The Lunar Space Rover - All Electric Transportation, before it was "in" to drive such a vehicle.
Our 3rd full day in town had us going to the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall. However, the weather made me wish we could have stayed in our comfortable, warm, and convenient hotel room. But this wish was not to be granted....
As usual, we got up and had breakfast in the hotel. Unlike any of the other days, this would be the busiest we'd see it in our 5 days there - we had a tiny difficulty finding a vacant table for our use. When done, RQS and I put on our coats, grabbed our umbrellas, and we were off to DC. This time, we knew which Metro station we had to go to, as well as which exit to use to bring us to the museum. Or, did we know? Although we got off at the "Smithsonian" Metro station, we had to walk a distance in the rain to reach the Air and Space Museum.
When we reached the museum, we were very tired. Yet, we still had to spend more time on a slow moving line, waiting to be admitted. (Luckily, we had already printed our tickets while in New York, so we knew we'd eventually get in.) After 20 minutes, we were inside the place and started our exploration.
The first stop was the Wright Brothers' gallery. This area is a fitting tribute to the two brothers who made travel in heavier than air machines possible. It covers the prior knowledge that the brothers used in their experiments, as well as the methods they used to learn what was needed to develop their first functional airplane. (They would have made great project managers and programmers, as they understood the process of breaking down problems into small pieces and eliminating flaws in what they developed along the way.)
Our next stop was the Destination Moon gallery. This area gives the visitor an idea of what the process of landing a man on the moon entailed, as well as some of the choices that had to be made to do this. Exhibits covering the Gemini and Apollo programs were easy to find, and are well worth seeing. I still find it amazing that we did this about 50 years ago, and (as a nation) lost interest in manned lunar exploration after we achieved the goal set by JFK during his (too short) presidency.Although we went to one more gallery, the next important part of our visit was the gift shop. RQS had forgotten her sweatshirt at the hotel and was freezing. So I looked at books while she found the garment she needed to stay warm outside. I wished I could buy several books there, but I knew that once these books were read, that they would gather dust. Taking down a couple of titles, I filed them away for later use when I look them up in the local library system's collection.
Now that we were finished with the museum, we had a choice. Do we go back to Alexandria to eat? Or, do we stay in DC? I figured that we should go by the Wharf development to see an area which had been redeveloped since my first visit to DC. And that we did. By now, the rain had gotten worse, but we had our umbrellas with us. Luckily, it was a "short" walk to our destination - Hank's Oyster Bar. Yum! Both of us had oyster based dishes for dinner, and we both felt that we got more than our money's worth in the quality of what we ate.
After dinner, we decided to go back to Alexandria for dessert. There was a 24 hour diner (Bob & Edith's) on King Street that I wanted to try out, and I felt that this would be the perfect place to have something sweet before going back to our room. And we were both glad that I wanted to do this, as the thick shake RQS had was beyond comparison - it may have been the best she's had in years. As for me, the Apple Pie with Ice Cream was just as good. What a way to end an evening.
