Road Trip 2013 – Part 5 – Dulles

We went to Dulles on the way from Baltimore to North Carolina to see the National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center. If you don’t know what that is just imagine planes, lots of them, in a giant building. Oh, and also a space shuttle and a bunch of rockets. Its pure awesome.

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Can't skip out on getting a smashed penny.


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Just some of the planes, including some biplanes


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A Boeing 707 from way back when


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The Enola Gay, plane that dropped the the first atomic bomb.


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More about the plane


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So very different from todays stealth bombers and such


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They also restore planes there. Here's some waiting for work.


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What that, oh its just a Space Shuttle


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Discovery is the shuttle we saw launch when Kendra was pregnant with Levi.


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One of the astronaut isolation vans to keep them from getting sick.


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An SR-71 Blackbird with the Skunkworks marks


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Happy little girl has no idea what all these things are, but she's with family so she's good.


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Levi did a really good job taking pictures.


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The shuttle


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Levi and I. The lighting is odd, there's no way to get a good photo of you and the whole shuttle because this wing has no lighting in the hallway leading to it.


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Shuttle astronaut suit and manuevering unit, which they don't use now.


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By the nose.


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Those big rectangle holes are to equalize pressure in the atmosphere after being in space.


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Lots of cool stuff. That space suite was worn on the moon, hence the grey dust on it. It was worn by Jim Irwin, who I went to church with as a young child.


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Levi and some capsules


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Engines, or at least models of them.


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Posing by the crashed display. I find it hilarious when windows crashes on a display.


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Under the shuttle's tail.


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The hatch


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Levi loves the paint jobs on all the old school planes.


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After eating at McDonalds, which really jacks its prices up in there.


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In front of an old helicopter.


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My little miss is so lady like with her feet up.


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Bethany doesn't always cooperate with pictures


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And Levi gets tired of it, but it worked out. This is a statue called Ascent, outside the center.

Next, on to North Carolina.

Posted in Astronauts, Bethany, Levi, NASA, Trips, Vacation Tagged with: , ,

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