Washington D.C. is chock full of fascinating things to see and there’s a surprise around nearly every corner.

We rolled into town Friday afternoon and made our first stop the Steven F. Udvar – Hazy Center. That’s a long name for a giant museum filled with air and space exhibits. Here you’ll find a Concord, a Lockheed Blackbird and all sorts of other aircraft. For all you Star Wars fans out there, they have an X-wing Starfighter which is undergoing some restoration.

You’ll also find the space shuttle Discovery.

It was the third Space Shuttle orbiter to fly in space and it flew 39 Earth orbital missions from 1984 to 2012. This was the space shuttle of much of my life.

It’s kind of a big deal and I got to stand in front of it with my nerdy “Mom and Dad I’m ok sign” and mug for the camera from beneath a mask.

It’s massive and far larger than I expected. It’s beautiful in its own way too. It just looks like an enormous plane but is capable of so much more. If those wings could talk!

And so began my whirlwind tour of our nation’s Capitol. While this beginning was nine kinds of fabulous, it’s just where the fun began. That night, we checked into our hotel and hit Chinatown for dinner and a walk.

Check back tomorrow for more of the fun! Read more about visiting this Snithsonian museum and it’s sister the National Air and Space Museum by clicking this link.