Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Stephen F. Udvar-Hazy Center
This museum is located next to Dulles Airport. It has an observation tower and hangars that house planes for display. It's really quite an experience to see it all.

The first thing we did when we arrived was head up to the observation tower. We were able to watch planes coming in for a landing at Dulles on both sides of the observation tower.

This is the newly built control tower at Dulles Airport.


A plane comes in for a landing.


The statue in front of the museum. It's called "Ascent." I really like it. It's a very pleasing piece, up close and far away.


When we were done in the observation tower we headed for the hangars where the planes were displayed. The next two photos were taken from a catwalk in the middle of the hangar. You can see a great view of a retired Concorde in the first picture.




The girls enjoyed seeing the planes, but really, they were their own entertainment.


We stopped for lunch and went out to the parking area for our picnic. Afterward we all got a closer look at the "Ascent."


Around the marble base there was a "fountain" where water trickled down over stones. It was pretty cool. The kids were going to throw in coins, but once we saw that there really weren't many there we realized that the trick was to throw the coins onto to marble base. I think the girls mostly kept their pennies.


After lunch we went to the IMAX theatre to see "Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag." It was Emma's first time in a movie theater. She did pretty well, but I'll say I'm glad the movie was only 45 minutes long. When the movie was over the fellas went back to look at more planes and we took the girls to the McDonald's in the museum and bought them ice cream. We also took the opportunity to hit the gift shop. I bought M another folder for his smooshed penny collection. Here the girls are catching up on some reading while waiting for their ice cream. This is the reason I still carry the big black bag (or let Noni do it ;)

Written at 5:00 PM by Highlandgal.
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