Today was checkout day from the 7 C’s Cabin, so we bid Flintstone goodbye (leaving Jenny to hang chill with Joan for another few days) and hit the open road early for DC. It was a nice day for driving, pretty cool still in PA, and not too hot by the time we made it to The National Air & Space Museum near Dulles Airport. The museum was massive. And awesome. Our dad’s would have LOVED this place, and I thought of my Grandpa many times, too, as we wandered around looking at plane after plane after plane, engine after engine after engine. But first, we had to see the Space Shuttle Discovery. It was incredible to walk around and beneath this ginormous piece of engineering! It’s been in freaking space! And all the little two-person modules that first went into space back in the 60s, how incredible, how scary to see how tiny they are in person! They had a cool decontamination quarantine trailer that was made from an Airstream that was pretty funky, and loads and loads of other weird space equipment hanging from the ceiling and locked in display cases. They had all the space suits and space helmets and boots with a thousand eyelets. They had a bunch of the space food on display and all the icky looking hygiene equipment they use for basic needs at zero gravity. NO THANKS. Then there were the planes. There were German fighter planes, tons of small planes that look like only one tiny person could squeeze into, there was the Concord that was retired not too long ago, the Lufthansa Junkers (the plane responsible for John’s despised nickname, Junker John, dubbed him by his brothers), and even the Enola Gay, the enormous piece of machinery that dumped the atomic bomb on Japan. It was cool to see this important piece of history, and it took three photos to get just the cockpit, two of its engines and one wing. There was so much there, you could spend days and days looking at everything. They had a flying outfit of Amelia Earhart, flying hats and goggles, medals and awards, pins and boots of all sorts. There was a little gaggle of male engineers who looked as if they were geeking out on the whole experience. I thought of my dad and my grandpa with their pocket protectors and their love of all things mechanical.
We then bought some popcorn and went into the IMAX theatre to see Hubble. It was cool to see the missions the astronauts went on to repair and save the Hubble telescope. The images were absolutely incredible. I highly recommend seeing it for the space photos alone. The nebulas, galaxies, stars…it’s unreal to see the birthplace of stars in the Orion nebula. Baby stars, baby galaxies being formed, being born. Realizing that that is where we come from. Stars. Astronomy always takes me to a place outside of myself, a place so vast and ineffable that I cease to feel so important. It’s strange how freeing it feels to let go of the importance of self, letting myself feel insignificant. John used to tell me stories of the stars and constellations, and about various astronomical facts, and it always led me away from my problems and worries, made me see a broader perspective. I remember I used to sit there with my mouth open in an O, staring up into the cosmos, my mind alight with wonder.
We finished up at the museum, then made our way into Arlington to our funky little retro 60s hotel, The Americana Hotel. It’s a cute little hotel, and it looks a bit worse for wear, though our room is really nice on the inside. Some of the rooms were remodeled recently into larger (and I assume fancier) suites, but we opted for a cheap sleep, the room rate around $80 a night. Beats the $250 per night the “cheap” hotels in DC proper were asking! Sheeeeeeeeet! We went for a meander around the neighborhood, checking out the nearest Metro station and a local “fashion mall” that was loaded with pre-teens. There must’ve been a thousand kids in there! We grabbed some Taco Bell on the way out of the kid zoo, and came back to the Americana to flake out in our cool room. It’s going to be an early night for me so I can rest my barking dogs and wake up bright an early for our red eye appointment at the Library of Congress tomorrow! That and the Spy Museum are for sure on the agenda, and we’ll see where else the day takes us! Wheee!
Hugs to all,
R&J
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