My husband K and I had a very quiet morning, which, strictly speaking, is a good way to start a travel day.
Around 10:45, K called downstairs for my car. He got a cart and brought it up to load all our luggage. We stopped at the desk on the second floor at 11, to be sure that all was taken care of with the bill. When we went down to the first floor, it was raining. The guy in charge of the valet stand took us through a hall to the garage, so that we wouldn't have to load the car in the rain. He sent us through a door and down some steps, while he navigated behind the dumpster with the luggage cart. He definitely earned the $4 tip K gave him.
We left the garage at 11:08, with the odometer reading 65,072. It took just four minutes to travel the mile to our daughter J's apartment building. I'd let her know that we were on our way, and she was waiting outside, as it had stopped raining. K gave her all the bags and luggage that we wanted to leave with her and she took it up to her apartment. When she came back down, she had her luggage with now fit in the trunk easily.
We were on the road at 11:22. It was grey, raining at times, and a rather cool 66. I almost regretted the shorts I was wearing. Our route took us past the National Mall and the White House, although I could not see the latter. We were soon on the highway.
Unfortunately, the road out to Dulles International Airport was now a toll road. At 11:58 (65,091), we hit an unmanned tollbooth. The only choices were exact change or E-Z Pass. Now, we knew that E-Z Pass was now usable in Florida, but we would have to upgrade our EPasses to EPass Extra, get a new transponder and pay more to be able to use it. We don't drive north enough to make that reasonable. The toll was $3.25 and we certainly didn't have that change. So, we drove through, figuring they'd photograph the license plate and send a bill or a ticket. It was only after we got home and I looked at my EPass statement, that I discovered that the toll got billed to my EPass after all. It would have been nice to know that then.
At 12:10 (65,102), there was another toll for $1.50. We made sure we knew how to get to the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center, before driving off to find lunch.
We got off at the nearest exit and found a lot of fast food places at 12:20 (65,110). They all had lines at the drive-thru, which seemed really odd and made them hard to get to. Then, we saw a guy go up to the McDonald's door and he couldn't get in. It soon became clear that there was no eating inside any of these. So, we looked for a short line, which turned out to be Arby's. We ordered three Classic Roast Beef Meals with curly fries, two with Coke Zero for K and me, and one with Coke for J. It came to $23.82. It was 12:41, when K pulled into a parking spot for us to eat. And, of course, it was raining.
We left at 1:10 and headed back to Udvar-Hazy, which is considered part of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. It houses the big objects that won't fit in the Mall museum. As you'll note, it is out near Dulles airport, 28 miles from the main museum, which makes it a real pain in the neck to get to from the rest of the Smithsonian on the National Mall. They've been working on getting a Metro line out there for years. Since we had an evening flight and had to get out of the hotel room anyway, we felt this was an ideal time to visit. I'd been able to get free timed-entry tickets for us not long after we booked this trip.
We arrived at 1:16 (65,114) and pulled a ticket for parking. The parking lot was not packed and we had little trouble finding a space near the entrance. It was still raining a bit, so we used umbrellas that live in my car. (Our ones for the trip were in the suitcases.) We also put on masks, of course.
The entrance is reached by walking along the Wall of Honor, which has the names of donors on pieces that look like airplane wing pieces. I was very excited by the tower, as I'd wanted to be an air traffic controller at one point, when I was young. I was incredibly disappointed inside to find out it was closed.
At the entrance, someone was waiting to scan our tickets. Inside, there was security and plastic bags for the umbrellas. After wisely visiting the restroom, we headed for the walkway that overlooked the display. It was amazing to see all those planes and other craft down there. These two pictures give just a hint of it.
This is both an air and space museum, so it wasn't long before we came across a sculpture called Challenge by John Safer, which was a tribute to the Challenger crew who blew up just months before J was born.
We spent the next few hours working our way around the displays in the hangar below. J and I pretty much stayed together, with K roaming off or staying in one spot, while we moved on. There was great signage and some truly incredible aircraft and artifacts. I took over 200 photos on the camera alone. Here, I'll share some that are highlights for me.
This is the Lockheed stealth plane SR-71A Blackbird with the shuttle Discovery lurking in the background.
They didn't have just American planes. There was a whole display on the WW II Luftwaffe and its defeat. I just like the name of this one- Heinkel He 219 Uhu (Uhu means owl in English).
Lest you think they just had military planes, here's an early passenger plane, as well as the Manta Pterodactyl Fledgling, which is an ultralight craft that flew from California to South Carolina, and an Air France SST.
I also loved the fun signs like this one:
I liked that some of the planes and such were suspended from the ceiling. It looked cool and saved the tires. Maps helped you identify those overhead.
