Travel and First day in DC

So we are currently having this problem of not wanting to get up early.  We go to bed with the intention of getting a early start but we all seem to be sleeping so well that the last two days, it hasn't happened.

Wednesday was our long travel day but when we didn't get up till 9am, we didn't leave Jackson, MS until 10 in the morning.  We made it to Wytheville, Virginia about 10:30 at night.  When we are traveling it means stops include bathroom, gas and food all at the same time to minimize the number of times we stop.  

Thursday, the plan was to leave around 7am, well we got on the road about 10am.  So we are being Flexible, lol.  We had a four hour drive today.  Kids choice was to take the Jeep on the trip.  They both want to see snow and are both a little disappointed that snow is not in the forecast this week. Now me, I am good with that!  But TaunTuan is our Jeep.  She is a Polar Edition.  Yes we bought her in Texas but this is her first time to see the snow. Actually this little bit of snow looks like something that fell off a car of someone who had just driven from a snowy area but she got to put her tire on it.  

The National Air and Space Musuem has two locations.  One is inside the city and the second is in Chantilly, VA.  So the plan was to visit the one in Chantilly on the way into the city.  They are both part of the Smithsonian Institution. 

I am probably going to mention this about a bizillion times but all the Smithsonian buildings are free.  Yep FREE.  You just walk right in... well after going through security.  What would easily cost $25 a person and limit the opportunities of what to and what not to visit because of cost, I just think this is simply amazing and so very much appreciated.  It did cost us $15 to park but I still call it a win. 

Before I get started with the short history lesson below... let me tell you that my husbands face lit up when we walked in.  Just like a kid in a candy store.  He was like our own personal tour guide.  Every time we would walk up to a new plane he was like oh and this one is this and this one is that.  

 Outside of the building.  We arrived about 3pm and that gave us 2.5 hours.  We got through everything and saw it all but probably could have easily spent several hours there reading all the info and taking a little more time at each exhibit.

 The observation tower is in the background.  You can go up inside there and has a 360 degree view of the area and you can watch planes taking off and landing at Dulles Airport.

This is the Blackbird.  To date this is the fastest plane ever.  Its last flight was on March 6, 1990 and it set a speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Washington DC in 1 hour and 4 minutes.  When they landed at Dulles, they turned it over to the Smithsonian.

 Sharks mouth

 The Aerodorom is behind Batman.  Both times it was flown it crashed.  The second time was 9 days before the Wright Brothers historic flight.  He didn't try this one again.

 This is a reproduction of the Wright Military Flyer, Model A flown by Orville Wright.

 This is the Enola Gay.  This plane dropped the first ever atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.

 The Concord!

 This is the Restoration Hanger.  The entire hanger is used for the restoration of the planes that they have on display.

 This one here is called Flak-Bait and the red lines on the side show the number of missions.  It flew over 200 missions.  The one black line is for the mission that was flown at night.   There are other symbols as well.  Neat to see the symbolism.  They are restoring this one.

 And the Discovery.  Chris loved getting to see this.

 Satellites over the years.

 Discovery in the background

 An R2D2 replica mailbox.

 Phantom II

 A Coast Guard Helicopter from Houston

 The Tomcat

 Front of the Tomcat.

 This is a Huey.  This is the first helicopter that daddy worked on in the army before he moved to the Blackhawks.

 A view from the tower

 Spirit of Texas flown by Ross Perot Jr.

 Another picture of the Enola Gay with Chris and the kids.

 And a view of the Discovery through the hanger doors.  Love the flag behind it.

 A view of the front hanger to give you an idea of how many planes they have in there!

 And my people! We closed it down at 5:30.  But it was a great visit.  One young lady decided to display her teenage attitude when we arrived but as soon as we knocked that out, the kids both had a great time and walked away enjoying it a lot more than they thought they would.  Cheers to that!

We stopped to grab dinner at a local place.  It was pizza and salads and a farm to table type place. Name was Gusto.

Pizza's were ok.  They weren't bad but they were not our favorite.  Interesting restaurant though and they had their own little greenhouse in the wall where they were growing the herbs they use in their recipes.

Next was to head into the city and our hotel.  We drove around just a bit to get our bearings.

 The Washington Monument in the distance

 Supreme Court Building

The White House. We will go over and get a closer look later.

Got checked into our hotel.  We are staying at the Holiday Inn Capitol.  After once again spending hours trying to decide on a hotel and if we should stay outside of the city or inside of the city, do we pay for parking or not etc, I finally decided on this one because of the location to many of the things we wanted to see and it is close to a Metro stop.  I did not realize that there is a train that runs right by it though.  My peeps just slept through the one that just went by so we should be good.

After unpacking, ice cream was requested.  Now it is in the 40's right now so we all got to put on our new warm jackets and headed out on foot.  I had read about the waterfront but it wasn't top on our list because of so many other things to do but, our navigation pointed us in that direction and it was so fun!  They had restaurants on the water and you can look at the ships, ice skating, stores, a pizza truck that looked really good and Batman got to see two Ferraris while we were walking around. 

 Wharf District

 We found an ice skating rink on the lake.  It was closed to new guests by the time we got there after 9pm but I have one little man who has requested a trip back there.

 The picture is sideways but this was the place we are headed and I will leave it sideways because there is a very low chance we will ever go back there.  They had the oddest combinations of ice creams. We ended up with a small milkquake which they equated to a McFlurry where you add mix in but look at the combinations they had.
Strawberry and corn?? pickled strawberry jam, corn cookie bites
and we tried the Chocolate-Pretzel Dulce - Dulce De leche, butterscotch and pretzels.
There was something about the combination that just didn't work.  We all had a bite and then headed to  the Shake Shack for a good old fashioned milkshake.

 For shakes they suggest the crunchy cereal milk.  We had a problem just trying to pick sometime to try!  I am sure they cater to someone's palate but it just wasn't for us.

 Batman with the Choco-Pretzel-Dulce

 They also had a snores set up on the dock.  You could buy the ingredients and they had a fire pit set up to make them.

 Um, yeah I guess we are just a little too traditional, we all enjoyed the milkshake and Batman got a chocolate cone.

Back to the room as it began to sprinkle.  There is a 100% chance of rain tomorrow so we are planning accordingly!

Looking forward to a full day in the city tomorrow!