Heading Northeasterly – Day 3

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Did you miss something?  Here’s the earlier blog.

On Saturday, 10/24, I woke up early again (why do I even bother to say I woke up early?  That’s not surprising.  How about I report if I actually sleep in late?  Yes, that’s the plan from this point on) and accompanied Toni to Juliet’s ballet lesson.  I have to admit that I was hoping to be able to sit outside and watch the proceedings (as I can only imagine they are AMAZING) through a window; instead, however, the parents/godparents of the tiny ballerinas sat in the hallway farther away from the rooms and couldn’t see inside.  While this was somewhat disappointing for me, I’m sure it was much better for everyone else involved.


The itty bitty ballerina, ready to dance.

While Toni situated Juliet in class, I headed out on a caffeine run, around the corner to Starbucks.  When I left the shop, tea in hand, I heard barking and turned around to see this:


In case you can’t tell, that’s a full sized Doberman with his head out the sunroof of the car.  He’d bark when someone new came out of Starbucks, realize they weren’t going to pet him, then stop barking and rest his head on the roof of the car.  This cycle repeated itself with the arrival of each new person.  Life’s pretty exciting if you’re a Doberman, apparently.

Anywhoo, after 45 minutes, Juliet was done and happily reported that she earned double hand stamps for her good performance in class.  Hooray!


Double hand stamps for the win!
Right after Juliet showed me her hand stamps,

another little ballerina ran over to show me hers as well.
I complimented both of them on their good work.


We headed back home to change and rest a bit, and then we all piled into the car and drove out toward Dulles Airport, to the Udvar-Hazy Center, part of the Smithsonian’s Air and Space Museum.  I visited Udvar-Hazy on my last trip to see Toni, but Chris’ hadn’t seen it yet, and it had the added bonus of having a Halloween celebration during the day as well.  Party for everybody!


Udvar-Hazy, with the observation tower shown to the right

Udvar-Hazy is crammed full of cool things to see, including tons of retired aircraft, including planes, balloons, and even the space shuttle Endeavor, always my favorite thing to check out.




Including a stealth bomber!
With super fancy lighting!

Of course, Chris immediately found the display of engines and spent an inordinately large amount of time wandering through them, reading every word:


Born to be an engineer, that one

Because it was Halloween party day, most of the kiddos and many adults came in costume, including our own little fairy:


The fairy and her proud Mama

The kiddos could trick or treat from table to table, there were crafts set up, and there were also a large number of folks dressed up at Star Wars characters for photo opportunities around the space.


This is not the droid you’re looking for…


…that’s a bit better…


…but this is best of all!

There were tons of droids scampering around the place, all built by hand by talented robotics folks, and they were awesome to behold.  The DC area Ghostbusters were also there, and they looked great, too.  It was pretty much a big old nerd party, and we fit right in.


Walking in with Mom and Dad

After a quick trip up the observation tower for Chris and I, we were all ready to head back home and get ready for dinner at Murali, a local Italian restaurant.  Although there was a snafu with Robert’s order (no, we swear he didn’t order the gnocchi – for the third time), overall, everything was good and fresh, and Chris felt fully carbo-loaded for the run tomorrow. 

Back at the house, Chris finished packing up his race gear, including a last minute addition, due to the forecast of slight rain on race day.


Time for the garbage bag!
He eventually cut arm holes as well.

We headed to bed early, as we knew the alarm would be going off before we knew it, and it would be race day…

Coming up next – race day for Chris!  Spectation spectacular for Amy!

Later!


Amy

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