July 30, 2004

Things to do in the DC area with your kids I

fpi_girl.jpg There are of course countless things you can do in the greater DC area with your kids.
You can park them at the Ben & Jerry's Scoop shop on Fairmont Ave in Bethesda while you enjoy your sushi at Sushi Sushi ten meters down the street.
You can hand them off to your relatives and spend the afternoon reading.
You can also take them to the John Cabin Regional Park in Rockville, just off Tuckerman Lane. The playground is great - large, with different installations for various age groups. It's shady and there is a cool breeze most of the times - very vital for DC summers (although so far we had rain, and rain, and thunderstorms). You can ride a miniature train which all kids will love, guaranteed. I like it for many reasons: it's very close to our current quarters -- about ten minutes -- the kids are busy for hours, literally. The picnic areas are nice and clean. Everything is safe. They have bathrooms that stink of urine but aren't actually appalling. Come early because the park quickly fills up. There are plenty of parking spaces, though.

Only the fact that they found a dead bird there today makes me a little uneasy. I'm going to read up on the symptoms of West Nile virus now. Tomorrow, we're going to the zoo. Stay tuned!

Posted by claudia at July 30, 2004 12:42 AM
Comments

Have a wonderful trip, Claudia! I hope y'all have nothing but cool breezes, ice cream and trains, and NO mosquitoes coming in for the attack!

Give Natalie, Larry, and The Adorable One a hug each from me, keep one for you and David and Alan! (Did Doug come with this trip?)

Lorraine

Posted by: Lorraine at July 30, 2004 04:18 AM

I hadn't been to the National Zoo in a few years, and I fear it isn't aging all that gracefully. There are some newer exhibits that are nice, such as the Amazonia greenhouse/aquarium exhibit (often cooler and less humid inside!), but much of the rest of the zoo seems trapped in the 1970's. A comparison between the gorilla habitat between DC and San Francisco is particularly sad. A far cry from cages and bars only ... but still sad.

I worry that the zoo is being intentionally starved to build up support for charging admission. This would destroy what I think is one of its strongest features, the ability to just drop in for an hour or two, rather than having to make a full day of it.

Other parks worth hitting that aren't far from Rockville -

Wheaton Regional Park ( http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/facilities/regional_parks/wheaton/index.shtm ). Brookside Gardens (in the park) would probably work better when the kids are a little older, but there are other sections of the park with playgrounds (and a train).

Black Hill Regional Park ( http://www.mc-mncppc.org/parks/facilities/regional_parks/blackhill/index.shtm )
Good playgrounds. Rowboat/Canoe rentals on the lake. But no trains.

As for West Nile ... I think the worst of that has passed. The outbreaks of problems in humans seem to be worst in the first year it's present in an area. I think the worst outbreaks this year (in humans) are in California and Arizona.
Ah .. here's a map.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/surv&control04Maps.htm

So no human cases reported in Maryland this year, and only 12 east of the Mississippi.

Too bad you missed the cicadas.

Posted by: Brian DiNunno at July 30, 2004 10:08 PM