It Was Free! (Almost)
Saturday, September 26, 2009 at 9:51PM We found out late this afternoon that it was National Free Museum Admission Day. I don't know if that is the actual name of this day (event?) but there are hundreds of museums across the country that participate in it and it is encouraged by the Smithsonian magazine. We were able to go to one participating museum with two free admittances. We paid for one admission. (Ha, Eliana is still free...but not to fly. That is too bad!)
Speaking of flying, we chose to go to the Flight Museum that is literally up the street from our house. It was the closest, and probably the one that was going to be the most interesting for everyone involved (read: Christian).
Even Eliana was excited to see all of the airplanes. She pointed and cried out,"Airplane!" as soon as we pulled in the parking lot. Christian and Michaela thought it was neat to be so close to one, even though they've been on a lot of planes. It's different when you're just walking through that tunnel to board. It's hard to get a sense of their size when you only see the inside.
They were so fascinated with this plane, and we weren't even in the building yet! They thought it was cool to be able to see in the backside of the aircraft.
It was so dark, I'm not sure what all they saw; Michaela said,"See that thing that's dangling?!" And she said it with such excitement that it must have been something amazing. Or maybe just a securing strap. I really don't know.
Once inside we started with the space section. Just think...there are folks who have actually been out of this planet's atmosphere. That is so crazy.
We saw all kinds of paraphernalia, as well as the command module for the Apollo 7 mission, which orbited the Earth and helped lead up to the lunar-orbiting mission later.
They definitely thought this was great, but I'm not sure that they fully understood the significance of such a thing.
Can you imagine being in there for eleven days? In outer space? Well, I don't know how outer it was, since it was 140 x 183 miles above the Earth. So...inner space? Still, it's a long way from home, a fridge, and a regular toilet.
Is it really necessary to say how impressive the jets were? I didn't think so.
Missiles fall into the same category.
Fighter jets and weapons of mass destruction might be impressive to some, but really, what I think is impressive is the endless number of faces this child can make...
Truly, I don't know where she gets it from. Hmmm.
They thought the helicopters were cool-which they were. This one had a ginormous blade. (It probably isn't any bigger than other helicopters, but since I'm never running to hop on any helicopters, how do I know? It was big. I couldn't even get a picture of it from one end to the other.)
Ooh, so red and shiny!
Now, this cracked me up. They thought it was so fun to go into this model of the front end of a plane and sit in the seats...
Maybe because it was first class? It is true, we do not ever get to sit in those seats. Can you believe it? In all the times that we have tromped onto an airplane, me with three children and six carry-on bags, no one has ever offered to let me have their seat up in the five-star lounge.
They did get to peek in the cockpit. That isn't something you get to see everyday.
We also got to see an SR-71 Simulator. I do not begin to know what I am talking about when it comes to top secret government spy jets, but I think that Lunchbox might have some connections and could tell you a thing or two about this machine as well as the real deal-Blackbirds some call them. If you would like to check it out, you can. I would only confuse you. I confuse myself. I didn't even take a picture of the thing, but I did get a photo of the info about it. Nice work.
Eliana was so good, she hung out in her stroller the whole time taking everything in.
And for $5.00, we had a great time.
Reader Comments (3)
What a fun day! You're such a good Mommy!
That looks like fun but the claustrophobia I get just from looking at your picture of that space capsule tells me that I would have been a terrible astronaut.
Wow, that looked like an awesome way to spend the day! Love the funny face picture--ha!
Elle