This morning we got up and got ready for a somewhat early service at a church that was really close to Dulles Airport. The church meets in the facility that used to be the Redskins training center. Everyone that we met there was very nice and welcoming. Spencer and Skylar were able to stay together in the kids' program, so they had a great time and at the end, they both got to pick a prize that they were very excited about so it was nice. Brighton and Bryn stayed in the main service for the song and offering portion and then Bri decided to go to the teen class and Bryn decided to stay in the main sanctuary with Brock and I. We agreed the sermon was good and enjoyed talking with their head greeter after service who, after hearing about what we're doing, said he would put us on their prayer list. :o)
We drove straight from the church to the museum in less than 15 minutes. We decided to splurge and buy tickets to the IMAX movie Fighter Pilots and we bought a Smithsonian Membership which was really reasonably priced and it gave us discounts on the tickets, plus several other benefits including a discount at McDonalds inside the museum. We decided we were actually pretty hungry and since we didn't have much time before the door opened for our movie, we went ahead and ordered a couple McNugget meals and shared them to tide us over until we got back home to the trailer this evening.
After our lunch, we went to the movie. I was afraid I was going to feel some motion sickness, but there were really only a couple parts in the 40+ minute movie where I felt a little dizzy; otherwise, I was fine. The film followed a single fighter pilot who had followed in his grandfather's footsteps and what some of his training was like. It was really well done. We were amazed at the technology and even more so when we realized that the film came out in 2004!! What must the technology be like now?
After the movie, we spent the next few hours strolling and zigzagging around looking and learning.
We got to see the space shuttle Discovery which is the cargo carrying one that went on the most missions and spent a total of over 365 days in space. It was cool because we were able to look at it really close and walk all the way around it. We listened in on part of a tour which was really interesting, but a little too long and slow-paced for the little boys and we figured that we would probably not make the rest of the museum with them if we continued, so we went off on our own "self-guided" tour.
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| The Langley Aerodrome A - Samuel Langley had several successful model-size aerodrome flights in 1896 and actually developed a good engine, but after two disastrous crashes, the second one only 9 days before the Wright Bros. successful flight in 1903, Langley's aeronautical work was ended. |
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| Blackbird - Cold War Reconn, Starred in Transformers movie as the old autobot |
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| Spencer liked this glider and thought the sling looked like a comfy sleeping bag and he would probably just take a nap in it. |
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| Gossamer Albatross - First man-powered (bicycle) flight across the English Channel (1979) |
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| Skylar picked this cute little plane to be "his". I think he liked the idea of the hypnotic propeller. |
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| We even got to go up into the Observation Tower where you can watch the planes come in and take off from Dulles and hear some of the chatter between pilots and the actual tower. |
We were all a little tired out by the time we were finished and I'm trying to psych everyone, including myself, up for the rest of the week in which we will most likely have much more walking. :O)
We climbed in the car and drove the hour's drive back to the Cherry Hill, stopping along the way at a grocery store for milk and coffee and a Redbox family movie.
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