| VIRGINIA Autism Awareness Night - Bowie Baysox Date: August 8, 2008 Time: 7:05 PM Location: Prince George's Stadium For every ticket purchased for that game, the Baysox will donate $2 to the organization of your choice. Orders must be placed with Lindsay Johnson - e- mail ljohnson@baysox.com or call 301.464.4853 to be eligible for the $2 donation. Also, ticket orders must be placed 48 hours prior to the game. MARYLAND INDOOR PLAYGROUNDS PLAYWISEKIDS, 6570 Dobbin RD., Columbia, Maryland 21045, 410 772-1540, www. playwisekids.com WHAT IS PLAYWISEKIDS? PlayWiseKids is the premier family destination on the East Coast for imaginative, hands-on play! It is a 24,000 square foot, indoor learning and activity center for children. PlayWiseKids makes a great outing for parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles, nannies & babysitters, and anyone else looking for a safe, fun, indoor play environment. At PlayWiseKids, formerly ExploraWorld, children can freely explore their interests and actively use their imaginations while building social skills. All of PlayWiseKids’ offerings are consistent with the belief that children learn through hands-on play. It’s the perfect location for Drop-In Play (no reservation required), Birthday Parties, Child Care, Group Events and Shopping! At PlayWiseKids, children can pretend to be rescue heroes driving a real fire engine or ambulance. They can shop in our child-sized Grocery Store; shoot hoops and play foosball in our Game Room; create masterpieces in our Arts & Crafts room; dress-up and dance; explore tunnels and slides in our Toddler Areas; play in the sand in our Chesapeake Bay Beach; assemble a skeleton in our Medical Room; put together a four foot dinosaur in our Nature Exhibit; learn about outer space in our Solar System Room; and learn through Computer Games. JEEPERS! Located in Rockville, MD, Greenbelt, MD and Baltimore, MD, www.jeepers.com Jeepers! is great family fun anytime! Designed to please children ages two to twelve, Jeepers! is the Ultimate family entertainment experience combining the rides and excitement of an outdoor amusement park with indoor convenience and climate control. Amusement park rides are still hugely popular with children, and each Jeepers! offers five or six rides geared to different age groups. JJ's Driving Schoolage groups, ranging from "kiddie" rides to the "Python Pit", an exciting indoor roller coaster designed exclusively for Jeepers! Soft Play! Kids have to work off a little steam sometimes and our soft play areas offer tubes, chutes, slides and obstacle courses where kids can follow their imaginations. Jeepers! is not an arcade. Our games of skill build hand-eye coordination and give parents and children the opportunity to play together. Many games have a sports theme, such as basketball hoop shots or bowling, while others, like Hungry Hippos, are whimsical and just plain fun. Most of the games give out tickets redeemable at Jeepers! exclusive "Big Digs" redemption area for prizes and toys. WASHINGTON, D.C. The Smithsonian Museums: Smithsonian Institution Building, the Castle The Smithsonian's first building, popularly known as the Castle, houses the Institution’s administrative offices and the Smithsonian Information Center. Highlights: 18-minute video orientation, two interactive touch-screen stations with information on the Smithsonian in six languages, and one scale model of the federal city Location: 000 Jefferson Drive SW, Washington, DC, 202-633-1000, www.si.edu/visit/infocenter/sicastle.htm Hours: 8:30am to 5:30pm. Admission is free. Anacostia Community Museum 1901 Fort Place, SE Washington, DC 20020 202-636-4820 Open daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed: December 25th www.anacostia.si.edu/information.htm, anacostia.si.edu/exhibits/Exhibition_Navigation.htm As the Smithsonian Institution's museum of African American history and culture, the Museum explores American history, society, and creative expression from an African American perspective. The Freer Gallery of Art and Sackler Gallery The Sackler Gallery: 1050 Independence Avenue, SW. The Freer Gallery of Art: Jefferson Drive at 12th Street, SW. The two museums are connected by an underground exhibition space. Hours are from 10 AM to 5:30 PM every day except Dec. 25, and admission is free. 202.633.4880 www.asia.si.edu/visitor/default.htm, www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/default.htm The Freer Gallery The gallery houses a world-renowned collection of art from China, Japan, Korea, South and Southeast Asia, and the Near East. Visitor favorites include Chinese paintings, Japanese folding screens, Korean ceramics, Indian and Persian manuscripts, and Buddhist sculpture. A highlight of the Whistler holdings is the Peacock Room, a dining room that was once part of a London townhouse. In 1876, Whistler lavishly decorated the room with a blue and gold peacock design. After the owner's death, the room was brought to the United States and permanently installed in the Freer Gallery. The gallery was founded by Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), a railroad-car manufacturer from Detroit who gave to the United States his collections and funds for a building to house them. The Italian-Renaissance-style gallery, constructed in granite and marble, was designed by American architect Charles Platt. When the gallery opened to the public in 1923, it was the first Smithsonian museum for fine arts. In subsequent years, the collections have grown through gifts and purchases to nearly triple the size of Freer's bequest. Sackler Gallery The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery The gallery opened in 1987 to house a gift of some 1,000 works of Asian art from Dr. Arthur M. Sackler (1913–1987), a research physician and medical publisher from New York City. Among the highlights of his gift were early Chinese bronzes and jades, Chinese paintings and lacquerware, ancient Near Eastern ceramics and metalware, and sculpture from South and Southeast Asia. Sackler also donated $4 million toward construction of the gallery. Since 1987, the gallery's collections have expanded to include the Vever Collection, an important assemblage of the Islamic arts of the book from the 11th to the 19th century; 19th- and 20th-century Japanese