Tourist Tuesday: The OTHER Air and Space Museum

I need to start by saying this to anyone and everyone that ever plans to visit DC - there are more than one Smithsonian museums you can visit. Shocker, I know. You can't imagine how many tourists I hear saying that they are "going to the Smithsonian," as if there was only one to visit. If you don't want to stand out as a tourist around these parts, make sure you know which Smithsonian you are going to visit. The more you know about DC, the better you will fare against all of us locals, that's all. :)

So, last week I mentioned that when my parents were in town we took them to the other Air and Space Museum. Not only are there more than one Smithsonian museum, but there are actually two Smithsonian Air and Space museums. If you're not from the DC area you probably had no idea that there are two Air and Space Museums (you may not have even known that there was one . . .) but it is definitely worth knowing that there are two.

The first one is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall. It's the one made "famous" by a certain Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian movie starring Ben Stiller, or just famous because it's probably one of the more notable Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. This museum is located directly on the National Mall and is literally filled to the brim with air and space artifacts - from space suits to the Spirit of St. Louis plane. It's really a cool museum if you've never been there, but if you are like Chris and I and my parents, you've been there plenty of times and wanted needed to check out something new.

So, we decided to visit the other Air and Space Museum - the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. This museum is actually 45 minutes to an hour away from DC and the National Mall, and is unfortunately not metro-accessible, but if you have a car when you are visiting DC and have someone in your party who is even remotely interested in air and space flight I highly suggest you visit it. It's very cool.

The museum is actually three huge hangers - one for aircraft, one for spacecraft, and one for restoration - filled with planes, space modules, etc. When you walk in your eyes are literally flooded with aircraft, it's almost like you are blinded by planes and it's hard to even decipher what is what. See what I mean?

Of all of the planes, there were a few that definitely caught my eye. Like the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bombs in Japan.

Or the famous Concorde, the Air France plane you see behind that Boeing 707.

Then, we walked by the Restoration Hanger. I mean, how cool would it be to get to clean up and re-build these old planes? That is, if you had any mechanical experience and knew what you were doing . . . It looks cool though, right?!

Finally, we made our way to the Space Hanger. The hanger that I could not wait to get in to because of this beast. . .

Yes, it's the Discovery Space Shuttle!! How cool is that?! Seriously, this thing has been IN space.

Ok, so I might have gotten a little over-excited about the Discovery shuttle. Remember though, I'm a huge dork.

Other than that, there is a LOT of other things to see . . .

Charles Lindbergh paraphernalia.

Fabric from the Hindenburg.

A "gondola" (bottom of a blimp)

Itt's a car, it's a plane, it's a car/place!

I think we spent a couple of hours in there and never got bored. It did help that we went up in the Observation Tower that looks out over Dulles Airport and the surrounding northern Virginia area, and of course we stopped for a snack of a McFlurry and fries in the on-site McDonald's. MM mmmm fries!

A view of two of the exhibit hangers and northern VA from the Observation Tower

 And, in case you want to add a few more hours to your visit there, I suggest you check out what is showing at the museum's Airbus IMAX theater (a REAL IMAX theater). Chris and I have seen Inception and Star Trek at it, and it was ah-mazing!!

Lastly, if you plan on making the trip out there, remember to bring $15 for parking because while all of the Smithsonian museums are free to enter you do need to pay for parking at Udvar-Hazy. BUT, parking is free after 4pm and the museum closes at 5:30pm, and that might just leave you enough time to hit the hot spots! Also, the museum does provide tours if you like that kind of thing, or you can just be like us and wander around reading the plaques.

We've been to so many museums out here, and multiple times at that, so it was nice to see something not only new, but also really awesome! Everyone should have this museum on their DC to-see list, I know we'll be visiting it again!

What We've Been Up To

Has it really been over 3 weeks since my last post? So much for my goal of posting at least once a week, sorry! You might have been wondering what we've been up to since the first of May, and if not, well, I'm going to tell you anyway : )

• We finished up our spring semesters. Granted, I only took one class, and it was suuuuper easy, but still, class is class.

• My pleas to the Hand-Me-Down Dresser Gods were answered and I scored not only a really awesome dresser for our guest room, but I also scored an awesome, I mean AWESOME, old sewing cabinet for a sweet $30.

The cabinet will go perfectly with my brand-spanking new sewing machine, courtesy of Chris for my birthday.

• I finally wrapped up my beloved job (note the sarcasm) . . .

• . . . and then started training for my new one (that I mentioned way back when).

