Foogli - web for 'fun'

Free Foogli Events:

Museums

	Air and Space museum
	There are two Air and Space Museums, and both are really worth it. The one on the Mall is free, as is the one near Dulles (Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, Virginia), however you will have to pay $12 for parking at the Dulles one. If you are even remotely interested in planes, you'll enjoy both so it's well worth the trip. The one in Chantilly has more planes and other flying machines on display (basically it's a history of flyingincluding a full section on space travel. IMAX movies (approximately $8.50), both regular and 3D are available at both official website

	National gallery of art
	If you love art, the National Gallery always has some great collections, and some good variety - paintings, photography, sculpture. So check their website and you can see what special collections they have showing along with their regular exhibits. official website

	National Portrait Gallery
	Must love portraits to go here! But it's great if you do. They have a room of American Presidents that's fantastic, and then the rest of the portraits are gathered into relevant collections like Colonial portraits and American Revolution portraits, which is great if you're like me and need to do this museum in a few trips! This museum is also right next to the Spy Museum and in the middle of Chinatown, so you can break up your day with some different activities. official website

	Holocast Memorial museum
	This is a hands down one of the best memorial museums that I've been to. Because of that it is somewhat depressing, but just in the right way because it makes us remember. The way the museum is organised and all the exhibits are truely a fantastic memorial to everyone who lost their lives during the holocast and also to those who tried to help the Jews during WWII. I think this is an important museum to visit, and possibly a life changing experience for children of a certain age to be exposed to, but of course you should be conscious of the purpose of this museum before taking your children. official website

	George Washington Masonic Temple
	Built in the 1920's by more than two million American Freemasons, this memorial, museum, library, performing arts center, and concert hall is open to the public, seven days a week. With it's prime location on a hill overlooking Old town Alexandria, it has one of the best views of the town and the Potomac. 10am -4pm. Guided tower tours daily at 10am, 11:30am, 1:30pm and 3pm. Masonic Tours on the first and third Wednesday of each month.

Activities - outdoor

	jazz in the sculpture garden - National gallery of art
	Bring a picnic, blanket and your friends to enjoy live jazz every friday evening. This is only in the summer and will start up again May 22, 2009. Get there early to get a good parking spot and grass location, it's VERY popular. They do have a cafe there where you can purchase food and drinks, but the lines are somewhat unbarable, as is the line to the restrooms, so for the best experience, try to come prepared and in need of nothing other than the desire to have a good time with your friends and listen to jazz! official website

	Washington Monument tour
	Tours of the Washington Monument are free but if you want to plan ahead you can purchase them online for $1.50. You can just go down there and see if there are tickets but then of coures you run the risk of having to wait for a later tour or not getting a ticket at all depending on how popular it is that day. There are loads of museums to spend time in while you wait, so so long as you are not in a hurryThe tour takes approximately 30 minutes, but you can stay up at the top for as long as you want. However, the windows you look out of are quite small so you can't hog them for long! official website

bike Trails

One of the greatest things about living in DC are the bike trails. The Mount Vernon trail offers you great views of DC monuments and Maryland, not to mention the bridges, the potomac and the parks that you bike through. Bring a picnic and stop along the way and enjoy it all! Generally the path is pretty flat, there is some terrain south of Old Town, where the path goes through the woods as it meanders around the GW parkway, but that's walkable if you're exhausted by then or with small children.another website.

Other great trails are the C&O trail, which used to be a towpath for the canal and goes for 184 miles, starting in Georgetown and heading north, it is a very scenic bike/walking or jogging route.

There are numberous other trails, check this site for more details.

	watch the airplanes - gravelly Point
	With views of the Potomac, Washington, and Regan National Airport, this is a great recreational park (with picnic tables and loads of grass to play or lay on). However besides ALL this, the best thing about this park is the exhilerating view of landing (or taking off) planes from Regan Airport. Mere feet from the beginning (or end, depending on weather) of the runway you can spend hours just watching planes. Bring food and something to lie on because you won't want to leave! Bonus, if you own your own kayak or boat, you can put in here AND this is on the Mount Vernon bike path (listed above) so you can ride your bike to the park. Note though, in case it's not obivious, you can NOT fly kites here. a website

	Movie on the mall (summer only)
	National Mall between 4th and 7th, they run a movie every monday night at dusk (around 9pm) for a couple of months in the summer, check website for schedule of movies and dates. You need to get there early if you want to be close to the screen, but they are good at setting it up for audio so you can hear from pretty much anywhere. Bring a blanket, stuff to eat and drink, and don't forget to take your trash with you when you go! a website

Activities - indoor

Supreme Court

The Supreme Court offers a variety of visitor entertainment and that will be a completely different kind of fun if you are at all interested in the judicial system! As far as listening in on oral arguments of a current case, you will have to A) show up on a day that they are having oral arguments (10am start, lines start up to 2 hours earlier depending on interest of case) and B) wait in one of two lines to get in. The first line will allow you to sit in on the whole argument (or for as long as you want) the second line is a 3 minute line, that (obviously!) allows you only three minutes in there, but if you are in a hurry or get there too later for the first line, it's a great alternative so that you don't feel like you missed it completely!

This link shows you which actual cases are going to be in-session for which day. This link will give you an overview of the next year or so of in-session days (with no case description) in a downloadable pdf so you can plan ahead if you want. NOTE that although for instance it might say "October 2008" that actually is the calendar from that time forward, so that would be what you'd want to review for the months AFTER that date. Here are the next few dates for 2009 when they will be in session: FEB, 23,24,25, MARCH, 2,3,4,23,24,25,30,31, APRIL, 1, 20,21,22,27,28,29. But as always check information in case it changes!
official website

	Court Tennis (NOT the tennis your thinking of!)
	If you really want to try something new and you have any interest in racket sports, this is the game for you. McLean has the ONLY Court Tennis court in this area, and it's a fun game. Sort of like tennis, sort of like racketball, this game, played indoors on a weird looking tennis court, is the original tennis game and you'll have fun learning, not to mention how special you'll feel that you've played this unique game. The club gives free one hour lessons, and free 30 day membership, so there is really nothing to lose if you are interested in giving this a shot (ha ha). official website

	Old Post office Tower
	On the corner of 12th and Pennsylvania Ave, there are not many places you can get a better view of the mall from once you make it up to the tower. It's free and not something that every tourist will know about, so there tends to be less people there. Check their website for opening hours official website

	The White House
	So of course you can walk around the outside on a nice day and take your photos, but you can also take a tour of the inside, if you have the patience and the forethought to organise it! You need to make the request through your member of Congress (find your elected officials). Requests are accepted up to six months in advance.

NOTE: All prices were accurate at time of posting. Please double check the cost of activities if price is an issue. Recommended sites and their
companies are NOT Foogli sponsors or affiliated to Foogli in any way, they are just suggested places to retrieve more information.