The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden and Natural Museum of Natural History (located next door to each other, Get Directions Here) make for a wonderful outing with a child! We spend much of the summer visiting both together, over and over again. Tip: If you drive in, park on 7th Street, NW. We always find street parking there. Saves a lot of money avoiding a parking garage and the Sculpture Garden will be right outside your car door. Makes for easy loading/unloading of child(ren) and stroller(s). Parking will be even quicker if you signup for ParkMobile for your smart phone (you can pull up to a parking meter and pay via phone before even leaving your car - no change to mess with and no juggling a toddler while trying to figure it out - not to mention you can add more time while you are in the museum!).
We start our day of fun around the fountains at the Sculpture Garden, the ideal place for a toddler to run in circles (with an audience). The paths around the sculptures are like a maze and are fun for lots of wandering and burning off energy. After we work up an appetite, we always stop at the Pavilion Cafe (part of the Sculpture Garden) for breakfast, a snack or lunch (which can be eaten easily on their patio or back over by the fountains). Afterwards, we head over to the National Museum of Natural History, just a block away on the same side of the National Mall.
The National Museum of Natural History is just awesome of course - from the amazing array of animals on display, the dinosaur exhibit hall and so on. The display cases of animals section (mammals) is the most toddler friendly part of the museum, being on the first floor near the entrance and also ramped for easy walking. We gave this overall combo activity of the gardens and museum a 4 ants rating instead of 5 for three reasons: 1) some exhibit halls of the museum are hard to navigate with a toddler because of stairs, cramped quarters, etc., 2) the front side of the museum building is not stroller or handicapped accessible (be prepared to carry your stroller and child up the steps, or go all the way around to the backside of the building up through the basement) and 3) the awesome Butterfly Pavilion at the museum requires timed tickets, at a price. The butterflies are worth it (as Miss M would say, she wants to see some "boooofffyyyyss!"), but it's a bit of a pain to be on a clock with a young child. And there is something a little off about paying for an exhibit in a museum that is part of the Smithsonian Institution. Overall, this is a wonderful way to spend a day and I highly recommend checking it out.
Where should Antsy Mom and Toddler go next? Let us know!