prints and contemporary porcelain; Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean paintings; arts of village India; contemporary Chinese ceramics; and photography. International loan exhibitions have included Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Art and Culture in the 15th Century; Yani: the Brush of Innocence, featuring paintings by a 14-year- old Chinese prodigy; When Kingship Descended from Heaven: Masterpieces of Mesopotamian Art from the Louvre; Court Arts of Indonesia; Korean Art of the 18th Century: Splendor & Simplicity; and A Basketmaker in Rural Japan. The Sackler Gallery is connected by an underground exhibition space to the neighboring Freer Gallery of Art. Although their collections are stored and exhibited separately, the two museums share a director, administration, and staff. The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Auditorium, located in the Freer, provides a venue for a broad variety of free public programs relating to the collections of the Freer and Sackler galleries, including concerts of Asian music and dance, films, lectures, chamber music, and dramatic presentations. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian's museum of international modern and contemporary art. Location: Independence Avenue at Seventh Street SW Hours: Open daily except December 25 Museum: 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. (EST) Plaza: 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Sculpture Garden: 7:30 a.m. - dusk Admission: Free; donations are accepted. 202-633-1000, www.hirshhorn.si.edu/visit/hours.html, hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/index. asp National Air and Space Museum National Mall Building Independence Ave at 4th Street, SW Washington, DC 20560, 202-633-1000 Admission: Free Hours: 10:00 am - 5:30 pm Open every day except December 25. www.nasm.si.edu/museum, www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center 14390 Air and Space Museum Parkway Chantilly, Virginia 20151 Admission: Free Hours: 10:00 am - 5:30 pm Open every day except December 25. www/nasm.si.edu/museum, www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions The Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum maintains the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world. It is also a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and space flight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics. The Museum has two display facilities. The National Mall building in Washington, D.C. has hundreds of artifacts on display including the original Wright 1903 Flyer, the Spirit of St. Louis, the Apollo 11 command module, and a lunar rock sample that visitors can touch. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center displays many more artifacts including the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay and Space Shuttle Enterprise. National Portrait Gallery, The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the stories of America through the individuals who have shaped U.S. culture. Through the visual arts, performing arts, and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists who speak American history. Admission: Free Location: The museums are conveniently located at Eighth and F Streets, NW, D.C., 2000, 202-633-8300, www.npg.si.edu, www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/curex1.htm Museum Hours: 11:30 a.m.-7:00 p.m. Daily Closed December 25 National Museum of the American Indian Collection, preservation, study and exhibition of the living cultures and history of the native peoples of the Americas. Location: Fourth Street & Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, DC 20560, 202-633-1000, www.nmai.si.edu, www.nmai.si.edu/subpage.cfm? subpage=exhibitions&second=dc&third=current Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Daily; closed Dec. 25. Admission is free. National Postal Museum The National Postal Museum is divided into galleries that explore America's postal history from colonial times to the present. Visitors learn how mail has been transported, emphasize the importance of letters, and spotlight the creation and wondrous diversity of postage stamps. Location: 2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202-633-5555, www.postalmuseum.si.edu Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., except December 25. Admission is free. National Zoo Location: 3001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008, www.nationalzoo.si.edu, nationalzoo.si.edu/ActivitiesAndEvents/Calendar/ Hours: Grounds: April 1-Oct. 31 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Nov. 1 -March 31 6 a.m.-6 p.m. Buildings: April 1-Oct. 31 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 1-Oct. 31 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. The Zoo is Open every day of the year except December 25. ADMISSION IS FREE! American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) is America's first federal art collection, dedicated to the enjoyment and understanding of American art. The museum celebrates the extraordinary creativity of our country's artists, whose works are windows on the American experience. Location: 8th and F Streets N.W. in the heart of Washington, D.C.20560, americanart.si.edu, americanart.si.edu/collections/exhibitions.cfml Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Daily except December 25. Admission is free. National Museum of Natural History The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is dedicated to understanding the natural world and our place in it. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Daily except December 25. Admission is free. Location: The Museum is located at the intersection of 10th Street and Constitution Ave., NW in Washington, D.C. 20560, 202-633-1000, www.mnh.si.edu, www.mnh.si.edu/exhibits/ National Museum of African Art The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art fosters the discovery and appreciation of the visual arts of Africa, the cradle of humanity. Hours:10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily except December 25. Admission is free. Location: 950 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20560, 202-633-4600, www.nmafa.si.edu |
FUN FAMILY ACTIVITIES
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