Annapolis, May 31, 2008

We went to Washington D.C. today. We drove to Largo Town Center and took the Metro into Washington. We were fortunate to have decided to go on a week-end because we discovered you can park for free at the metro station on week-ends. We saw a sign at the station that said “Park & Ride” with an arrow and “Kiss & Ride” with another arrow. We decided that “Kiss & Ride” was for dropoffs.

We started out at the Air and Space Museum. There were many exhibits about man’s journey in air and space travel. There was the original plane that the Wright Brothers used for their first flight. Various aircraft were hanging from the ceiling and space travel was also represented. The actual capsule “Friendship 7” that John Glenn used to orbit the earth for the first time was on exhibit and the Apollo Command Module from the 1st Lunar landing mission was also there.

There we saw two IMAX movies. The first was “3D Sun”. This was about the need to monitor the suns solar eruptions in order to help with space weather forecasting. Solar erruptions cause radiation particles to fly towards the earth and violent solar storms can impact radio, power Grids, GPS, satellites and even astronauts out in space. STEREO is comprised of 2 satellites, spaced far apart, which enables scientists to view the sun in 3D. They provide much needed information which helps NOAA with space weather forecasting. It was very interesting.

The second movie we saw was “Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag”. This was about an American fighter pilot taking part in real life combat exercises. These training exercises involved 128 aircraft from 6 countries. It was said that in battle if a pilot survives his(her) first 10 air battles, they will most likely survive the war. These exercises are meant to simulate the pilots first 10 air battles. This was a very good movie.

We walked along the National Mall up towards the Capitol. We got some nice pictures of it and also of the Washington Monument in the distance. We saw so many gardens, all beautifully landscaped and maintained.

Quite close to the Capitol is the United States Botanical Gardens. Surrounding the building are many globes, decorated in many different styles. Inside were many different rooms, highlighting the many climates with plants and flowers suited for that area.

We walked through the 1st floor of the National Gallery of Art – sailors can only endure so much culture at once.

We got into the Museum of Natural History just as it started to rain. The forecast had been for rain, possibly severe and the sky had been looking ominous. We were on the steps to the museum when there was a brilliant lightning strike, followed by an extremely loud clap of thunder and the skies opened. We just got inside as it started to pour.

There were many interesting exhibits in the Museum of Natural History. One of them was about dinosaurs, with excavated bones reconstructed to show many kinds of dinosaurs. The “Hope Diamond” was also on display. It was formed more than one billion years ago. Pictures of this didn’t turn out.

Back to the Metro in the rain and back to the boat.