8/25/15 - Clinton, MD

Jim wanted to go to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum out by Dulles airport today.  So we headed out there.  On the way we stopped back by Wolf Trap for the Performing Arts National Site.  A few days ago when we went by there the Beach Boys were performing and we couldn’t get near it.  Today they are setting up for Santana to perform tonight.  This venue is like our Miller Outdoor Theatre but it has an upper section with seats also.  The hill is a little smaller than ours.  

The Air & Space museum was stuffed with historic aircraft including the Enola Gay B-29 that dropped the A-bomb on Hiroshima and the space shuttle Discovery.  They also had a Lockheed SR-71 stealth reconnaissance aircraft, the world's fastest manned air breathing aircraft.  Jim was surprised to see a Mighty Mouse missile there.  When he was in college he worked a couple of summers at an army ammunition plant in Kansas making propellant for these missiles. 

Then we went to the National Firearms Museum at the NRA headquarters in Fairfax, VA.  They have an amazing collection of weapons there, including beautifully engraved pistols and shotguns.  They also had an exhibit of weapons used in Hollywood movies, and a "vampire pistol" which was in a coffin shaped case and included silver bullets, a vial of holy water, a mirror, and a small stake.