Washington D.C., Day 3

Today was an awesome day at the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum, which is the "other" Smithsonian Air and Space Museum out by Dulles Airport in Virginia. What an incredible place! I have no idea how many aircraft were there in total, but in terms of quality I have to imagine that there cannot be another place in the world that had what this place had.

A lengthwise view of the museum.

Some highlights: the "Enola Gay", which is the B29 bomber which dropped the Atom Bomb on Hiroshima in WWII; an SR-71 stealth fighter; an Air France Concorde; and what I thought was the "crown jewel" of the place: a NASA Space Shuttle (the "Enterprise"). Just absolutely amazing.

The Enola Gay.

An SR-71A stealth fighter.

John and Kevin and the Concorde SST.

The Space Shuttle Enterprise.

We spent the entire day at this museum, there was just so much to see. We also saw an excellent 45-minute movie about Air Force fighter pilots in the IMAX theater after lunch.

After we saw all there was to see at the museum, we all went out to dinner at Benehana in Dulles, VA. We were all entertained by the chef, particular the boys. All in all, a very good day for all of us.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Southport, North Carolina, right after breakfast. Mapquest has it as around 400 miles, 7 hours. If we can get on the road by 8:00am at the latest (our goal), I'm guessing that we can make it to Southport by around 3:30pm (including a couple of very brief stops for potty breaks, food and gas. It will be a long travel day, but we're hoping that we'll have four days of fun and relaxation before we start heading back early, early Sunday morning.