On the one hand, D.C. is fertile ground for kid-friendly activities. You’ve got the museums and the monuments and the rocket pops and all that stuff. That’s a treasure trove of attractions. But once you’ve completed the requisite loops, the place can seem a little austere, the adultest of adult cities.Whether you’re a stay-at-home parent on Capitol Hill or you’re welcoming your sister and her tykes from Santa Fe, how do you proceed after dismissing the usual suspects? Here are 14 ideas. — Scott Harris

(Photo by Matt’ Johnson)

NATIONAL CAPITAL TROLLEY MUSEUM: If there’s any kid out there who would like to ride a trolley, please raise your hand. Is that every hand? Every single one of them? Yes, that’s what I figured. This museum is about as hands-on as it’s possible to be. On tracks that meander through the forested areas of the museum’s Montgomery County grounds, visitors ride streetcars that have been obtained and preserved from around the nation and world. Some operate regularly, some on special occasions, and some sit year-round inside the museum. It seems unlikely, though, that any kid is going to be upset about having to ride the Toronto Transit Commission 4602 instead of the BTS 606. Here it’s pretty easy to just enjoy the ride.

The National Capital Trolley Museum is located at 1313 Bonifant Street in Colesville.

ANACOSTIA SKATING RINK: If you want to go roller skating in D.C., meaning roller skating in an actual roller-skating rink, there is one place to do that and one place only: the skating pavilion at Anacostia Park. Operated by the National Park Service, the pavilion is a solid deal for every visitor. Admission to the covered outdoor rink and skate rentals are free. Depending on when you go, the showmanship in the rink can be an adventure in and of itself. If kids don’t have at least a working knowledge of the four-wheeled skates, they might feel a little overwhelmed, but all ages and skill levels are welcome.

The Anacostia Park skating pavilion is located at 1500 Anacostia Drive SE.

THE FREER AND SACKLER GALLERIES: Through a program called ImaginAsia, the Freer and Sackler Galleries offer a broad array of activities for the artistically minded youngster. The two galleries—co-located on the south side of the Mall—collectively display tens of thousands of pieces of Asian art. Through ImaginAsia, they’ve also become a hub for children who want to craft their own masterworks. The programs typically happen during weekends and range from open studio art to more guided activities. Themes and media also change, and advance registration is sometimes required. Check the ImaginAsia family program calendar for more information. The Freer gallery is closed for renovations and is set to reopen October 14. ImaginAsia family offerings also resume after that time.

The Freer and Sackler Galleries are located at 1050 Independence Avenue SW.

Photo by Tim Brown

KENILWORTH PARK AND AQUATIC GARDENS: The Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens are an enclave of resplendent natural waterways in Ward 7 (Deanwood is the closest Metro stop). Ponds and marshier wetland areas brim with flowering plants and wildlife. It’s the kind of place where a watchful child eye might easily glimpse a gossamer-winged fairy or two. Well, maybe not a fairy, if you must be literal-minded, but certainly dragonflies, frogs, waterfowl, turtles, even bald eagles. And even the most button-down adultness will dissipate when taking in one of the aquatic gardens’ majestic pink lotus blossoms. One word of caution: the water is everywhere and the pathways through it are narrow. So very small children must be watched closely. Admission is free. If you aren’t walked out after exploring Kenilworth, check out the nearby U.S. Arboretum, which has even more acreage and a fascinating bonsai museum.

Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens are located at 1900 Anacostia Avenue SE.

NEWSEUM: If your kid wants to be on TV, they’re not too young for the Newseum. This massive space not far from the Capitol and the White House takes pains to present something for everybody, which is what family-friendliness really means, after all. Plenty of exhibits here have the ability to tickle kids’ fancies, depending on their interests. A real section of the Berlin Wall and big exhibits on rock n’ roll and the Civil Rights movement are among the clearer no-brainers. No matter their natural proclivities, people are bound to enjoy the NBC News Interactive Newsroom, where visitors large and small can take a seat at a TV anchor desk and try their hand at reading from a teleprompter. It’s harder than it looks. Ha, no it’s not. Kids visit free from July 1 through Labor Day, though adults aged 19-64 pay $24.95 a pop.

