Udvar Hazy Air & Space Museum
Chantilly, Virginia
Finds: 106
Plants: 4
Attempts: 11
Fortunately, I sometimes browse through websites of local ________ in order to get an idea of some activities that may be going on. So it happened that I looked on the Smithsonian's website and found a family fun day at the Udvar Hazy Air & Space Museum. Get to see planes, meet pilots, and do activities.
Well, the day started out as usual. It took about 4 times longer than it should have to get the kids out the door. We were planning to have a picnic there just to get there in time. Of course, that was a bad idea as Benjamin was starving and that just put him in a bad mood before we even left the house. We got there and half-heartedly shovelled food into our mouths in preparation for going out to see the planes. We finally got to the line with about 45 minutes left.
We did get to go outside and the biggest plane there (an C-19?) was parked right in the middle. So of course that is where everyone wants to go. And apparently so did everyone else at the museum, because there was a huge line to get to go up to the cockpit. It was about 90 degrees outside and of course there is no air inside this plane. Benjamin lasted about 5 minutes and then we took off looking at, of all things, fire trucks. We checked out some helicoptors as well, and then William was done waiting in line as well. We checked out little cessna-type planes, and gliders, and hang gliders. Then it got too hot so we headed back inside.
Once inside we ended up inside the hangar housing the Enterprise space shuttle. Aha! The letterbox must be in this room somewhere! William had quick eyes and spotted the satellites that were listed in the clue. We raced up the stairs and oriented ourselves to how the clue was written. We found the rail, and the wall, and the space where the letterbox obviously had been hidden, but was not. We looked over, under, stuck our hands and fingers into all crevices and even checked the opposite side, but to no avail. It was not there. (Attempt #11). Once home, when we went to log our attempt, we saw someone else had attempted it the same day. It is apparently gone.
