We had some excitement over the night. About 1 A.M. a bell started ringing. It was the fire alarm. Rex stuck his head out the door and the manager was telling everyone they had to evacuate. It was like being in the dorms all over again. Rex shook the still sleeping Dodi awake and convinced her that they needed to go outside. Everyone shuffled out and two fire trucks arrived. Some firemen went in, the bell stopped, we waited five minuets in the pleasantly warm night until we were given the all clear. No fire. Back to bed. |
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 I
was singing the praises of the D.C. Metro. On the left we see the inside of one of
the stations. They all look like this. It's amazing how clean and well kept
they are. Inside each of the concrete rectangles is a sound dampening substance.
The effect is quite noticeable when a train comes in. It's almost like they
have Mag-Lev trains that glide into the station. I have noticed a striking
similarity between the D.C. trains and BART trains. I can only assume that they are
close cousins. |
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As promised, we spent the day at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.
There was so much cool stuff that I didn't even take pictures for the first hour.
I don't think that I could have done any of it justice with my puny little digital
camera. Also the light was not very good inside. Apparently a whole section of
the museum was closed off since they were replacing all the Skylights (Which is most of
all the walls in the building) because of leaks and they are putting in anti-UV glass to
better protect the relics. Not that we noticed - as it was we were just barely able
to zip by all the exhibits.One of the best things about the Smithsonian is that EVERYTHING is either real (used in space/where ever) or a test model or a very fine replica. It's so nice to know that everything you see is not some sort of cheap mock-up. Funny thing though, if I didn't know they were real, I'd say they were cheesy knock offs - For all these years I have been seeing models in movies and going "Gee, that looks fake" when all this time it was actually very realistic. I guess in real life things don't have smooth edges, and Tech leave Electrical tape wound around things to keep them neat. I have a much higher appreciation of the real things as well as the models now |
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Over and over again I thought that I had "seen it all"
but then I would round a corner and there would be 20 more famous airplanes or spacecraft
hanging from the rafters. I don't believe how much stuff they jam into that
building. EVERY SQUARE INCH of space is FULL of all things air and space.Even more amazing is all the stuff they have from Germany, Russia, and Japan - If they have a Spitfire they also have a Zero and a M.E. 109. IF they have Skylab, the have MIR or an equivalent. They cover all nations fleets and aircraft. It's very balanced and well laid out. We saw a planetarium show and a I-MAX movie called "to Fly" - but were worthwhile, but the I-MAX show was AWESOME. Very big. Very Pretty. I could go on for hours, but I think that everyone needs to see it to understand it. C'mon everyone! Road Trip! |
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