Houston, The Roaches Have Landed....

I thought it time to perhaps bring the blog up to "real-time" (or a close approximation) & then recount our days prior. After spending a few days with friends in Milwaukee & driving for a couple more days, we've finally reached our penultimate destination: our nation's capitol: Washington D.C.

My sister & her family live in northern Virginia & allowed us to use their home as a base for our trip. (Thanks Aurora, Brian, Sydney & Baby-to-come Bilbo Baggins) We would drive to the "nearby" Metro Station & take the blue line into the city.

I hadn't been to D.C. since my college roommate & I visited back in 1991. There are a few new memorials (Korean, World War II), but one thing certainly did not change - the oppressive heat & humidity. Oy-Vay! Fortunately our tax dollars are well at work providing "free" admission & adequate air conditioning in the major attractions & Metro.

Day 1: June 23

• After breakfast & yummy coffee we watched the nail-biting U.S. vs Nigeria game. Wow - I think I aged 30 years during that 90 minute match & thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest! We were very excited that the U.S. team was able to win their group & make it to the elimination Round of 16.

• Since we were getting a bit of a late start, rather than commute into the city which would take about an hour, we opted to visit the "nearby" Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Air & Space museum. This is the 'hanger' of the Air & Space museum & houses tons of aircraft that couldn't fit in the regular Air & Space museum off the Mall in D.C. Big named aircrafts that were on display included the "SR-71A blackbird", A Concorde, The Enola Gay, and a test space shuttle "Enterprise". It was pretty impressive & a big hit with two young boys.

SR-71A Blackbird

The Enterprise

An Interactive Flight Simulator - the boys actually went upside down!

The visit to the Udvar-Hazy was a nice way to begin our trip to D.C.