Day 5

You'll notice that Day 5 took a lot longer to get posted. Our trip was so much fun, but so tiring! We left Friday morning around 9:30 and headed to Virginia where we stopped at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum. This air and space museum is also part of the Smithsonian, but is farther from D.C. and houses the largest exhibits (as well as 80% of all the Air and Space acquisitions-10% are in the D.C. museum and 10% are on loan). We spent about 4 hours there, but still missed some of the exhibits. We took a guided tour, which covered the highlights, but I was a little disappointed in the guide. He assumed a lot of knowledge that I didn't possess (I was born in '78 for crying out loud-I do not remember the things he talked about!) and seemed to talk mainly to the elderly participants (more his age anyway) then he did me or the kids. The kids were pretty bored with it, but Ruth did pop in and out of consciousness to get some information from him. The drive home was pretty uneventful and after more stops than I can count we arrived home around 10:30. There hasn't been much down time, though. It was laundry and unpacking all weekend, co-op on Monday, speech, dentist and school today. Maybe tomorrow?

A favorite with the kids-the SR71 Blackbird.

David was so excited to see this one. I had gotten him a WWII Planes coloring book and this one was in it. So, we have pictures from all angles on this plane-The Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk

The boys sitting in the Cessna. For an hour or so a day, they open up the Cessna for anyone to get inside and take a look around. They let the kids move the ailerons as well as other parts of the plane.

I wasn't sure which picture of the boys to put in. Their expressions are so comical in both.

The girls get a turn

Enterprise-the 1st of 6 shuttles built. This one was never launched just used for practice landings (if I have my memory correct)

Davey totally scored this day on the carrying. Chris was fascinated by the tour, so he was absentmindedly picking up David whenever he asked

Not a good quality picture, but Ruth was just being so sweet (and she's struggling with that lately, so I wanted to catch evidence of it to remind me in the harder times)

Are we almost done?

The Enola Gay. Though, I suppose you can read that for yourself. This is the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. I had to ask Chris just now what it did. I knew it was famous. I knew it was deadly. I just couldn't remember why.

This cracked me up. I guess, because, really if there is a huge plane sitting there, holding a ginormous bomb, do you really need a sign telling you not to smoke near it?

We also went up into the tower to watch a few planes land.

The view...

Chris' favorite-The Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat

Dave's favorite plane. Well, after the Kittyhawk. This is a ....oh wait! I have to ask Chris. I forgot to take a picture of the sign telling me what it was. (Now you know the secret to all my plane knowledge! I didn't really know the names of these things! I had pictures!) Got it! It's the Lockheed P-38 Lightning