Happy Birthday, Liam!

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Liam turned six years old today, and so we let him decide, partially, what to see. His choice was the Udvar-Hazy Center, and we added Mt Vernon since it is also in Virginia and we haven't been there.

We started at the latter. Liam learned a lot about Washington and Lincoln this year in school, so he seemed pretty interested. The kids get an adventure map which requires them to find missing words about different sections of the grounds to help them complete the quote, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." He was mesmerized by butterflies in the Upper Garden, tried to climb into the paint cellar, and had many questions about Washington's tomb and the slave memorial. We learned that Washington wanted the look of stone for his house, but knew it was prohibitively expensive. Instead, he mixed sand in with the paint to give it the look of stone. We skipped the tour of the Mansion, since people were standing in line for nearly an hour. Liam thought it made a lot more sense to use that time to see the space museum instead. We did spend time going through the new education center. It goes through the story of his life and includes well-researched mannequins to look like him at various stages in his life. I was quite impressed.

Jeff, Liam & I have been to Udvar-Hazy before, but he was much younger. This time, we let the boys direct our tour. Upon entry, they headed straight to the Enterprise, the original Space Shuttle on display there. They stopped at every interactive computer screen they found, and did eventually make it out of that wing. Jeff's favorite plane is the Corsair. Cole's, I think, were the stunt planes. Liam's was, of course, the Space Shuttle. He decided against buying one in the gift shop and bought a tube of astronauts and lunar rovers and such.

We celebrated Liam's birthday with dinner at Texas Roadhouse, which seems wrong outside of DC, but their food is good. His tummy started hurting before he finished, so we skipped the planned (very yummy) cheesecake and promised him some kind of dessert before our vacation is over.


Liam's "When I have kids . . . " Statement of the Day: When I have kids, I'll have as many boys as Austin's family does.

Number of Times Cole Asked about Going Home: 1

Projects Completed: 0 (seriously, it's beginning to make me mad)

Geocaches Found: 1 (VA)

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Photos

Adventure
Liam was very diligent about finding the answers and copying them down on his map

Beautiful butterflies
I turned around once and Jeff had disappeared. It turns out he was photographing butterflies. He took some really nice shots.

A quiet repose
I sent Jeff of to take pictures while we sat enjoying the expansive view of the Potomac.

View of the Potomac
Wouldn't it be great to sit on your back porch and see this?

Washington's Tomb
He knew the old crypt was not in great shape, so he specified in his will that a new tomb be built of brick and that he be interred there forever.

Who's watching?
George's eyes follow you wherever you go. It was pretty cool.

"It's a car with wings!"
That was Cole's description of this plane.

F-14 Tomcat
This one is one of a few to be specially modified to carry TARPS to provide in-theater tactical reconaissance.

X-35B Joint Strike Fighter
This is the first one ever built. That might be the most impressive thing about the Smithsonian. They have a lot of firsts, lasts and "only"s.

SR-71A Blackbird
On its last flight, this plane set a speed record traveling from LA to Washington in 1:04:20, landed at Dulles, and was turned over to the Smithsonian. How cool is that?