I am taking my 9 year old son to see one of our state senators on Capitol Hill at the end of September. We will drive down on Sunday and meet with the Senator Monday morning. We would like to stay longer but he will need to be back in school (I should have made a vacation of it over the summer but we went to Cancun instead). Anyway he will need to be back in school on Tuesday. My question is: what is close to Capitol Hill that we could visit that afternoon? I've never been there and I figured this would be the best place to ask. Is the White House close? Or Arlington Cemetary? Or the National Mall area? We would love to see the Lincoln Memorial or the Washington Monument, etc.....

You could walk along the National Mall and visit monuments, memorials and museums (pick 1 you want to see), look at the White House from the outside, Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial which is about 2 miles at the other end. Have you looked at a map?

Past the Lincoln Memorial across a bridge is the Arlington National Cemetery. That might be too much for one day.

Maps:

http://home.nps.gov/applications/par...map_final2.pdf

http://www.classbrain.com/artmonumen...all_maps.shtml

Smithsonian Museums website (some of which you would walk past along the National Mall:

http://www.si.edu/

I'm googling a map right now. We don't intend to do ALL of the things I listed. I just wondered which single one would be feasible. Thanks.

Yes! That first nps map is EXACTLY what I needed! Thank you so much!

You can see a lot if you like to walk - the National Mall, several memorials, including the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument, the White House.

I would suggest you take a bus tour, then you will get to see a bit of everything, Arlington Cemetary, Georgetown, monuments, Whitehouse and Capitol Hill just to name a few.

Ah, the Senate office buildings! As a lobbyist, I spend more time there than I care to think about!

As has already been mentioned (and you're probably seen on the map) you'll be walking distance to the eastern end of the Mall. The closest sites on that end are the Botanical Gardens and National Art Galleries or the Air and Space Museum (which I suspect might be of more interest to your son!) The National Museum of the American Indian is near there, too - not great for visiting, but the cafeteria is a great place to grab lunch. You can get to the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, etc., just by walking down the Mall, but it's not an insubstantial walk - not infeasible, but you have to like to walk and there's not a lot of good transit right there.

But you are also very, very close to Union Station on the Senate side - it's only a couple of blocks away. So if you want to do a whole-city tour, you can catch a Duck Boat, double decker bus, trolley, etc. tour right there. Or you don't have to be limited by the museums on the Mall. Within a 10 to 20 minute metro ride you can see the zoo (Woodley Park station) or Spy Museum (Gallery Place station), both of which are on the same line (Red) as Union station. Arlington Cemetary is not a bad metro ride either, but you'll have to switch lines. I would just pick one or two of those things and enjoy!

The National Gallery of Art is nearby, though not sure how much your 9 year-old son will enjoy it. However, I highly recommend the outdoor Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery. It is really quite beautiful.
http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/sculptureinfo.shtm