Air Force Museum

We started the day off with Brandon’s swim lesson and then headed out to meet some friends to go to the Air Force museum. Personally I was so excited about going to this museum. I remember going to the Wright Patt Air Force Museum when I was younger. It was always cool to see all the different planes and the space vehicles. So I have been thinking of taking the kids to this museum for a while and it just hadn’t happened, so I’m really glad that my friend planned it out.
I had a blast showing the kids the different airplanes and talking about all the different ages of plane evolution. Natalia was so excited by all the airplanes that she couldn’t stop saying “plane, plane, plane.” My favorites are the planes with painted on fierceness. You just can’t go wrong flying an airplane with sharp teeth and looking ferocious. But we also saw a Wright flyer and the SR71 – which are also cool. I remember going to an airshow when my family lived in CA and Dad was so excited because the SR71 was there. It was the first time I had ever heard of it. Did you know that it can go from NY to London in under 2 hrs? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could travel that fast any time we had to go someplace? Just think we could go from one state to another in 10 min or so. It would make travel so much better!

Look at this cute little plane. If you find a nice volunteer they will take it out and you can take pictures with your little kids in it.

After looking at most of the planes we found an activity room and I was in heaven! There were flight simulators, a cockpit, computer games, uniforms to try on, and of course the best part of all, physics experiments to play with. There was a turn table that you could sit on and then you pull in a pair of weights and it makes you spin faster. Or you can stand on the turn table and hold a bike tire that is spinning in front of you. As you change the plane of the tire it makes you turn. I tried to get the tire experiment to work at home so that I could do it with Brandon’s school class but it didn’t work with an office chair; I guess you need to have a better turning surface. Anyways, it was really cool to show Brandon what I was trying to do.

There was also a chatter ring. For all of you that haven’t ever seen one before, it is a large ring with 5 or so small colored rings on it. You start the smaller rings spinning first and then you rotate the large ring with your hands to keep the smaller rings spinning. It isn’t really hard but it is kind of fun and it looks cool. It is a bit difficult to pass it from one person to another. I was totally jazzed that I was able to pass it off to Brandon and he was able to keep it going. Way to go Brandon!