• We celebrated Chris' birthday - I made him a fancy black forest cake and "surprised" him with the KitchenAid Stand Mixer Pasta Maker attachment for his present. (Let's just say he was "surprised" a few days before his birthday when he saw the box sitting on our porch from our mailman when he got home from work before me!)

• We drove out to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware for a mini-vacation. (Remember when it ended up taking us 24 hours to drive back to Missouri for the holidays this past winter? Well, because of that detour, Chris owed me a trip for a few days!)

• We then celebrated my birthday (Chris is only 3 days older than me.) with a rainy day in Rehoboth, complete with a birthday mimosa at a sketchy diner, catching a showing of The Five-Year Engagement, and treating myself to a very fancy - at least by my terms - new wallet (thank you beach-outlet malls!).

• One of our friends, Katie, did a blog post about our Vertical Garden on her blog, Handy Housemom. You should definitely check out her blog, she posts a lot of fun projects and even great retail deals!

• Lastly, my parents came and visited last weekend for the first time since Thanksgiving 2010. Not only was it great to spend some time with them and soak up the ah-mazing sunshine, but we also visited some places that I've really wanted to see, like the huge National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center (the other Air and Space Museum, off the National Mall), the eerily beautiful Antietam National Battlefield, and the super quaint Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Below are some pictures from their visit, but I promise to write more thorough descriptions in some upcoming Tourist Tuesdays or Washington Wednesdays.

So, that's what we've been doing over the last 3 weeks.  It's amazing how much you can do in just a few short weeks, and it's amazing how refreshing a little beach trip and a family visit can be! Now that things have slowed down, it'll be back to my regularly-ish scheduled blogging. : )

Missouri for the Holidays

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Chris and I just got back this morning from a whirlwind tour of Missouri to visit our families for the holidays. During our 9-day trek, we covered 3,000 miles, stayed in three Missouri cities - St. Louis, Kansas City, and Columbia - ate waaaaay too much, spent a little too much money on after-Christmas sales, and got to spend some great time with family and friends.

Now, if you're a smart cookie you're probably thinking, "3,000 miles from DC to Missouri? That seems awfully long?" And you know what? You're right. We made a oopsie-daisy when we were leaving DC that required us to turn around not once, but twice, turning a 14-hour drive to St. Louis into a 24-hour drive. OOPS! Let's just say, if you are going somewhere cold make sure to grab a winter coat, and if you are going anywhere and rented a car in your name, don't forget your wallet and driver's license! Honestly, 24 hours in a car doesn't seem that much longer than 14.... and at least we didn't strangle each other!

Tips to those that plan on taking a long-distance car ride - 5-Hour Energy's work wonders, travel pillows will be your best friend, and watch your liquid intake because you'll definitely only want to stop when you have to!

Here are some highlights from our trip . . .

Our first stop was lunch at Bogart's in St. Louis' Soulard neighborhood. Nom, nom.

Then, we had a siblings' drink at International Tap House. (That handsome guy is my little brother!)

Chris and I sported our Holiday-best on Christmas morning.

And we enjoyed some family bowling (which reminds me that I need to find cheap bowling out here in DC!).

In Kansas City, we spent time on the Plaza shopping, eating, and enjoying the holiday atmosphere.

Oh, and I tried my first Winstead's Skyscraper shake. Yummy!

We checked out the Magic Tree, a Columbia, Missouri tradition!

And, lastly, we stopped in Newport, Kentucky to enjoy some beer and food at Hofbrauhaus. It might not be the same as the Munich Hofbrauhaus, but it was good enough.

Chris might have needed to get out of the car too . . .

 

We hope everyone has had a wonderful and relaxing holiday season so far, and has a safe night tonight on New Year's Eve!

It's a Washingtonian Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

This year, Chris and I are celebrating Thanksgiving in the complete opposite fashion that we did last year. Last year was our first year in our new house so we invited both of our families in to town to celebrate the holiday with us. It was great for everyone to see our house for the first time, to cook them a huge Thanksgiving meal, and just spend a few days enjoying everyone's company, but it was definitely completely exhausting.

Our table was set for 9. . .

My brother was anxious to eat. I just wanted to get that bottle of wine open . . .

My family and sister-in-law, Courtney, ran the Washington, DC Trot for Hunger for So Others Might Eat.

An intense game of Sorry! after dinner . . .

