Wednesday, August 29, 2012

For the Boys


There is something about flying and space that excites every little boy, occasionally it excites little girls too.  The Smithsonian has two Air & Space Museums in the Washington D.C. area.  One is on the National Mall, the other is in Dulles Virginia. It is referred to as Hazy.  Scott has been working at Hazy for the past few weeks, so we paid him a visit today.  We have been there at least a dozen times but the boys never get tired of it.  They kept asking me to take a picture of this plane and that plane. So, most of this post is full of pictures for them.  I love to see how excited this museum makes them each time we visit and fortunately for me, there were some new things too.
For example the Space Shuttle Discovery arrived last Spring, replacing the Space Shuttle Endeavor. Unlike Endeavor, Discovery actually spent a lot of time in space and you can see the wear and tear.
 



The boys had a 30 minute-one-on-one demonstration on how the space shuttle takes-off, lands, and orbits the earth by one of the docents.
There is a new restoration wing at the museum, where you can watch the restoration of old planes take place. Honestly, it is a little like watching paint dry but what do I know.
 

Another highlight is the observation deck that overlooks Dulles International Airport. Not only can you see planes take off and land but you can even play air traffic controller.
 


 A fan favorite is the SR-71 Blackbird, made even more famous by the Transformers movie.
 




But mostly they just love seeing plane, after plane, after plane and distracting daddy while he tries to work.
 
 




 


 

1 comment:

G&G said...

What an exciting place for a daddy to work. Much better than computer bays with nothing but wires and cables.