Line was way too long for the Archives. And not the greatest museum for kids. I went inside on our last trip, so we skipped this and went straight to Air and Space.
Weather was great. Tons of people out. Kites being flown, picnic lunches, and lots of joggers all around.
(Trent has a Washington Memorial sticking out of his head)
If not the FBI, maybe the Navy.
At the Air and Space Museum. So overwhelming once you walk in, trying to decide what to see first.
Checking out the controls of an airplane.
The blue sign below says: "This object is called a "knee board" because a pilot would strap it to his leg. He would turn the knobs to scroll the map as he flew his route." (Claimed that this was better than folded map they used to use. Crazy to think about in this GPS-governed world).
Old picture of a pilot with the "knee board" strapped to his leg.
Kyleigh Mae had fallen asleep and just recently re-joined us.
Clock they took on board a ship to keep track of time.
This part of the museum tried to help us understand the initial excitement of transoceanic flight. Now we don't give this kind of stuff a second thought. It's common place. But at one point, it was exciting and on front page news all over.
Took plenty of breaks to re-fuel. DC can be exhausting. Good thing we brought a couple of thirst-quenchers.
The different inventions it took to get to GPS. Some pretty big boxes.
Quartz clock used in US Navy Observatory in DC to give out radio time signals. Dials are different.
The pilots who dared to cross the Atlantic of Pacific Oceans were treated like royalty...if they ever came back alive. It was very daring and risky.
In the old planes, they needed a separate guy just to navigate while the other piloted the plane. Some planes had a bubble on the top of the plane for the navigator to stand up in and use his machinery to figure out where they were and needed to go. The article below states how one of those bubbles came apart from the plane and the navigator shot up through the now vacant hole in the plane and disappeared.
The astronaut, ship captain, pilot and army girl all collaborated a story to tell us how time and navigation has changed and made it possible for them to do what they do.
Some new Atomic clock chips. The most accurate form of keeping time.
In case you didn't know....
All different types of GPS systems.
After that, it was time to just let the kids run around.
B taking a moment to chill completely.
If you ask these kids to smile, sometimes you get a little more than bargained.
B taking a moment to watch another kid try to fly a kite.
All that walking makes a family hungry. And we had to find a place that would serve some chocolate cake for B's birthday. Brenden was not about to let us forget what his Poppy said about making sure that he got to blow out some candles for his big day. This kid is well worth any special effort to find a decent place to celebrate him. Couldn't have asked for a greater kid to be ours. We're happy with the addition.
He ok'd his Birthday dinner. Phew, glad he liked it. (Though, the kid isn't terribly hard to please anyhow).
Adding some candles before singing to our Bud.
Once we got back to the hotel and got ready for bed, this is about what happened the minute the head hit the pillow. Another fun trip to DC. Can't tell if it's the cool sites, all the stuff you learn, or just plain time spent together. Probably the latter.
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