Day 32, October 24, 2023
Today was our day trip to Washington DC which is the capital of the United States of America. Washington was a 45 minute train ride from Baltimore. We arrived at the beautiful Union Station and since it was a lovely autumn morning, we walked from Union Station to the National Air and Space Museum. On the way to the museum, we walked past the US Capitol building (performs the same function as the Houses of Parliament in Australia), and opposite was the Washington Monument.
Union Station inner hall Washington DC
We had a ticket to enter the National Air and Space Museum at 10am, and as soon as we walked in, we encountered the first of Katherine’s must see objects- the filming model of the starship Enterprise- NCC-1701!
Here is what the model looked like while it was in the conservation lab being restored
We then started to explore the museum- only half of it is open as the other half is currently being rebuilt! We saw a huge display space with real planes hanging from the roof, and a huge 747 that had been cut in thirds attached to the wall! In the first gallery, we saw the plane that made the first flight- Orville and Wilbur Wright’s Flyer, and when we moved upstairs, there was a real screen used X-Wing from Star Wars: Force Awakens!
The most exciting space was the Destination Moon Gallery full of objects from the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space missions!
We saw the special capsule that was built to hold a chimpanzee to prove living beings could survive in space, Freedom 7 which took the first American Man Alan Shepard into space, but the real highlights were the Apollo exhibits including the Columbia Command module from Apollo 11, the space suit Neil Armstrong wore when he took the first step on the Moon. What was really surprising were the remaining pieces of the F1 engine from Apollo 11 that had been collected from the ocean floor!
Mercury Primate Capsule
After the National Air and Space museum, Katherine and I travelled to the University of Maryland to visit the Jim Henson Memorial Statue and Garden. Jim Henson is a major influence on Katherine’s love of puppetry, and Katherine has visited the memorial benches to Jim Henson in New York and London.
Dedication plaque
It was a wonderful day trip!
Georgina Monster