Washington, D.C.

WARNING! The following post is extremely long and could be tedious to some viewers. Feel free to take frequent breaks and, if necessary, bail completely. We understand.

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This past week Bridget went to Camp Bow Wow on vacation and we went to Washington, D.C. Although we didn't see everything possible, we were able to see everything we had really wanted to. The weather was cloudy most of the time we were there, and it rained the first two days, but we just spent those two days in museums anyway so it worked out. The first day we went to the National Air and Space Museum on the Mall. There is also a new center that was built in 2003 at Dulles International Airport that we visited later in the week.

The Apollo 11 Command Module.

The Spirit of St. Louis.

Scott ready for a 3D IMAX adventure.

Orville and Wilbur Wright....and Scott.

The actual 1903 Wright Flyer. The fabric had been restored in the 1980s but all other parts are original.

The Starship Enterprise model that was used in the Star Trek TV shows.

Scott and Kermit the Frog.

Dorothy's slippers from the Wizard of Oz. Renee didn't get to see them last time she was here because they were out on tour so she was pumped.

Abraham Lincoln's tophat.

Scott and (wax) Robin Williams.

There has been an accusation made by certain parties that Scott has "T. Rex" arms, inhibiting his reach toward and aquisition of high objects. He refused to extend his arm in this picture for comparison, so the rumor will have to live on. More dinosaurs.

The Hope Diamond.

The hubbub surrounding the Hope Diamond case.

The Washington Monument.

The Capitol building. We think the tent in front is from the Memorial Day concert because it looked like the same one that was on TV but we're not sure.

The Jefferson Memorial.

The Secret Service patroling the White House. There was also at least one guy on the roof.

The World War II Memorial with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.

The Korean War Memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial.

The Vietnam War Memorial.

We saw this helicopter twice going to and from the White House. We also saw several motorcades with police escorts throughout the week. We don't know if the President was with any of them, it seems unlikely.

The Iwo Jima Memorial.

The Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

This is the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles, which is the other half of the National Air and Space Museum. It was an extremely nice, bright, clean facility that had several planes there that are the last of their kind. The National Air and Space Museum on the Mall has a mix of aircraft and exhibits, whereas this one had mostly aircraft. Since it is located on an active airport, many of the aircraft actually flew here on their final flight to be placed in the museum.

This is the first and oldest multi-engine airplane.

The Enola Gay is the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
This is the observation tower that looks like a control tower from the outside of the museum. From here you can see planes taking off from and landing at Dulles.

The SR-71. This plane flew its last flight to this museum in 1990. Before coming to the museum, the plane flew coast to coast in 67 minutes, going 2,124 mph! (indicated airspeed at a height of over 80,000 ft.)

The Space Shuttle Enterprise. This shuttle never actually went into space, it was used for ground and flight testing for subsequent shuttles.

This is the mobile contamination facility used to quarantine the Apollo 11 astronauts when they returned from the mopon.

This museum also has a Concord, which is the supersonic jet that used to fly overseas. They are all now retired.

We stayed at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, which was very nice and had a lot of history as well. The Beatles stayed there on their first trip to America, the Washington Redskins stayed there at some point, and several presidents and world leaders have stayed there throughout the years (we didn't really read too carefully into the specifics, if you can't tell). We got a great deal booking online, and it was fun to stay in a luxury hotel!

We had an awesome time, and were lucky to see everything we wanted to see. It was definitely not the type of vacation where you sit back and relax!