Washington DC for a 12 year old...tomorrow!
 

We are hosting our 12 year old niece tomorrow. We'd like to be the cool aunt and uncle and show her a good time, but it ain't coming easy!
She is too young for a Segway tour. There are some cool guided kayak/canoe trips with Potomac Paddle Sports, sold out this weekend.
We are considering doing paintball with her out in Loudoun, where we live.
Really though we'd like to do something a little special, preferably in the city.
Any suggestions?

P.S. Not the Spy Museum!

Is she at all artsy? Folk art museum? Portrait museum? A play?
A market? A concert? The canal boat ride in Georgetown?

How about a walking tour? Is she really too young for the Segway tour? I just had clients with kids that are 13 take a Segway tour, andthey loved it.

Tomorrow is supposed to be hot; paint ball sounds a little yucky on a hot day.

Have you considered the tour mobile where you could hop on/off all day and visit the memorials and give her a history lesson? Stop by the Am. Indian Smithsonian for lunch and some time at the Nat'l Hx Museum - or just visit 1 or 2 of the Smithsonian Museums all day such as Air & Space, Nat'l Hx, or Am. Indian. Maybe head over to the Bureau of Engraving to watch $$$ being made or over to the old Post Office. If she is not familiar w/ DC, I think a metro ride into the city and time spent around the Washington mall - make sure she understands this definition of mall - would be interesting and different. Maybe purchase her a souvenir photo book w/ the different sites and even include her own disposal camera to take her own pictures. Cool aunts and uncles can also be educational ones, and I would enjoy that more than paintball on a hot day (which I have also done).

If she hasn't been just go to one or two of the Smithsonians. That will be plenty cool enough.

Take her to Penn Quarter and go (window) shopping. Have lunch at Matchbox or Zaytinya. Take her bowling at Lucky Strike.

In addition to Potomac Paddle Sports, did you give Blue Ridge Outfitters a call?

The water is kinda low right now for "whitewater" unless you aregoing further than Harpers ferry...

paintball she can do anywhere, etc.

let her see something IN Washington

Some ideas from our summer to-do list:

Hiking the Billy Goat Trail (again)
Renting rowboats at the Thompson Boat Center
Gargoyle Tour at the National Cathedral
National Museum of Health and Medicine (it's got a piece of Abraham Lincoln's skull)

Of course, there's always the museums; and the Capital Fringe Festival began this week. Have fun!