On a whim we went to the Udvar-Hazy Center.
To normal people, it's the satellite Smithsonian Air & Space Museum out near Dulles airport. The hangar is huge and along with the standard air and space stuff (you know... Apollo 11, a Huey, space satellites, personal jetpacks), the infamous Enola Gay and the entire Space Shuttle Enterprise are waiting to be seen.
We toured around and talked about hang gliding, oversized Depends undergarments for astronauts and how the Blackbird seemingly disappears in the sky. There's definitely plenty to see but it is a lot of looking and reading, and not a whole lot of doing. Our kids are patient where ever we drag them but after a while one glider looks a whole lot like the next. We'd promised that if they did well (upon entering they were sternly told by a guard No Running and another guard later told them not to hang on the barriers) we would go on a simulator. They succeeded and so we took a 3D trip to the moon. I was entirely nauseous afterwards but the kids enjoyed it. Adjoining the simulator zone is a souvenir kiosk. Kids being kids they wanted one of everything but we settled on what cannot be passed up. Astronaut ice cream.
We forgot to go up to the observation tour, did squeeze through the crowds in the official souvenir shop and successfully avoided purchasing any kid-sized flight suits, finger kites, or $7 key chains (though I was -really- -really- tempted on the finger kites) and skipped the IMAX. At the car we broke into the ice cream, literally as anyone who has tasted some knows it's a little crunchy, a lot chewy and totally gross. Jonathon was the only one who gave it a thumbs up. I knew the kid was weird.
Lunch was at Chik-Fil-A. First time in over two years and once again I couldn't finish a fast food meal. The Taco Bell burrito thing was huge, the Wendy's burger had several bites left over and then at CFA there was no way I could finish the sandwich and barely touched the waffle fries. Yummy, yes. Just couldn't eat them all. The kids had the same problem with the fries and soda. Plain too much. But they were satiated and getting to play at the indoor playground was a bonus.
A quick stop at the apartment and the grocery store, then we were off to Jerry and Julie's home. They bought a townhome last year so we had the tour, a great dinner and the kids watched too much TV but stayed happy chasing the cats and somersaulting around the basement. It was great to see them and catch up on all the big news. All four kids conked out on the drive home after the day they'd had and all the behaving they did.
It was a good day all around.
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