The New IMPROVED American History Museum

As the two readers of my blog probably know by now, we live outside of Washington, DC. The best thing about living near the city (besides living outside of the city!) is having easy access to all the free things that it has to offer while the tourists are away.

One of those free things is the Smithsonian Museums. One of our favorites is the American History Museum. It has been closed for the last two years for rennovations and recently re-opened. So we decided to be good parents on Presidents Day Weekend and take the kids to DC for the weekend.

First stop...the newly rennovated American History Museum. It's fabulous. Just fabulous. A few of your favorite Americana:

Is there anything more American than Mickey Mouse? I know that you can sing the song...MIC - see you real soon - KEY - why? because we like you...M-O-U-S-E.

Yes. I know that everyone likes Bugs the best but my favorite is Wiley. I kinda felt sorry for him. He just never could get the Road Runner. Meep-meep!

If you can't identify this, you weren't watching TV in the 1990's.

Everyone loves a Grouch. Well, Oscar, anyway. I loved his little worm slimey.

Who didn't love Kermit? Seriously. I had/have a Kermit like this. Owen asked why my Kermit was in the display case. LOL

Remember the Boom Box? Yeah. The bigger the better. Boom Box, people. Boom Box.

There's no place like home. There's no place like home. Click. Click. Click.

If you're a southerner and don't recognize this hat, you need to defect to the north. Now.

Haha. Low Ri-der...



What would the American History Museum be without Star Wars in it?

Nothing more Americana than Earnhardt Sr. God rest his soul.

Political history? Yeah. It's covered.

There is also a fabulous area for kids that is set up like a children's museum with hands-on activities.

This activity is cool. The kitchen tools are all magnetic and can be moved around the board. The object is to drop the ball down and let it run through the obstacles (like a pinball machine) and send the ball through a hole at the bottom.

It all works perfectly until some little kid comes up and grabs that one piece that would have made it work perfectly. ;)

The SparkLab is an area set up for kids to learn about science. The boys, of course, loved it and several of the exhibits were focused on things that they are learning in school (electrical currents, etc.)

This particular exhibit asks kids to determine which one is stronger. I can't remember which materials were used but Owen made sure to correct the little girl on it and to explain to her why the one was stronger.



We never made it to the Abe Lincoln exhibit - the real reason for going up there. But, that's okay because we're so close, we can just go back.

There was so much in this museum. Seriously. It's fantastic. And the best thing is that it's free. If you're in DC, check it out. It's well worth your time!