater website, I see that there are no Ranger-led programs on June 1st. As a matter of fact there are no ranger-led programs at all that week except for the day you are going to Winchester. That's OK, you can still do a walk thru of the theater and visit the museum beneath it on June 1st.

The one part of the Smithsonian that we have on our itinerary so far is the American History Museum. I'm waiting to hear from the kids about some of the others they might like to visit.

I didn't mention in my original post that our son has to fly in to DC to meet us on Sunday evening, so we put Mt Vernon later in the week so he won't have to miss it. He is the biggest history buff of us all -- and that is saying a lot.

I looked at the link above (http://www.wmata.com/fares/purchase/passes.cfm) and found this:
"Farecards hold from $1.60 to $45. Farecards are available at fare vending machines in Metrorail stations or online in $10 or $20 denominations."
This sounds like a good deal for us since we may not make enough rides on some days to use the $9 card.

We will plan to shop in Alexandria. And if we don't get enough shopping from there, we can always add a mall trip. Thanks!

I will add the Marine Iwo Jima Memorial to our monuments-at-night route.

Another monuments question: Would we miss anything if we don't visit the memorials at all in the daytime (only go at night)? I read the following about the Jefferson Memorial on the Fodors website - "Learn more about Jefferson by visiting the exhibit called Light and Liberty on the memorial's lower level." Would that be open at night? (Couldn't find info about this exhibit on the official website.)

Do we need to buy Mt Vernon tickets in advance or just plan to arrive at opening time? On the website there are currently tickets available for all times of the day for all the days in the first week of June. I would rather not be tied to a specific date in case of rain or other changes. Does anyone have experience just showing up and having a long line to wait for entry?

I've never bought tickets to Mt. Vernon in advance and never had a problem whether I've arrived in the morning or early afternoon. Don't see why you'd have to. Now, if you're planning on doing the special "National Treasure Tour", the docent led tour of the grounds that explores the movie National Treasure 2, then you might want to get tickets for that in advance. I've never done that tour.

There is a lot to see at Mt. Vernon, and most of it is just exploring on your own. If there is no line to get into the mansion, start one and get in right away. If there already is a long line waiting to get in, check back later to see if it has shrunk.

For the monuments, I see no reason why you can't do them all at night. I did a night tour of them and we did them in this order: Capitol, Jefferson, Korean, Lincoln, Vietnam, out to the Iwo Jima, WW2 and then the White House. The only issue is that some of the lights were out at the WW2 Memorial (due to a power outage nearby). We had been to it the previous day. You could do this on your own depending on parking.

If you decide you want to do the organized tour, This is the one we used.
http://www.onboarddctours.com/dc-the-lights-tour/

There are a few different tours that do this so check the itineraries.

I've been to Mt. Vernon in high summer and in the afternoon. No lines, no issues. You'll be just fine just showing up - especially at opening time.

On the shopping front: Union Station is a really beautiful building and there are a number of interesting smaller shops (if you happen to be in the area). To me, Pentagon City/Fashion Center is similar to the malls I have at home so I usually don't bother. On a recent trip back from Virginia Tech, we did detour through to the outlets at Leesburg. Great center -- you and your daughter might like that for shopping, or perhaps Potomac Mills (south of the city, right off 95).

Two things:
Things that appear to be walking distance are pretty far apart.

The museums always take longer than you think they will.
Air and space and the US History museums are amazing.

WE took a bunch of nieces and nephews (read bored to death w/history teens..where is my iPAD!!) to DC and they were all in awe of US Treasury Tour... watching huge volumes of money being printed mesmerized them.
They especially liked the secret info about how to find misprinted bills...kept them entertained est of trip..

http://www.moneyfactory.gov/tours/wa...ondctours.html

Union Station is near the Capital. I go off at Union Station when I went to the Capital. I do not know where the Spy Museum is but perhaps Union Station can be your Metro stop between there and your Capital tour.

We are also planning a family trip to DC - the National Cathedral is on my "must see" list. I'm also hoping to catch one of the free concerts at the Kennedy Center that they have at 6pm every evening (Millenium Stage). We may plan to have a picnic dinner on the Mall, see the concert, and walk around the monuments.

Since your family is older, I don't think you'll have any trouble fitting in your favorites. We are also planning to take the metro almost everywhere, because I am very sceptical of finding parking for our 12 passenger van. If we could find a spot in a garage and pay $20, it'd actually save us some money, but might also be more hassle.

Furled leader, apologies. Despite living in Alexandria, it is news to me about discount with this pass. They have not advertised this at all.

I've reserved tickets for the National Archives. On the website it says to allow 90 min to go through the exhibits and view the Charter of Freedom. If our ticket time is 1:30, should we arrive much earlier than that? Is that the time we will be allowed into the building and then we will have to wait in a line to see the Declaration and Constitution?

Oops I found mention of arriving 10 min prior to ticket time. My other question - will there then be another line once we are inside in order to view the documents?

Yes, there may be another line inside to view the documents. That is when you are scheduled to go in