National Book Festival & National Building Museum Festival

I've put the National Book Festival on my calendar for every one of the last five years, but I've never actually made it there until this year (though a student did get Mocking Jay signed for me one year).  I was very excited to go, and even though it turned out to be a pretty rainy day, I was glad I did.  I didn't try to get any books signed this time (I doubted Eli would be interested in standing in line), but I did get to listen to some favorite (Kevin Henkes among others) and interesting authors.  And hear from a librarian about doing genealogy work at the Library of Congress.  I'm hoping to get there some day soon. 

Theo would have loved all the PBS Kids characters that were there as well, but he and daddy split from us and went to the National Building Museum festival instead.  We've heard about this place, and when we saw the festivals would coincide we decided to check out this museum through their free festival.  Admission to the actual museum wasn't included, but the festival included many activites and vendors in their huge indoor courtyard.  Theo loved...

everything.

Since all the free museums in DC are still closed from the government shut down, we may have to fork out the fees to visit all of this museum during our next trip into the city.