While we'd love to be with family again this year and repeat all of the fun we had, we couldn't make the trip back to Missouri and we didn't want to make everyone come back out here, so we decided to take the very low-key, Washingtonian-approach to Thanksgiving. We're staying here, working on house projects, catching up on some movies and TV, and going out to dinner for our Thanksgiving meal! Yes, that's right. We are going out for Thanksgiving dinner. No cooking, no mess, and no carry-out, but waiters, a restaurant, and a check at the end of the meal! It seems to me that anyone who stays in town for Thanksgiving just goes out to dinner. At least that is what I've seen from other Washingtonians I've run in to!

Chris and I will be headed to Jackson 20 in Old Town Alexandria for our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. We love taking advantage of all of the great restaurants around here, and a lot of the deals they run for things like Restaurant Week and holidays, and tomorrow is no exception. Jackson 20 is offering a three-course prix fixe meal option, that includes a turkey dinner complete with pumpkin pie! I am all game for dressing up, not cooking, not cleaning, and still getting to enjoy a big, yummy turkey meal at a steal of a price!

On top of that, Chris and I will be focusing a lot of our attention the next few days to Operation Finish Bathrooms. Yes, that's right, bathrooms plural. Not only is our guest bath still not finished, but now our Master bath is a mess. By the end of the weekend, my goal is to have them completely done and checked off my house to-do list finally. I promise to have a post about it next week. I am so looking forward to that being done!

How are you all spending your Thanksgiving? With family, friends? Out of town, in town?

We hope that where ever you are and who ever you are with that you have a great and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend!! Also, I used to work retail, so be nice to those men and women up at the crack of dawn to work so that you can shop on Black Friday!!  ; )

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Surprise trip to STL

Two weekends ago, while Chris was busy at home finishing up our basement and working on homework, I flew to St. Louis to surprise my Mom on her 50th Birthday weekend! I was only in St. Louis for something like 30 hours, but it was great to see my mom and dad, brother and sister, meet my brother's girlfriend, and also see a lot of my extended family and family friends. You see, not only was my mom celebrating her 50th birthday, but my uncle was also celebrating his 60th birthday, so my mom and uncle did a low-key joint birthday party at a bar that my parents frequent and invited pretty much everyone they knew.

Here is the fam at the birthday party . . . (My Dad decided to take a "serious" picture.)

My little brother, Will, and sister, Danielle . . .

My uncle and cousin playing together for the first time . . .

My dad with his girls . . . (minus, my mom)

The birthday kids at the end of the night! (Happy Birthday and thanks for a great party!!)

In lieu of gifts, my mom and uncle decided to ask for donations to Operation Food Search. This is all of the food they collected that night!

So that was my whirlwind StL weekend. (It was even more whirlwind because I seriously just almost missed my fight back to DC!) Lately, I've been looking forward to the weekends even more as a way to get away from the chaos that is work during the week, so being able to see my family over one weekend was a good break for me. Seeing my family, even if it was for only 30 some-odd hours, was just what I needed!

Thank you, Dad, for arranging the last-minute flight for me to come in, and thank you to all of my family for carting me around that weekend and hanging out with me!!

Versatile Blogger Award!

Well, I found out this weekend that I have been nominated for my very first blog award - the Versatile Blogger Award - by the ever-so-lovely, Megan! Let me tell you, this means soooo much! Sometimes I feel like I'm just rambling on about stuff that only I find interesting, so it's great to hear that not only do I have an interested reader out there, but that she likes my ramblings enough to nominate me!

Here are the "rules" of the Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Thank the award-giver and provide a link back to their blog.
2. Tell your readers 7 things about yourself.
3. Give the award to up to 15 recently discovered bloggers.
4. Contact those bloggers and let them in on the exciting news!

So, of course this calls for more rambling from moi! Here we go:

Thank you, thank you,  Megan, for nominating me! You should check out her blog because she does some pretty awesome Glee-caps - Glee recaps - and is a 30x30 re-mixer! (Oh, and she also just started a photography business, Megan Stoll Studios, in the S.T.L. that you should check her out at too. Pretty awesome stuff!

And, here's 7 random things about myself....

1. I am the oldest of three. As Megan mentioned, I have a younger sister, Danielle, who is pretty awesome,  and a younger brother, Will, who is pretty stellar himself. Danielle is a much better blogger than I am (you can check her out at Addicted to Television and Danielle's Other Blog) and she is my go-to person for all social media and fashion-related questions (she just helped me pick out a purse this morning). Will is a runner. He ran for his college cross country and track team and is always trying to fit in a workout. Every time he has visited us he has run a race here in DC - He totally won the SOME Turkey Trot last Thanksgiving here in DC, and will be running the DC Rock N Roll half with us this spring! The three of us didn't really get along all that great as kids, but I'm so glad that we're close now as adults and cannot wait until we can all get together again - miss you two!

