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!

Tearin' Up the Clouds

Scott isn't meeting with his new instructor to hammer out a schedule for his commercial rating until this week and he was getting antsy as he hadn't flown in a couple weeks, so today we flew to Hondo just for fun. The clouds were scattered and it looked like a good day to go tear them up, which is just what we did.

Taking off from Stinson.

This was just one of the victims but all of the pictures look the same...

It was cool being on the same level as the clouds...some were flat and some were poofier and it was just a different perspective to hang out on their level for a prolonged period of time.

This little guy didn't have a chance...

Closer...

CLOSER...

POW!

We landed briefly in Hondo and then headed back to Stinson.

The MetLife blimp had landed at Stinson while we were gone...notice Snoopy being the pilot!

Quick Update

We haven't done anything too interesting lately (not even the mildly interesting activities we typically blog about), hence the lack of posts. Scott is in the middle of working towards his commercial rating and is switching flight schools to finish it because the rest of it needs to be done on a complex aircraft that is unavailable at his current flight school. As soon as his paperwork goes through and he gets assigned an instructor he should only have a couple months before he gets it but we'll see how the schedule works out.

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It looks like summer is here to stay with temps in the 90s or 100s every day. But it's a dry heat so it's not too bad (eye roll here).

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We're looking forward to vacation in a couple weeks...we decided to visit Washington DC. Scott is making a personal pilgrimage to the National Air and Space Museum and apparently there's a couple other cool things to see there too :-) We'll be sure to post pictures when we get back!

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Bridget is throwing up periodically again (in fact that is how we woke up this morning, to her retching noises). We switched her food a couple weeks ago as after doing some research (googling the topic) it appeared she might have a food allergy. Renee took her to the vet yesterday to get her annual vaccinations and told the vet how we had really kind of resigned ourselves to the fact that she throws up sometimes, that's just how she is and it seems like there's nothing we can do about it , and the vet said, "Well you have to look at it from our perspective, do people just throw up periodically? No, not unless there's something going on there." Duly noted. So we will give this new food a couple more weeks and if it's still a problem will switch to a brand of Science Diet that is most likely to accommodate a food allergy.

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So as you can see, nothing exciting happening here but the second something does, we'll let y'all know about it!!!!

Midland, TX

After flying to Odessa last Friday and thinking it would probably be the last time Renee was there, she actually had to go right back Monday and stay all week for work! Midland is actually where she was staying, which is 20 minutes east of Odessa. But it's really all the same city, they're connected by the aiport in the middle. It's very flat with very few trees. It's actually very close to the New Mexico border. The weather was really nice all week but always windy.

This is another huge high school football stadium. This and the one by the Odessa airport are the two major stadiums used in the area.

Flight to Odessa

Today we flew to Odessa, TX to fulfill one of the requirements for Scott's commercial rating. Odessa is about 5 hours away by car (340 miles) and a little over 2 hours away by plane (260 nautical miles). It's northwest of San Antonio, close to the New Mexico border in west Texas. If you've ever read the book, seen the movie, or seen the series "Friday Night Lights" about football in west Texas, Odessa is the setting (and the book was actually nonfiction...not sure how close the movie and series followed). Anywho, Renee had read the book about three years ago and at the time assumed she would never have cause to visit Odessa in her lifetime as it is not a vacation destination and is in the middle of nowhere in west Texas. It seemed a completely foreign place. And here we are, three short years later. Isn't it crazy how life works?

Taking off from Stinson...

Renee hadn't sat up front since New Orleans!
Leaving San Antonio...
I-10, going through the middle of nowhere on the way to El Paso. The same I-10 that went through New Orleans and Slidell...

Junction, TX (very small).

Again, nothing around for miles and miles on the way out there. Not even really many houses.

Barnhart, TX (even smaller).

Scott monitoring while the auto pilot did all the work.

Oil fields near Odessa. There were hundreds and hundreds of pumps as we got closer to Odessa, it was surreal.

Coming in to Odessa Airport (Schlemeyer Field).

A high school football stadium. Look at the size of the parking lot!

Luckily the airport had a courtesy car we could use for a couple hours to go to lunch and check out the town. It was a nice little car and the airport was so nice, very hospitable.

We went to a BBQ place they recommended called "The Rockin' Q."

Picture of a pump from the ground.

Taking off from Odessa heading back to San Antonio. There were empty patches of land all over town with no trees or anything on them. Not sure if they were just green space or what.

It got to be a long time in the plane and Renee got bored. And a little crazy.

We stopped at a couple airports on the way back but nothing interesting, just meeting the requirement. As we got back to San Antonio we passed near Medina Lake, which is just northwest of the city.

Back at Stinson.

It was kind of a long day, but everything worked out and we got to visit a new place and see new sights. We couldn't ask for more!