The Air and Space Museum's new annex is also called the Udvar-Hazy annex or something like that. I believe they run a shuttle between the Mall museum and the U-H annex. Admission to the annex is free but parking is $12/ car.

You may want to consider a trip to the Franciscan Monastery, not far from the Shrine. Their Holy Land replicas are a getting little tatty but are still a sight to see. They have nice gardens, also.

Ditto the endorsement of Epiphany. You may also want to check out the newly restored Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle. If you can get Amalia to sack out in a stroller, the Catholic Information Center on K St. has a great selection of books

American History has an ice-cream parlor -- and I believe they also have an installation of Julia Child's kitchen.

Alicia,

I am not sure which week. I will have to ask Melanie. I will post when I know. As for Boston, I really want to get up there, but have no way of justifying a trip there right now. I want to see what it is like now that the Big Dig is complete.

I walked across the Key Bridge today from Rosslyn to D.C. The weather was gorgeous and Georgetown is so lovely...especially the purely residential parts. There is a really simple, cute Catholic Church called Epiphany in the eastern part of Georgetown. It is very orthodox (unlike the other parish there, the Jesuit-staffed Trinity), has a British hymnal, & the Adoremus hymnal, on Sundays sung Mass in English, Mass in French and once a month Mass in Lithuanian. I love the pastor's name, Winthrop Brainerd (which sounds like one of the baddies from "Animal House"). He's a convert. However, the kidlet may be too young to appreciate Georgetown.

well, my favorite part of the Smithsonian was the medical stuff where I was enchanted by some huge gallstones and other weird stuff, but I don't know if Amalia would like that.
You might check to see if the Smithsonian will be sponsoring any concerts, though. They sometimes have old-timey stuff that I think you would appreciate with your Arhoolie background.
Any chance that you guys will be anywhere near Boston any time soon? As much as I hate Boston traffic, I would drive down for a visit.
Oh - which week in April will you be in DC? Bethany has a concert down there some time in the spring.

Wow! A second one! I was worried at first, but this looks great. I am looking forward to it. As far as I am concerned, a town cannot have too many Air and Space Museums.

No, the original Air and Space Museum is still intact on the Mall in DC; they've just built a new one to house more spacecraft.

New Air and Space museum?!? You mean they left the old one? I am sure the new one is nice, but some of my fondest childhood memories were in that old Air and Space Museum. Oh well. New Stuff to explore. Zoo's are good. I forgot about the National Zoo. When I was four we went there and saw the Chinese Racoons. I thought they were cool (basically I have always loved large mammals. Still do. I watch bovines as one of my favorite pasttimes, so not much has changed), but the thing that I really remember were the mice stealing dog biscuits from the pandas. I heard a thing on NPR that they have terrible rodent "problems" so it looks like they still have this cool attraction.

Kathy, I would be happy to do a foodie afternoon, as would Amalia, but we would have to do it while Melanie is in meetings and meet up with her afterwards. She finds it annoying to no end that I drag us to all sorts of produce markets when we are on the road (if I even suggest that we all get up at 4am to see the local wholesale produce market she gives me this look that I really can't describe), but I would be happy to do a foodie afternoon.

Mark R., you are right about the National "Cathedral". It is lovely (Italian stonecutters after all) and quite dead. Amalia is way into gothic, though, so we will have to stop there. For awhile she was so smitten with the style that she would go nuts at the sight of a pointed arch, knowing that a gothic church was on the way. This was when she was eight months old, though. The main attraction was the acoustics. We often had to leave quickly from a grand old cathedral because Amalia was smitten with the echoes.

I wonder when Amalia will get into dinosaur bones. I think I was about five or six when they seemed to be the coolest thing in the world (second only to the cherry picker trucks that the local utilities folks used to trim trees). We will definitely go see them in the Natural History Museum.

Thanks all for the suggestions, and please keep them coming. We are over a month away and I still need to fill a week with toddler friendly activities!

Here's a link to the National Zoo, which is supposed to be quite good.

But definitely, the Natural History Museum, with the triceratops, Uncle Beasley.

Memorials are awesome for kids. (Now they just bore me...I would rather hang out on Connecticut Ave.) I would even recommend the National Cathedral just because of its size and masonry (though it is "dead" inside -- no Real Presence).

Not to be selfish, but a new Wegman's Mega-Market just opened near Dulles Airport (i.e. ME) last week. The crowds have deterred me from visiting thus far; but it would be enlightening to have you, Amalia, and Melanie giving me (and Peony and anybody else who could drive over) a guided tour through each section:

"No--don't even touch that!--oh, very good--ECCH!--overpriced--better at the Housewives' Market--OUTRAGEOUS!"

I'm afraid to go there by myself--I'm afraid I'll go all deer-eyed by the targeted yuppery of it all.

If Amalia gives a thumbs-up to the Japanese Eggplant, though...

Ooo! The new Air and Space museum is right near me--on the same road as Dulles Airport! My six-year-old and I would love to meet you guys if you can swing it!

There's supposedly a DC Bloggers' Pilgrimage going to the Basilica on April 24.

The National Zoo is fun (but not too much different than any other zoo)--but you can't miss with the Nat. History museum--big dinosaur, lots of cool anthropology exhibits, bugs(!!) and the gems!