The Newseum is located at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW.

POTOMAC RIVER BOATS: Washington is quite the seafaring city. With the Potomac and its tributaries always nearby and the Chesapeake Bay not far behind, kids and families have plenty of chances to hit the water, regardless of their level of experience or expertise. There is no shortage of options for people interested in booking a boat. You can do it for an hour or a weekend, with a captain or without, kayak or super-yacht. They’re all just a couple of Google searches away. One of the most popular one-stop-shops is the Potomac River Boat Company, which handles everything from private events to sightseeing tours around Washington’s key tourist sites and beyond—there’s even one specifically for dog owners (dogs ride free!). People who like their boat trips with a little more keel-hauling will enjoy a cruise on the Boomerang Pirate Ship. Arrange passage on the Family Fun Treasure Hunt Cruise and join a gang of friendly pirates protecting D.C. and searching for stolen plunder (be sure to book the family-focused one, otherwise the kids are in for a lesson in Jack Sparrow-levels of alcohol consumption). If you’re feeling even more adventurous, chartered experiences are available, too.

Photo by Darian Glover

ROOSEVELT MEMORIAL: The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is a mazelike collection of open-air rooms, but is still relatively tucked away along one side of the Tidal Basin. For those who seek it out, it’s an experience that’s uniquely cerebral among the city’s monuments. That’s by design. Roosevelt, despite leading the United States through World War II and across an unprecedented four terms, was more contemplative than conspicuous. This memorial underscores that, with each section holding a different message that visitors—including kids—can puzzle over. Plenty of pools and waterfalls here are also magnetic to kids and create an environment of concentration in which the meanings of the many inscriptions—and the water features themselves—can be deciphered. And if all of that fails, you can always tousle the bronze fur of Fala, FDR’s longtime canine, still sitting faithfully at the feet of his master. In statue form, of course. He’s not mummified or anything.

The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial is located at 900 Ohio Drive SW.

2 AMYS: Restaurants that cater to kids are a dime a dozen. It’s a rarer breed that can pull this off this while maintaining a legitimate culinary reputation. The balancing act occurs every day at 2 Amys Neopolitan Pizzeria, located just off Wisconsin Avenue between Cleveland Park and Cathedral Heights. Routinely hailed for having some of the best—if not the best—pizza in the DMV, its website, proudly if humorously, notes its commitment to the kiddies, stating that since opening in 2001 “we have served tens of thousands of screaming children and their parents, with an ever expanding menu of wood fired pizza, house cured meats, salads, farm/sometimes fresh vegetables, and the most extensive selection of salt cured anchovies on the East Coast.” Results may vary on those anchovies, but on a busy night the strollers still encircle the proceedings like strange dogs begging for a deviled egg handout. It’s not a huge restaurant, and it can get cacophonous, but the staff and guests are all good-natured about it. Anyway, once the food arrives, everyone tends to get a lot quieter. Don’t forget to save room for dessert, which includes a cookie plate and ice cream daily made.

2 Amys is located at 3715 Macomb Street NW.

Photo by The Q Speaks

NATIONALS PARK: Yes, any sports venue is going to have kid and family appeal. But when you visit Nationals Park—home of a pretty darn good baseball team, if that’s important to you—it’s not hard to see the extra steps it took to make sure it’s a fun place for children. The large playground near the entrance is a good place to go whenever a little person starts to squirm in his or her seat. The entire food selection at Nats Park, as in most ballparks, is pretty much a kid’s dream come true, but in D.C. there is a special concession stand just for kids—Rookie’s in section 142—offering smaller hot dogs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, among other things. (If you want to bring in outside food, you can do so, but it must all be contained in single-serving bags within a soft-sided container or cooler that does not exceed 16″x16″x8″.) The Presidents Race, which happens after the fourth inning, is one of the best parts of any home game. And the presidents—yes, William Howard Taft included—are always circulating through the park for pictures and high fives. My kids think they’re a little creepy, but your mileage may vary. If your kid does happen to be a baseball fan and is between ages 4-12, on various Sunday home games throughout the season he or she can run the bases after the big Nats are done with them.

