the plane! the plane!

Took the Widgie to the Udvar-Hazy center today. We spent most of the day, and what we learned there was: they have planes!lots of planes!

In fact we spent the first half-hour marveling over it: a plane! another plane! two planes! another plane!They even had the Enola Gay, which didn't impress the Widge much, other than it being big and shiny. But I shouldn't have been surprised; the Widge's area of military expertise is, of course, the Civil War. We also got to see the space shuttle (I suppose, more accurately its "a space shuttle") but I don't have any photos of that, because the Widgie was asking questions about the rocket thingies in the photo on this page. (these are preschool-style questions, the question part is inferred. His main question was: "Uh oh! Hole!" which translates into: how come theres such a large opening in a device that's expected to survive the trip into space?). I assured him, repeatedly, that Uncle Stan is an actual rocket scientist, and will someday come along to explain the whole spacecraft business. And let me tell you, if you want to get funny looks in public, repeat this phrase to the nearest two-year-old: "Well, see, Uncle Stan is a genuine rocket scientist, so we'll ask him all about this apparatus later on." Its important to put the emphasis on the rocket scientist part.

By the way, Uncle Stan, you'll be happy to know that as soon as we got his toy plane home, i explained pitch, yaw, and roll.

Anyway, we got to indulge our passion for gears as well, by cranking out a pressed penny from one of those machines you see in all the museums.
I've always wondered about these things. Isn't it illegal to destroy legal tender? Anyway, initially we were most impressed by the gears, but when the penny emerged, he was fascinated. Sadly he was wearing shorts with no pocket, but he did allow me to carry the treasure home in my wallet.

We also went up into the observation tower, where we actually saw a real live plane land, which is much more impressive, apparently, the first time you actually see it. No photos of that either, which is a shame, because I'm sure you'd all be impressed with my daring if you saw how high in the air it was, and how there were windows rather than walls between me and the vast outside world. And then, to round out the day, the Widgie saw his very first IMAX!
It was full of planes! Actually he only saw about half of t, before he fell asleep. He held those eyes open as long as he could, but apparently there is nothing so soothing as the roar of F-16s. (There were also B-2s, F-15 and 18s, Harriers, A-10s, A KC-135, AWACS, a U-2, and so forth). I can personally understand, having grown up around the fabulous aircraft. It was fascinating seeing them fly around on the IMAX: they're so darned maneuverable (not the AWACS, per se, but certainly the fighters). Anyway, every single one of you blog readers would have loved it. The Widge would have loved it even more if he had been awake for the part with the firefighters training for runway fires, and the part where they blew up tanks.

Anyway, I highly recommend plane-spotting, it was a nice way to spend the day, certainly a diversion from the perpetually squeaky dog who persists in living here.

and speaking of dogs and planes, hello to the newest family hound!