Visit to Udvar-Hazy

Yes, Udvar-Hazy. If you don't know what that means you are probably more familiar with its original name of the Air & Space Museum. Except the new version is out at Dulles Airport and is pretty awesome. Apparently, Udvar-Hazy was a big wig in the aerospace industry and he was of Hungarian descent, hence the name that sounds like, well, a disease that 40 year-old yuppies get. (yes, the doctor said I have udvah-hayzeee)

It costs nothing to get in but they do charge you $12 for parking, but they also take Visa/MC, so don't sweat it if you didn't bring any cash, like we did.

Jack liked it and enjoyed seeing helicopters, all types and sizes, colors and shapes. I enjoyed seeing the space shuttle, ray guns (toys) and the model for the close encounters movie.

I also liked that they had several guides that would walk around and give you a short synopsis of one of the exhibits and point out a few interesting facts. For example, when we were in the space exploration area, they had the actual working model of the close encounters of the third kind under glass. They guy said it was made before there was computer graphics, so the model builders had a little fun with it, like putting a shark in one of the alcoves, also a VW van as well. I got a decent picture of the R2D2 that they added, too. Very cool stuff.

We had lunch there and then went out to the large sculpture and took a few more pictures. We got Jack a little Space Shuttle toy. He almost made it home, but passed out just before we got home. We planned that one juuuust right.