Our first mom-kiddos field trip was to the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton. The center is run by NASA, but is very kid friendly. Camille (Ryleigh's American Girl Wellie Wishers doll) even got to go. The kids got to try to make a plane take off (that didn't go so well) and played with pitch and roll with a plane in a wind tunnel. They got to see a mock-up of an emergency evacuation capsule that will be included in the spacecraft that they are designing to send people to Mars as well as learn about life aboard the space station. I'd say the best part for all of us, though, was the IMAX movie about the Rim of the Pacific exercises. Jip got to do RIMPAC in real life way back when he was on the frigate. There was a lot of footage from GW when they were talking about flight operations--Jip will have to see it to confirm it, but I'm pretty sure the footage was shot while Jip was aboard. The kids volunteered to see it again, so we'll have to make a point of doing that soon.
On Friday, the kids and I went to the Military Aviation Museum in south Virginia Beach. They also have a dinosaur park. I'm not sure why it is there, but the kids were glad it was. Anyway, the museum is full of aircraft from the US, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Russia (USSR) from WWI and WWII. All of the aircraft but one are still in flying condition--and they do get flown each year in a little local air show.
My favorite part was the German hangar that the museum owner (private citizen) brought over from Europe. The Allies were known to have bombed it on at least two different occasion. The girders and doors survived, but the museum had to reconstruct the outer shell. You can still see the bullet holes in the girders and see a name written on a girder of a Polish POW who was forced to work at the hangar--historians know the POW survived the war and returned to Poland, but historians were unable to find where he settled. The German hanger is filled with both operational German planes and prototypes that they were working on. Historians believe that some of the prototypes were tested in wind tunnels, but they believe that none were actually flight tested.
The kids are ready to go back to school. I'm ready for them to go back, too. This week should be filled with real spring weather and normal after-school activities. We're looking forward to some outside time as we try to find our routines again. As always, pics to come. Until next time, cheers!
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