Washington DC Trip – Day 2

I'm a little slow in posting this one because of how tired I was the last couple nights, but…here's what went down on day 2 of the Washington DC Trip.

After the extensive walking of day 1, my feet were killing me and I could feel a couple of blisters forming, but I was generally ok. Day 2 was the Smithsonian day where we planned to visit the Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art and the Natural History Museum.

Unfortunately, the weather was still horrible. Rain and wind earlier, turning into sleet and snow later on. By the time we got to the Air and Space Museum, we were soaked.

First thing on the agenda was to get some tickets for the 12:50 showing of Magnificent Desolation, a 3D IMAX film detailing the Apollo moon landings. After that, we went exploring for a while.

One of the highlights for me was seeing SpaceShipOne hanging in the museum atrium. Back when the X Prize was going on, I was following their progress with real interest since I'm of the opinion that commercial space flight is going to be the way to go in the future in order to innovate in the space travel department. NASA hasn't had the budget to do anything radically different since the Space Shuttle was first created.

One thing I learned that surprised me was that pigeons used to be used as spy plane like devices. Strap a camera on them with a timer and let em fly. I'm not entirely sure how useful this one. I'd guess they'd get an awful lot of pictures of statues and trash cans. Wassy brought up the question about what would happen during mating season…which is something I'd rather not think about.

Then we turned a corner and found a model of the strangest flying machine I've ever seen in my entire life. The thing on the left here is a French designed flying ship that was never actually built, probably for very good reason. There's a barrel hanging below the main ship which contains the food and drinks, accessible only by taking a rope ladder from te deck of the ship all the way down to the barrel. Why the heck did they not stick the barrel INSIDE the ship?!? The kitchen is also hanging down by the barrel.

There's a little "flying machine" on the back, I guess in case somebody wants to take a drive.

One of the coolest parts of the museum though, was the pop culture exhibit. The American History Museum was being renovated but they moved the pop culture stuff from there to the Air and Space Museum. They had a ton of cool stuff there. Highlights included Kermit the Frog from the Muppet Show, Dorthy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz, R2-D2 and  C-3PO…

I could go on, but I think I'll just throw some pictures down.

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