Nationals Park is located at 1500 South Capitol Street SE.

EAST POTOMAC GOLF COURSE: The East Potomac Golf Course on Hains Point Island claims to be the home of D.C.’s first-ever Cherry Blossoms. Can you hear the Tidal Basin grinding its teeth in anger? I sure can. That’s a weird sound. Anyway, kids don’t need a ton of golf acumen to enjoy a full day on this course. First of all, there are 18 holes of miniature golf. For the more advanced linkster there’s a nine-hole “family course,” with hole distances between 100-200 yards. Third, the course offers something called “foot golf,” which appears to be a mixture of golf and soccer with a little disc golf thrown in for wackiness. Recommended for players ages 10 and older, it’s touted as a relatively easy game that helps kids gain familiarity with a golf course. Sounds like a full slate of activities to me. But if someone experiences an energy crash, don’t worry. There’s a full-service restaurant on the premises.

East Potomac Golf Course is located at 972 Ohio Drive SW.

BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING: Take a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and check out how money is made, literally. This isn’t one of those figurehead Washington places where the tourists snap photos and foreign emissaries eat slices of dollar-shaped sheet cake while the real work happens elsewhere. No, they’re actually still printing cash inside these walls, and lots of it. It’s not the only place it happens, but enough still comes off the line that the bureau estimates visitors can see “millions” of dollars printed during a 40-minute tour, which is free of charge, by the way. Heads up, though: it’s closed on weekends. Making money is hard work.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is located at 14th and C Streets SW.

Photo by OlivierJD

DUMBARTON OAKS: At a glance, Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown doesn’t exactly scream “kid-friendly” Its decidedly grownup-looking museum contains, according to its website, “specialized collections of Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art.” It’s a beautiful collection, no question, and it would be unfair and inaccurate to suggest children can’t or won’t enjoy such things. It’s just hard to imagine someone in a My Little Pony T-shirt slaloming between the displays. But then you go outside. The 16 acres of outdoor property are a living pop-up of storybook landscapes. Here closely manicured, there pure wilderness, each individual garden is adorned with limestone steps and shimmering pools and twisted flowering trees. You don’t have to be a child to walk these grounds and feel as if you’re poised to run across Anne of Green Gables or a Pevensie sibling any second. It costs $10 to enter from March 15 through October 31, and is free the rest of the year. However, now that I’ve gotten your hopes up, here comes the bad news: the gardens are closed until March 15 for renovations. But take heart; they’ll be open again soon enough.

Dumbarton Oaks is located at 1703 32nd Street NW.

GRAVELLY POINT: No childhood is complete without at least one afternoon spent watching takeoffs and landings outside the airport. In the Washington area, you do that at Gravelly Point. Essentially a pull-off along George Washington Memorial Parkway, Gravelly Point offers an up-close-and-hella-noisy perspective from which to view the departures and arrivals of Reagan National Airport. Logistics can be a little complicated. It’s a pretty small area, as is the nearby parking lot. And it’s only reachable to those driving north on the parkway. If you’re driving south you’ll have to turn around. But if you make it, you’ll be rewarded. Those planes come in so close that kite-flying is prohibited. If you feel like moving about the cabin, the Mount Vernon Trail winds through Gravelly Point as well.

Gravelly Point is located just north of Reagan National Airport on George Washington Memorial Parkway in Arlington.

MARIAN KOSHLAND SCIENCE MUSEUM: Kids come in a lot of varieties. For those that are a little older and a little more inclined toward the analytical side of things, this Penn Quarter museum fits the bills. Three standing exhibits—an Earth Lab, a Life Lab, and an Idea Lab—form the backbone of the museum. The hands-on opportunities rotate but are plentiful at any given time, covering everything from infectious diseases to outer space to natural disaster preparation. There are plenty of simpler games here, too. One, called “Age in Three Minutes,” simulates the visual and tactile changes people experience as they get older. The museum is designed mainly for teens and adults, so it might be best to keep the littler ones home or divide and conquer with an alternative activity.

Marian Koshland Science Museum is located at 525 E Street NW.