Monday Outing Near Dulles Airport

(NB: The last three posts were created in chronological order from oldest to most recent.)

Monday morning we had breakfast before checking out of the hotel. At Rob and Anna's we played with the kids while everyone got ready for the day. What started out as a walk with Clara and Anders, ended up being another frog hunt. Once the troops were ready we headed northwest to an area near the Dulles International Airport. The first stop was Great Falls Park. This is a small pocket-sized national park that includes a set of impressive falls on the Potomac River near Washington DC. They formed an obstacle to George Washington's vision of a waterway into the Ohio Valley and the west. Consequently, canals and locks were constructed to bypass the falls. Photos never capture the scale properly. Trust me, however, they are impressive. After visiting the falls, we filled our rental car with gas and had lunch in Great Falls, VA. The place looks questionable, but the food was great.

We drove to the airport nearby and dropped off the rental car before heading just south of Dulles to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an arm of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. It is a beautifully designed facility with huge spaces filled with interesting bits and pieces of aviation history. One of my favorite features there is the observation tower where you can reach out and almost touch the planes arriving at Dulles. For someone like me who loves to watch airplanes, this was a treat.

Chasse de grenouille, part deux: note
the teeny frog about to jump from the rim
into Tuckers hand

The visitors center where one is repeatedly warned
that one will die if one goes into the falls

The very direct warning photographed by Anna
in the ladies' restroom

Great Falls of the Potomac

The crew at one of the observation points

The full wide view of the falls

Bill, JLynn, Jim, Whitney, Clara, Rob, Lucy,
Kris, Tucker, Anna, and Anders

Lunch time

The burgers were particularly good

Udvar-Hazy Center

Entry way of the Udvar-Hazy

Plane watcher's delight

IAD: Dulles International
from the observation tower

Lockheed Blackbird spy plane flew from
coast to coast in one hour

The Boeing Aviation Hangar

The Kringles, Anders, and Grammy at the
space shuttle Enterprise in the McDonnell hangar

JLynn beneath the Enola Gay

Anna and Rob dropped us at the airport and we flew home by way of Chicago's Midway Airport. It sits right in the middle of the city and the approach and take off were a series of what seem like evasive maneuvers, banking right, then left until we were far enough out onto the prairies that we could finally just "straighten up and fly right." It was another late landing but we seem to be fine today in spite of the abuse to our circadian rhythms. It was a quick but great trip.

That's all for now.

OXO

D.