Washington DC - Day 5

We started the day with a trip out to Manassas, VA, where the Battle of Bull Run/Manassas took place during the Civil War, one in 1861 and the other in 1862. This was like any other Civil War battleground, but Landon can find something interesting to look at anyway! In my book, if you've seen one Civil War cannon, you've seen them all. :)



It was during the First Battle that Thomas Jackson earned the nickname Stonewall. So, they have this statue of him there.



Around 11:45, we headed to Chantilly, VA, near Dulles International Airport, where the National Air and Space Museum has a second campus called the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. It is a huge hangar with many, many planes. We ate lunch in the car, and then headed into the center around 12:30.

Here is Landon with an SR71 Blackbird.


We looked around for a short time, and then the boys decided to take the 1:15 tour of the facility. If you have the time, this is definitely the way to go. You learn so much from the stories of the docents and volunteers. Meanwhile, Chase pushed Carys around in the stroller, and I sat on a bench and read. This was heaven to me! Around 3:00 pm, I got Carys to sit still on my lap while I sang Christmas carols to her. She fell asleep pretty quickly and slept until 4:10 when Greg took her from me because my back was killing me! That was when the boys were finally done talking to the man who took them on the tour. Turns out he has been a Civil Air Patrol member since he was a kid! They had a great time.

Here they are with the Space Shuttle Enterprise. This shuttle never actually went into space but was used for all their training.


This is an overall view from above the hangar.


Tomorrow is out last day in DC. We plan to visit the capitol, the Supreme Court building, the Library of Congress and the Botanic Gardens. These are all in very close proximity to one another on the Mall. Then on Saturday, we'll head to Simpsonville, SC, to visit our friends the Mitchells on the way home. It's hard to believe the week is almost over. Hours and hours of planning take so little time to actually execute.