A postcard from the Air and Space Museum

The National Air and Space Museum may be the perfect destination for a family that’s about to get on a plane. At least that’s what I thought when I decided to tack a quick day trip to Washington, DC onto our weeklong Wisconsin vacation. We were flying from Baltimore early in the morning, so the day before we were due to depart, we headed for the Smithsonian where in addition to seeing all kinds of aircraft for travel on this planet and beyond we:

• touched a moon rock;
• learned about how gravity, lift, thrust, and air pressure work in aviation;
• built paper airplanes and competed to see whose could fly the farthest and most accurately;
• explored the story of the Wright brothers (did you know they started out making running a printing company and making bicycles?);
• and saw a planetarium show about exo-planets that was more than a little mind blowing.

One of the pleasures of a day trip to Washington is that so many of the museums are free. So when we tired of aviation, we strolled over to the National Gallery for a quick peek at a small Edvard Munch exhibit that we just happened to find and then decided that it would be fun to see the Constitution at the National Archives across the street before hopping on the Metro for dinner at Firefly, our favorite family-friendly restaurant.

I wish I had happier news to report about our air travel the next day – our flight from Baltimore was delayed, causing us to miss our connection to Milwaukee in Chicago. After over an hour spent arguing with the good people at United, it became obvious that they simply could not get us on a plane that actually brought us to the destination we had bought our ticket for. So we ended up riding on a bus from O’Hare up to Milwaukee, arriving about four hours later than we should have if things had gone according to plan.

Which makes me all the more glad that as part of my participation in the Resident Mom Club and courtesy of Marriott we had spent the night at the Residence Inn in Greenbelt, Maryland. Yes, we still had to get up early, but not nearly as early as we would have had we been driving down to the airport from our house. We had plenty of room to spread out the night before and although we had to leave too early to take advantage of the free breakfast that came with our room, given the rest of the hassles on that longer-than-it-should-have-been travel day, I’m glad we had the convenience of a quick ride to the airport.

This post is the first of my Postcards from the Road series for Summer 2013 – quick photo posts that give you a glimpse of our travels while we’re still on them.

 I received a gift card from Marriott to spend at any Residence Inn of my choosing in any manner I wanted. You can always count on me to share when I’ve been compensated along with my honest opinions.