Taking a 3yr old to the US (not Disney): advice/ recommendations?

[Novembergirl]

We would love to take DS, who is 3yrs old, to the US. We were considering Florida and Disney World but after further thought and some helpful advice, we have decided to wait until he is a little older (at least 4 yrs old) before taking this trip.

Although DH and I love Boston and NYC...I am a little worried that a big city might not be the best place for a lively, energetic little boy (with a low boredom threshold)! The New England coast would be ideal (and we could combine with Boston) but as we will be going in early spring, I am not sure if it might be too cold/out of season.

I would, therefore, appreciate any advice/recommendations.

Wow, thanks for the shout-out, motherhurdicure (I live in a suburb of Portland). I think saying your roadtrip was huge was an understatement.

Novembergirl, we took DS (just turned 4) and DD (just turned 2) back to Boston and New England in September, and they loved it. The New England Aquarium was great fun, we couldn't get them out of there. DS loves dinosaurs, and we could have probably stayed in the Museum of Natural History in Harvard and the museum I forgot the name in in Science Park all day. They loved going to Cape Cod. They even had fun going to things I didn't think they would like, such as the U. S. S. Constitution and Fanueil Hall. (DS thought the big boat was cool, and they loved all the people and street performers in the Fanueil Hall area.) There's a lot of walking involved to many places. That tends to tire them out a bit. We drove up to Maine, and made sure to have places to stop along the way. What should have been a 1 1/2 hour drive was almost an 11 hour drive because we found so many places to stop(surprising amount to do in Portsmouth, NH, one of all of our favorite places). DS still talks about our trip to Boston all the time. Don't know much about the weather in spring, though. Have only been back to NY in spring pre-kids.

what about Chicago?
great museums - science and industry, field museum, fantastic aquarium, childrens museum, beaches, lake, good shopping, all very manageable a really nice sized city - very easy to navigate around - although I would try to aim for June rather than April
its about -17f here at the moment so is a bit chilly and june would pretty much guarantee nice weather ( although come beofre mid-june when the schools break up)
I'd never been to Chicago before we moved here for dh's job and I would throughly recommend it for people with chilren.
ds was coming up to 3 when we came and did all those things and more
we are leaving in march and I am very very sad to be going

Early spring is dodgy for New England.

How about Washington DC? There is loads to do in the city and the countryside around there is beautiful too.

Ohhhh motherhurdicure......I sold my '63 plymouth valiant convertible when I moved back to the states because it just wasn't practical with kids.....I am so jealous. I loved that car that I carried pictures of it in my wallet (before I had kids of course).

I've come a bit late to this thread, but when DS3 was 3.5 we took him to Las Vegas. He loved it. It's hot in the spring, but not too hot for a toddler, and all the hotels on the strip have something free to watch. We drove out to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam- he remembered it for years.