Air & Space Museum (aka JJ's dreamland)

Me with the Space Shuttle Enterprise. I am a huge space geek, and seeing the space shuttle definitely made me happy :)
Enola Gay up front and the Concorde Jet in the background with all kinds of stunt planes nearby

My friend Mark drove down from Philly and we went to the Udvar-Hazy extension of the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum out by Dulles Airport. (Eat your heart out Ryan May!) It is amazing! We were there for hours. We jumped in on a tour and learned about all kinds of planes from WWI, WWII, Commercial Air travel, and stunt airplanes. My favorite part of the tour was learning about the Concorde Jet (which flies at 60,000 feet!) and the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima). The only thing I wish I could have done at the museum was get inside the airplanes. I wanted to board the Concorde and pretend that I was a first class passenger flying to Paris! I found out that the only person they let do that was the actual pilot that flew the Concorde when he came to visit the Smithsonian.

Another cool part about the Air & Space Museum is all of the fighter jets. I got to see MiGs and F14s like the jets used in the movie "Top Gun." I definitely felt the need for speed.

Mark and I also decided to see the "Space Station" IMAX while visiting the Air & Space Museum. It offered some spectacular views of Earth and showed some great shuttle/rocket launches. I love this kind-of stuff. Always have. Always will. Before the show the IMAX was letting us know how it was different from normal movie theaters "it has a state of the art sound system, and the screen is 6 stories high and as wide as the wingspan of a Concorde Jet..." to which I responded with "Let's find out! The Concorde is just over there... Let's bring it in here and really see if you are telling us the truth."