Washington DC - Day 3!

By the third day of DC, my feet were toast. There was no hope of doing anything major because my feet just couldn't take it anymore. I think I might be dabbling with a little bit of plantar fasciitis on my left foot and let's just say that it was super pissed. Jess and I decided to just take it somewhat easy and rest so that we could be refreshed for the next day. Good plan.

So how did we spend day three? We went to the The Dulles Air and Space Museum, officially named the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, right by the Dulles Airport.  It is HUGE!  It is made to house all the big planes that the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at the National Mall can't hold.  It does a good job, but they certainly have the place packed!

Dulles Air and Space Museum

We picked a good day to go--it was nice and rainy so we couldn't be outside much anyway.

This particular museum has a bigger focus on the "air" part rather than the space.  They definitely had an excellent pick of airplanes to view.  I wish I knew just how many they had hanging out there, but it was definitely in the hundreds!  I was a particular fan of the SR71.  Sexy, sexy plane.  I didn't know planes could be sexy, but this one proved they could.

X-men, anyone?

Turns out that bad boy finished setting an air speed record by flying from California to DC in something ridiculous like an hour and 30 minutes.  Coincidentally, that was the last flight it made. It was on its way to this museum to be retired.  Talk about going out with a bang!

I know I said that the museum focused more on the "air" portion, but it definitely did have some pretty awesome "space" parts as well.  My favorite?  The Enterprise space shuttle.  Even though this thing never actually went out to space (it only flew test missions), it led to the awesome space program that we know and love.

Enterprise

In a few months, it will actually be replaced with the Space Shuttle Discovery which has been on MANY missions.  That's super cool.

The most impressive part of the museum?  Definitely the Enola Gay.  For those of you that don't know, the Enola Gay is the plane what dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.  It was by far the deadliest plane in the entire exhibit.  Seeing it in real life and realizing the impact this plane had during World War II was just incredible.  I can't imagine being the pilot for that mission.  What a burden to bear.

Enola Gay

It's a really big plane

You know how I mentioned that they really had the space cram packed full of planes?  Here's proof:

Count 'em!

There is a Boeing 707 and a full-size Concorde jet in there.  This museum is HUGE.  Definitely don't miss it.

After we saw everything there was to see in the Air and Space Museum, we headed back to Jill's place.  Jess left to go drive to Harper's Ferry to be with her family who was also randomly in the area, and Jill and I just hung out.  We went and saw a model home in the area, and all I have to say is they have really really nice homes out in Virginia.  Dang!  We also had delicious Fro-Yo.  I wish I would've gotten a picture.  Yum!