Phil went to a course in Reston, VA last week. Reston is just a stone's throw away from Washington DC so the kids and I tagged along to play while Phil was in class. We made a pit stop in Richmond at the Steadman's house. It was a great place to take a break. Everyone got to stretch their legs and burn off a little energy before the final leg of our trip. We walked across the street to the church playground. Makena and Megan loved seeing their buddy Beck! It had been a couple of months since they had seen each other but they picked right up where they left off. These are a few pictures from Richmond...
Beck fits right in with our crowd.
The kiddos were very interested in the trucks that were coming down the street.
Once we got to our hotel in Reston we were done for the night. Phil had to go to his course the next morning so the kids and I needed something to do. This was my first time going to the Washington DC area and I was not familiar with the roads at all. There are a ton of toll roads, as well. I was a little afraid to venture all the way into DC by myself with the 3 kids my first day there. None of the options sounded good. Use the Metro and public transportation by myself or driving in where I was unlikely to find parking (or would be a slave to the parking meter.) We found out the National Air and Space Museum has a second facility out near Dulles Airport, which was also close to our hotel. We still had to go on a toll road and go on a busy freeway where we saw someone get T-boned, but all in all getting there wasn't that bad. So here we are at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. This site, along with the one on the National Mall, houses the largest collection of aviation and space artifacts in the world. We found out while we were at the museum that Transformers Revenge of the Fallen was filmed there. We may have to go and rent it now!
Makena liked the helicopters. Here she is with Megan in front of a Huey that flew in Vietnam.
We also saw a piece of the World Trade Center. There was a picture of the twin towers with the planes flying into them. Try explaining 9/11 to a two year old and a four year old. Makena asked, "Why did they do that?" I told her that was a very good question.
In true girl style, Makena and Megan liked the shiny airplanes.
The girls also liked this astronaut doll. My memory may not be entirely correct, but I think it was created by Goodwill to give to NASA donors.
We got to see the the Space Shuttle Enterprise. It was built for NASA to perform test flights in the atmosphere. It was built without engines or a functional heat shield so it never actually made it into space. We still thought it was really cool and was one of the highlights from the day!
This Boilerplate with the flotation collar and bags was attached to Apollo 11 command module Columbia when it landed in the ocean.
The kids with the Space Shuttle Enterprise
See! I was there, too!
The girls were saying "pumpkin suit! Which was the nickname for this suit the astronauts wore during launch and landing.
One of the other big things that we got to see was the Enola Gay. My dad is a bit of a history buff so I knew what this was when I saw it. Enola Gay is the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II. I was impressed to see this plane in person just because of the history behind it.
We went into the observation tower while we were there. We had a great view of Dulles airport and the Blue Ridge Mountains and watched quite a few planes take off and land. If you click on the picture you can see the plane on the left that is about to land. The tower had two levels, one of which explained how air traffic control works. We were also able to listen to air traffic control which was really neat.
Here are the girls being silly up in the tower...
And here are the kids on our way out of the museum. It was such a beautiful day!
Here is Everett, back at the hotel, playing with the astronaut monkey I bought him at the museum.
When we got to our hotel we found out they were having an Oktoberfest there in the town center. It included a carnival with kids rides and games. We were sad that we didn't have enough time to take the kids to the Dixie Classic Fair this year so we were happy to be able to take them to this. We started calling it "the fair" and let the girls ride a couple of rides and play a couple of games.
This was just our first full day in DC. There is more to come!
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