Epic East Coast - Day 11

I figured the kids were so tired that they would sleep in, but no such luck, as they were all up by 7:30am.  We had breakfast and hung around in the condo until around 10:00am and then headed out to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which is about four blocks north of our condo.  We got there before the crowds, but it did not take long for the entire building to become a crazy zoo of people.  Apparently the Air and Space Museum is the most visited building in the USA, which I believe, after experiencing it today.

I'm not sure how to sum up how I feel after visiting the museum.  There were some awesome historic artifacts, but some of those were hung up high and difficult to view, while other entire sections contained regular museum airplanes and displays that you could see at any museum (and see without the crushing groups of people).  On the awesome side was the Apollo 11 command module (first man on the moon), the Wright flyer (first powered flight), The Spirit of St. Louis (though that was hung from the roof and difficult to see), Spaceship One (the first commercial spaceship - also hung from the roof), Yuri Gargarin's space suit (first man in space) and the original model used for the USS Enterprise on Star Trek (not real, but cool anyway).

After going through the museum, we stopped for a late lunch at a super busy McDonald's attached to the museum.  We had to stand around and wait for an open table to appear after we received our food. After lunch we went to a few areas we skipped or wanted to see again and then headed down to a simulator area.  It wasn't really clear what it was, so I bought simulator tickets for Alex and Evan as they were tall enough and cheaper ride tickets for Jonathan and me.  Sandra and Bradley stayed behind with the stroller.  Once inside, though, we got separated into two lines, which was a bit concerning, and then, standing in line, I realized that the ride the boys were on went upside down.  I moved over to them to talk about it and they were OK, so I went back to Jonathan.  Then I got concerned about them being in a rather extreme ride without any parents available, as it looked like Jonathan and I would be in our ride at the same time, so I ran out and got Sandra, since there was a waiting area for the parents whose kids were on the ride.

Jonathan and I then went into our ride, which simulated a galactic roller coaster complete with all the motions, though it did not go upside down.  After that, we joined Sandra just as the boys were about to go into their ride, which was an enclosed two person flight simulator where they would be in control, so that helped a bit, as it meant they would only go upside down if they wanted to.  We watched their ride from the outside and it went left and right but never upside down, though both kids were super excited once they got out.

After leaving the museum, we took a slow walk through a three level gift shop, dragging all the toys away from the kids and then we took a quick walk through the Mall, saw some of the buildings and wilted from the heat.  We then returned to our condo, made tacos for supper and relaxed for the evening.  For night lunch, we tried some freeze dried ice cream that we bought at the gift shop ("astronaut food") and the kids decided it was the greatest thing ever.  It was edible, but I'm not going to go any farther than that.