The three of us being silly at a rainy Cards game!

2. I watch a lot of TV. Probably too much TV. Chris always asks what's on my "line-up" for the evening, and I'm guessing that's not a good thing. Some of my absolute favorites are So You Think You Can Dance, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, True Blood, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Games of Thrones, Friends, Project Runway, and Design Star. I'm also a fan of all of Sarah Richardson's HGTV shows, Grey's Anatomy, and some of the Bachelor/Bachelorette stuff. Oh, and my guilty pleasure is definitely some Days of Our Lives. And, I was a huge fan of Brothers & Sisters, Greek, and, of course, LOST before they all ended/got canceled.Ok, so I know I just listed a lot of shows, but it really feels like I missed some??... Although, to my credit, I do read and workout too, on top of doing "home" stuff and going out occasionally, so a little TV is okay, right?

3. When I was younger I had a strange obsession with Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the Little House on the Prairie series. Not only have I read her books countless times, but I would watch the TV series regularly (I even own the VHS set of one season), and have even visited her final home in Mansfield, Missouri, Rocky Ridge Farm. To top it off, for Christmas two years ago, Chris got me the most spectacular gift ever: tickets to see Little House on the Prairie, The Musical! Even though Melissa Gilbert didn't play Ma that night, it was ah-mazing. I credit Wilder for developing my passion for history and it is a secret wish of mine to travel around the Midwest visiting all of her "homes." Now, if I could only find a way to travel back in time....

4. I used to be (knock on wood) somewhat accident prone. Or, as my dad put it, "I liked to play (too) hard." For example, I have 2 screws in my foot and a bone floating in my butt cheek. Attractive right? Long story short, I pulled part of my hamstring from my pelvis - and it took some bone with it - hence the bone "floating" in my booty and I also broke my foot which needed two screws put in to heal. If I've learned anything from all of my broken bones and pulled muscles it is that crutches suck. Sure, they might be a good workout for your "good" leg (I became a pro at hopping around) and a great workout for your triceps, but they SUCK. Be safe out there (and knock on wood)!

 5. For those of you that don't know, Chris and I met in Greece and got in engaged in Greece. We met on a travel abroad summer trip through our undergraduate college and then went back there again when we graduated, where Chris decided to propose along the way... I think we have a pretty cute little love story, no? Either way, Greece should be on everyone's travel lists because it is seriously the best place ever (I'm not biased or anything). Beautiful landscapes, yummy food, and amazing history. I absolutely love it so if you are planning to go there and want travel tips feel free to ask me, but be prepared for some major ramblings!

One of my own photos of Oia, Santorini, Greece. Swoon.

6. As you might be able to tell from some of my posts, I really love to decorate and really love learning about interior design (my Google Reader is full of design bloggers and hello, HGTV!). Ever since I got my own room when I was 13 (?) I've had the itch to decorate. Back then, that meant that I spray painted my bed with textured paint akin to a popcorn ceiling, painted each wall of my room its own pastel color, and even painted my closet light blue, complete with clouds. Classy stuff, right? If only I had a picture! Now that I have my own home, I am absolutely loving the freedom to decorate however I want, although, I hope that my aesthetics have improved even slightly since that first bedroom!

7. Although I really really love living in DC 95% of the time, the 5% of the time that I miss living back in Missouri is when I think about my family and when I think about all of the great St. Louis food. Sure, DC has a great food scene, but when I want a simple sandwich there is no P'sghetti's or Mom's Deli to swing by. Or, when I want something really bad, I can't drive to a White Castle's or Imo's. And, when I just want a super delicious and easy finger food, I can't go out and buy some toasted ravs. I was hoping I would find food in DC that would curb my cravings for my St. Louis food, but I haven't found anything yet and I'm starting to think those places are irreplaceable...sigh. Anyone want to mail me some toasted ravs or Imo's?!?

My mouth is seriously watering just looking at this. Yummmmmy!

And, last but definitely not least, here are two recently discovered fellow bloggers that I would like to bestow this award on as well:

Lacey from A Little Bit of Lovely. I had the privilege to meet Lacey during our unfortunate trip back to MO earlier this summer and could not help but to stalk her via the blog-o-sphere when we returned. Her insightful and funny thoughts put a smile on my face!

Sara from Running from the Law. I stumbled upon Running from the Law when Sara blogged about her map wall,which I instantly fell in love with. Her design aesthetic is inspiration for my own home-making and her pups are too too cute! While I do not personally know Sara, I love her blog and I'm so glad I found it. Plus, she is from St. Louis which gives her mad points in my book!