Everyone knows that Snoopy flies a Sopwith Camel. Here, we got to see one.
They have perhaps the most famous plane of WW II, the Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
Soon, we reached the aerospace section and were greeted first by the command module from Apollo 11. Michael Collins stayed in here while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went to the surface of the moon and then all three traveled back to earth in this module called Columbia. Sadly, Collins died recently.
The prized object in this area is the Shuttle Discovery, of course. I don't think I'm biased, but Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center has a much better display. Atlantis is suspended, as if in space, with its bay doors open. The reveal of it is awesome and then you are at the level of that bay. You can go downstairs and see the underside. Discovery just sits here and seems all the smaller for it.
I just loved how the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite looked up above us. I wonder if it looks as cool in space.
Lest you think all of the exhibits are serious, I offer the next two. They had a case with Star Wars and Star Trek figurines and Astronaut Barbies. They also had the model of the Mother Ship from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which was used in filming the movie. It has all kinds of Easter eggs and jokes and we spent time searching for some of them. One we did find was R2D2!
J remembered that there was something we had to see, which was not on the giant display hangar. Rather, it was in the area where they were restoring planes and other aircraft. We went upstairs to the windows that overlook this restoration area and there it was on the end- Poe Dameron's T-70 X-Wing Starfighter from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. An x-wing is my favorite sci-fi vehicle. In fact, I even built a model of one after the first Star Wars movie came out back in the day. It was incredibly exciting to be this close to one.
After checking out the real aircraft that they were restoring, we took another look out over the display area. It really is impressive. We were glad we had finally gotten out here.
By the time we dealt with getting out of the parking lot, it was 5:00. K had read that Garage 2 was recommended for international departures. We parked in section 3B at 5:12 (65,121). My car would be in the shade at least, while we were gone. The walkway to the terminal was conveniently on this level. K handled our two large suitcases and his backpack, while I took care of my carry-on and our jackets. J took care of her own things. By the way, Dulles International Airport is so iconic that it was even on a stamp.
We put our masks back on just before we went inside. J knew where the Icelandair check-in desk was, having flown with them on our German Christmas Market trip in 2019, the last trip we all took. So, she led the way. We stopped at the restroom closest to that, so that J and I could change from light pants and shorts, respectively, to jeans for the flight.
When we got to the desk, we were asked for our passports and our COVID vaccination cards. Those cards were what was needed to be allowed into Iceland. We were checked in by 5:44 and the woman behind the counter, who was definitely an American, pointed us to the TSA Pre-check line that was nearby. Actually, there was no line. The TSA officer checking passports just asked each of us to briefly pull down our masks and none of us had to open anything for scanning. So, we were finished with security by 5:47.
J led us to the train that would take us out to the A gates. We were onboard at 5:55.
Our gate area was empty at 6:00, but it was still very early. We looked at the food sign and discovered that everything out here was closed! Good grief! There was one restaurant over in B that looked to be open for another hour. So, we went back down to the train, which we boarded at 6:05.
We found The Bracket Room at the top of the escalator. It looked rather full. We went around to the check-in stand and had to wait a while for someone to deal with us. Finally, we were led to a table hard by a supporting post. J and I both ordered the Farm-fresh Herb-roasted Chicken Sandwich with fries for $13.90. We were hoping to sleep on the plane, so we all just got water to drink. K ordered the $12.80 Southwestern Cobb Salad. The food was good and we were glad we had found it.
We were out of there at 7:03, past closing time, but a few others were still eating. At 7:08, we were back down on the train to the A gates, arriving in just 4 minutes. Our plane was outside, when we arrived, and a fair number of folks were in the waiting area. We managed to find seats near the charging stations, so that we could give our phones a bit more juice before the flight.
When we boarded, we were handed a packet that held a mask, a sealable bag and hand wipes. The mask was odd, as everyone had to have a mask on the entire time in the airport, too. At 8:10 pm, we were seated in seats 25 C, D and E, with J being the one across the aisle in C. However, the woman who had seat 26C, asked her to trade, because her family were in 25 A and B. J kindly did, although I never saw the woman say a word to her seatmates the entire time.
As I'd hoped, when we chose these seats, no one came to sit in the window seat 25F. That let K move over one and gave us a bit more space.
At 8:30, the plane pushed back and K had to chance to take some terrific sunset photos as we taxied before our 8:45 take off.
I'd been concerned, when two women, one man and I don't know how many kids took up the two rows on either side in front of us. I was right to be. The kids were really noisy and the adults talked loudly. I put in headphones to listen to music to help me sleep and noted that I'd gone 6,114 steps for 2 miles today. Maybe, that would help the sleep situation.
Regardless- we're on our way to Iceland!!
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