Washington DC in a day and a half? Medieval Times?

[kboyle]

We are hitting DC on our way home from the DE beaches. It's only 2 hrs from where our beach house is so I figure if we leave at 7a we'll have plenty of time all day to see the sights. The next day we had planned on driving home after doing Arlington Nat'l Cemetary, but I'm wondering about doing Medieval Times in Baltimore for Charlie's 10th bday which is the next day. It's only a 5hr drive home, so between dh and I we can do that and get home by 2a at the latest.

Can we hit Spy Museum, Air & Space Museum, Nat'l History Museum and the nearby monuments/Capitol Bldg/White House (just for pictures, no tours of bldgs) in that one day? My kids aren't really museum kids, so it's not like we'll be spending TONS of time at each one.

Can we walk and do all that in a one day time frame? Or can we use metro to get from place to place quicker? Or would we benefit from getting tickets to the Old Town Trolley and just stopping at the places we have listed, visiting, and then waiting to hop back on? I had originally planned on getting trolley tickets till i saw that we wouldn't be getting off at lots of stops.

The best deal I'm seeing for a hotel with outdoor pool and convenient location is L'Enfant Plaza Hotel...mixed reviews, nice price. Reviews say it's clean, just old. But location is PERFECT especially with metro so convenient.

Is there anything else that is a must see? DSs are 9/7/5, plus me/dh & my parents.

So the next day would be Arlington Nat'l Cemetery and it's sights and Lincoln Memorial and if we decide to do Medieval Times we'll have a bit more time before we have to be at dinner at 330p. Anyone been to Medieval Times? Is it horribly cheesy? Not worth it at all?

I hate vacation planning.