day 10: arlington, va.: museums and memorials

The boys were glad to finally get a break from having to leave the house so early, and they took full advantage of it by watching shows and playing around and helping to clean up a little. When we finally did get out, we went to the Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udmar-Hazy Center, aka: part B or #2. It is a companion facility to the museum on the Mall in D.C. They wanted more room to show all the aircrafts they have, so this place was created in 2003. It did not disappoint.

The next few pictures show some of the aircrafts we saw.

Yes, that is a Concord. Sweet.

This is the Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird, the world's fastest jet-propelled aircraft. It mainly operated during the Cold War, but before retiring it in 1990, two pilot Lieutenant Colonels set a record by "flying from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. in 1 hour 4 minutes and 20 seconds, averaging 2,124 miles per hour. At the flights conclusion, they landed at Washington Dulles International Airport and turned the airplane over to the Smithsonian." Seriously!!

The major attraction in the space hangar is the space shuttle Enterprise. It was seriously cool to see it up so close.

Tracking and Data Relay Satellite. It just looks cool.

Then it was on to see the White House. Photo courtesy of Jake.

As we were walking back to the car, the boys spotted this tree trunk, obviously a pretty fresh one. You know our boys have been watching a little too much Sponge Bob when they can spot the shape of Patrick (he's a starfish) in a tree trunk. But I'd have to agree with them!!

Next we headed out to see some other memorials we hadn't gotten to yet. First was the WWII Memorial. It was beautiful.

It was such a beautiful day today. We went from coats and gloves with a high of 30 degrees earlier this week to sunny and warm today with a high around 60 degrees. It's almost like we were back home in Utah with this crazy weather!

(the boys had fun playing with these little flyer thingys throughout the park as we walked from one monument to another)

Next up was the Lincoln Memorial. It was so cute watching Jake run up to Daren and just take hold of his arm. Where has the water gone for the reflection pool????? I don't know, but there were plenty of people, including our boys, who took advantage of a chance to walk in the pool area.

Will, however, was not all that interested in walking. By this point he had had enough. It didn't matter that the Lincoln Memorial was just a few stairs away. He just wanted to lie there. So he did.

On the other hand, these two were miles ahead of us and raced each other up the stairs, just to get the first look at Lincoln.

Our shining, smiley faces. I need to figure out how to x out these people walking behind us because I really like this family picture.

And finally the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. It contains 58, 261 names of those who either died or who are missing in action.

I just had to throw this in here at the end. You see these all over the place here in D.C. There are so many broken branches from trees lying around (if you look close above, you can see there is a big branch just about to break off--don't park or walk near this one!) from the big snow storm they had last month. Crazy!!

Tyler, Marjorie, and their kids flew back from Utah late this afternoon. We made dinner together and had fun hanging out with them. Marjorie showed me her pictures from the snowstorms. Their neighbor's BMW was basically buried out on the street.

We are getting ready to leave and start our journey towards home tomorrow. On our way back we are taking a more southern route...hopefully that means a little warmer too!! Thanks again so much to Tyler and Marjorie for letting us stay in their home. We had a blast!