Aviation Museum

Today's adventure began with another hookup with a long-lost friend, once again thanks to Facebook. Stephanie is a friend from high school, who I completely lost touch with until recently, but as she's still in the DC area we managed to meet up, which was great (we did not, however, manage to take a photo of the two of us together, of course!). We went first to Noodles & Co for lunch (here's Sarah with a blue drink - yeah, I know, food just isn't blue!) which was great fun - a neat concept for a restaurant and the food was yummy and the service very quick, which is great when you have hungry kids with you.



We then took a trip to the College Park Aviation Museum, which is a little gem of a museum in College Park (surprise, surprise) next to the airfield. I've been to the airfield before - I think I even once went on a date in high school where we went and watched the planes take off and land, though I could be confusing that memory (I'm sure I did this; I'm sure it was with a guy; I'm not sure it was a date, though, it might have just been hanging out with a friend...) - but I'd never been to the museum (ok, just checked and it only opened in 1998, which explains why!). Anyway, it's great. It's one of those museums you could go to with husband (mine wasn't there, as it happens), kids AND a girlfriend - the husband could read every word on the history bits without you dying of boredom (because it's fairly small), the kids could play with all the interactive stuff, dressing up and activities (because it's very child friendly) and you could have a nice chat with your girlfriend at the same time (because the kids can't really get into too much trouble while you are chatting...) And very reasonably priced as well!

Plus, the building is lovely, like a hangar, only with a great big glass front where, in principal, you can watch the little planes take off and land - though there weren't any doing that while we were there.











Upstairs, the kids were able to make their own paper airplanes then use this turbo launcher to try to hit the bull's eye - that was great fun. Definitely the type of museum I wish I'd had local to me when I was home with small kids... If you are in the College Park, MD area, do check it out!