Thursday Rose wanted to go somewhere, and I was having a hard time thinking of what to do. I have not bounced back really quickly from this cold thing I've had, as well as some canker sores, so a trip downtown was very daunting. Then Bob thought of the Udvar-Hazy Annex to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Perfect! It's close to us, but it has tons of parking so even I am not intimidated by driving the big van there!
First we met Bob for lunch at Cici's Pizza, and then our plan was for him to drop us all off at the museum, then later come back to pick us up, as there is a $15 charge for parking (but no admission fee). But when we pulled up to the "Bus/Taxi?shuttle Drop-Off" gate, there was a big sign saying, "No Free Drop-Offs", which the gate attendant confirmed. We certainly weren't about to pay $30 to be dropped off and picked up, so we backed up and went back to Cici's so Bob could get his van and got back to work. The man had told us that Bob could let us off before the gates, and we could just walk up, but the gates are actually quite a ways from the entrance, and I told him since we had our 7 kids plus Rose's 2 . . . no, thanks.
As we were driving Bob back, we were wondering if school buses had to pay the $15, and Bob told me to ask the attendant when we went back. Then we had some funny imaginings on what if we get a big sign for the side of the van that said, "school bus", LOL.
When I pulled back up to the gate, the line for the parking lot side was long, because the first car was evidently having some big discussion with the attendant. ("Fifteen bucks to park?! Are you nuts?!" LOL) The man on the bus/taxi side got out a big flag and waved another car and us over to him. I grumbled to Rose about having to deal with that man again, but when I pulled up, he asked me, "Who do you have in there?" I said my 7 kids and my sister-in-law's 2 kids. He waved away my $20 bill and got out this big yellow notepad. "What's the name of your organization? he asked. I told him the "Lumen Gratiae Homeschool" and he dutifully wrote that down and waved us through. So I guess that answered our question about buses! He definitely recognized me as soon as I drove up again. He must have had some time to think about us or something! Too funny!
We first went up into the control tower they have. It looks out toward the Dulles Airport, which is quite the happening place. You can see airplanes taking off and landing on 2 runways, but the closest one to us had planes landing, then taking off, then landing, etc. every few minutes. The little girls could have stayed there forever! Grace especially really loves the airplanes that fly over our house (we're under and approach path), and so she was jumping up and down with excitement to see the airplanes so close!
Next we went down into the museum, and everyone really enjoyed the exhibits. We looked at the military planes, including this Marine F-4, and then we headed into the Space Hall.
We cruised through the commercial side on our way back, as people were getting tired. We also went up to this catwalk that is 3 storys high, which I have never been on before. The airplanes that were hanging close to it were these hilarious tiny little planes that basically looked like tuna cans with wings! They were the kind that people would maybe build in their garage or something, and we all agreed that we would never set foot in any of them! One of them stated in it's info that it "handled poorly in any but the lightest wind". Ummm, yeah . . . My favorite was this "Waterman Aerobile" built by none other than Waldo Waterman (surely you've heard of him? No? LOL!) He built it in the 1930's I think, and he used car parts to "maintain the look of an automobile". The kids were all like, "That doesn't look anything like a car!" I told them they needed to think more along the lines of Grandpa's Model A Ford, rather than our Toyota Sienna, LOL. 
Bob's sister Ann and her husband Wally came up from Richmond in time for dinner, and we had lots of fun playing Taboo afterwards! Then they all got up really early and left at 7:00 Friday morning to tour the White House. From there, they drove to Ocean City, MD for a weekend at the beach before heading back to their homes! We had a really fun time with them, even if it was short!
1 comment:
That parking thing is crazy. That has to be new. I remember being upset the last time we went because we had to pay $5 to park, and the 2 times we had gone previously we didn't have to pay for parking at all. Hmm
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