Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

H/T and many, many thanks to TwoDC.  I read their blog post about the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens and said to myself, "Self, that would be a cool place to go when your parents come to visit."

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens is a hidden gem in northeast DC.  I highly recommend reading TwoDC's post about it, because they are much more eloquent than me in their overview description of the park.

TwoDC recommended going in the morning because as the day gets hotter, the flowers close up.  I checked out the web page and saw they had tours scheduled for 9, 10, 11, and 12.  The first tour was too early in the morning for us, so I planned on us leaving our house around 9 a.m. in order to pick up some breakfast at Dunkin Donuts and make it to the KAG in time for the 10 a.m. tour.

Unfortunately, I didn't trust my instincts and drive the way I knew.  I followed the directions provided by our car's navigation system and ended up sitting in traffic for a while.

Thanks to the traffic though, we did enjoy the scenery of the architecture in the neighborhoods of the historic district of Washington, D.C.  We arrived at the KAG about 10:40 and found out there actually wasn't a 10 a.m. tour, so we didn't miss anything AND we were just in time for the 11 a.m. tour! :-)

KAG has been there a long time and is now run by the National Park Service. 

Comparing Notes

Before we drove down to DC, I printed out two copies of the Junior Park Ranger activity booklet and put them in binders for the boys.  They both really enjoyed earning their Junior Park Ranger badges.  During the car ride, they did the dot-to-dots and the maze and drew some pictures.  While we were there, they really got into the scavenger hunts.  The booklet actually provides two scavenger hunts for older and younger kids.  My eldest son did the scavenger hunt that lists a dozen or so items written out in text (a view of the Anacostia River, a beaver dam, a historic marsh, a reconstructed marsh, etc).  My youngest son did the scavenger hunt that consisted of six simple pictures on the page (picture of a lotus flower, picture of cat tails, picture of the national park service emblem, picture of poison ivy, etc).

For a while, YB rode on Grandpa's shoulders and

used Grandpa's head as his desk.  Here he is crossing

off the cat-tail picture from his scavenger hunt list.

The flowers... oh my gosh the flowers were absolutely gorgeous.  My wife and I both took tons of pictures, but I will try to pull out just a few to share with you here.

Common Orange Day-Lily

I forgot this one and can't find it in my book.

Fragrant Water Lily (and dragonfly)

Orange trumpet?

Carolina Rose

Lotus

Pink water lily

Hydrangea

I feel like I'm being watched.

We saw a few turtles and also had a Great Blue Heron swoop across the path right in front of us.  

Traditional Blunoz Self Portrait

Our Park Ranger tour guide was awesome, and I'm SO glad we went for the guided tour.  I have yet to be disappointed by a Park Ranger led tour at any National Park.  They are just walking encyclopedias of information and anecdotal stories about the history of the park.

YB drawing pictures in his book. 

The boys turned in their completed Junior Park Ranger books at the visitor center.  They had to say an oath of office to get sworn in as Junior Park Rangers, and then they were awarded their own hats, badges, and patches. 

This picture alone made it worth the 
frustrating drive through DC traffic.

If you are in the DC area, then I highly recommend visiting the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens.  Regardless where you are, I highly recommend taking advantage of every opportunity to visit your closest National Park and go for a Park Ranger guided tour.

My two newly-minted Junior Park Rangers 

enthusiastically leading the way to lunch.