No School Monday? Museums Fill the Day: a $5 Family Fun Day, Megalodon Teeth and a Sold-Out Pompeii Talk
With DC and Montgomery County students out of class Monday, Washington's museums are programming like it is a holiday — and one evening talk is already sold out.
Monday is a no-school day for students in D.C. Public Schools and Montgomery County Public Schools, and Washington's museums are filling the gap. At the National Geographic Museum of Exploration on M Street NW, the first-ever Family Fun Day runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. with $5 entry, hands-on activities in the Pavilion, and an exclusive screening of National Geographic's latest docuseries, 'Africa Earth's Wild Home.'
The seven-part series, four years in the making and narrated by Academy Award-nominated actress Wunmi Mosaku, reveals wildlife behavior and ecosystems across Africa, and every episode plays in the museum's Grosvenor Auditorium throughout the day. Families who want to stay into the evening at the same auditorium needed to move earlier: National Geographic Live's 'The Ghosts of Pompeii' with archaeologist Caitie Barrett, at 7:30 p.m. Monday for $30, is listed as sold out.
Across the Mall, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History offers a free option in the middle of the day. 'Megalodon Mania' runs from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Sant Ocean Hall, where visitors can get close to real fossilized teeth of the giant megalodon shark and learn where the fossils are found and how they form, presented by aquatic ecologist Dr. Colleen Brown.
Together the programs give families a full Monday itinerary before Election Day closes schools again on Tuesday: a $5 movie marathon in the morning, ancient shark teeth in the afternoon, and — for those who already hold tickets — Pompeii after dark.
