Air and Space

It is great to have a list of potential outings to choose from as a family instead of me dictating because the kids totally got into it this week. They decided that we should try out the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. This was a better choice than exploring Baltimore's Inner Harbor which had been my plan, because the weather was cold and drizzly again.  Don't they look excited?

We found a great (free) parking spot, but it was a bit of a hike

 

Our first stop was the "How things fly" exhibit which was absolutely fabulous. There was so much great information about what goes into making something fly and such great demonstrations and activities to illustrate individual concepts. We could have spent hours in that room alone. But since the smaller members of our team don't have quite that long of an attention span, we moved on to the rest of the museum.



Learning about Telescopes and also using aircraft to spy



It was so neat to see all so many famous aircraft displayed.

Spirit of St Louis -- Lindberg's plane from the first Altantic flight

X-1 --first plane to break speed of sound (orange one)

 

Lunar Module from Apollo 11

Apollo 11

Sputnik & The US's first satellite

Amelia Earhart's Vega

We also LOVED the exhibit about the Wright Brothers. It was so interesting to read about the different factors in their family dynamics that led to the inquisitive, problem-solving nature that eventually led them to invent a successful airplane. This is the actual plane they flew at Kitty Hawk. Pretty awesome.

Allen loves war planes but the collection here, while complete, was not as interestingly presented as the one in the Imperial War Museum in London.

By the end of the afternoon, the kids were pretty saturated and I was so glad that we didn't have another 5 museums to drag them to that day. But as wiped out as they looks here, when we got home and talked about the day, they all lit up with excitement about the interesting things they saw and learned and said they loved it. I was so glad that I thought to ask them that evening or I might have gone to bed thinking that it wasn't worth it to plan these outings since they all hated it.



Silly Leah trying out different dip for her fries (wish we could come up with some food options that aren't gross or won't take forever --you can't carry any food with you)



Einstein Bobbleheads were a big draw (from the Night and the Museum Movie)



My OCD children went on a mighty quest to sort all of the marbles in the gift shop.



Allen kindly went back for the car and picked us up so we wouldn't have to trek through the rain