Day 144: Washington, DC

Before heading back downtown for our second day at the National Mall, we fuelled up at the local IHOP. It was Cinna-stack pancakes for the win (and my sugar ration for the next week, lol). Delicious!

Our timed entry for the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum was for 10 am and we arrived right on time.

We started our visit with a tour, where our guide Ed showed us the museum’s highlights. We saw both aviation and space artifacts and Ed shared many insights that went beyond the information presented on the exhibits.

Russian and American nuclear missiles.

The first American jet plane circa 1942.

The first American plane to break the sound barrier in 1947.

Earhart flew with two men across the Atlantic prior to flying solo. They men didn’t let her fly so she kicked them out and flew solo.

The Wright Brothers’ plane was the first ever to fly. Its first flight lasted 12 seconds and they flew 100 feet.

Their plane used lots of bike parts.

After their first few flights the wind below their plane away while they were on the beach having lunch. It got all smashed up and they had to take the pieces back to Ohio to repair the damage.

Jerrie Mock, a mother of three, was the first woman to fly solo around the world.

Our tour guide Ed in front of the plane Charles Lindbergh used to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. The Spirit didn’t have a front windshield and Lindbergh flew using a parascope! It took just over 33 hours!

The Russian satellite Sputnik. It was the first artificial satellite to be put into orbit.

This is a pretty tiny spacecraft for one!

The one for two was not much larger!

The Apollo 11 control module that returned Neil Armstrong and team to Earth following the first moon landing. It used the balloons we saw a few days ago to flip right side up in the ocean after landing up side down.

Neil Armstrong’s actual space suit. The real one!

A rocket blaster pre-take off.

A rocket blaster after launch recovered from the bottom of the ocean.

Rocket blaster on side (post launch).

Capsule that took the first tourists to space.

You can’t think about the future of space travel without mentioning Star Wars.

This exhibit exploring possible housing types on Mars was interesting. In particular, it pointed to the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings as a possible housing option using pre-existing materials already available on the planet’s surface.

House you bring with you.

House you print and assemble.

House you make using materials available on the surface.

Cliff dwelling, anyone?

We spent some time learning about black holes in the theoretical section of the museum.

I didn’t know that you could “see” black holes based on the x-rays they emit. Cool!

We watched a movie in the Planetarium about what would need to be discovered for us to be able to travel to our closest star Alpha Centuri within a human lifetime. We would need new kinds of ships and new kinds of fuel that could speed up space travel significantly (possibilities could be nuclear, lasers or warping space-time). There is still lots of work to be done. Hopefully the boys find this inspiring.

Ice cream was a cool treat as we transitioned from the Air and Space Museum to the Museum of Natural History down the street. Thanks Grandma!

We finally saw the Capitol Building up closer.

We walked through a different part of the sculpture garden.

We saw an impressive array of meteorites at the Museum of Natural History. The cross sections look otherworldly and rightly so!

Alistair found a chunk of the meteor that made Meteor Crater in Arizona. We’ve been there!

Liam was enthralled and entranced with the fabulous Hall of Gems. He wanted to take photos of everything! There was so much cool stuff to see.

We saw the Hope Diamond. This is the world’s largest blue diamond that was stolen from King Louis IVX of France.

This aquamarine was also incredibly impressive.

The fossil gem combo is unbeatable in my opinion.

We showed Grandma the bison display. She had never seen a bison before. She said it looked like a cow to her.

We took another photo of the Easter Island statue for good measure. It was so neat.

Finally the boys convinced Grandma to let them make souvenir pennies for their cousins. They have been dying all trip to use these machines so this was a dream come true.

It was another busy but great day. We’re done with downtown DC so we’re off to find some new adventures tomorrow.