Lucky Day - July 2

So, we tried to go visit the Virginia Air and Space Museum first thing this morning- getting everyone up, fed, and on the way so that we could be there at 9 when it opened. The info we had was wrong and when we got there we found it didn't open until 10. A kink in the plans, but that was OK. We got back in the van and decided to go ahead and check on Brenna's missing bear blanket. We drove across the bay and when I got upstairs to the naval museum, they told me that they hadn't seen it ;( After we had finished there we had gone down to the gift shop on the first floor, so I decided to go ask down there too. The 2 gals working this morning said that yes, they had found it and they had turned it in to the info desk out front last night. Upon asking there, that precious purple scrap of fleece was pulled from a box. Brenna was very pleased to see him. We have used the 'new bear' several times at home when the other blanket can't be found anywhere at bedtime. Brenna has always accepted him without trouble and she always comments on how soft he is and loves playing the music button again. Before we left the hotel this morning we told Brenna that 'new bear' would have to stay in the van from now on- she didn't seem to have a problem with that at all. After she got 'old bear' back though, this new directive to leave him in the van didn't sit too well with her. We finally had to compromise and say that Bear would ride zipped in the diaper bag underneath the stroller- she still wasn't terribly happy about that, but finally accepted it. It was cute later in the afternoon when was poking out a bit after I changed Sarah's diaper that Brenna had to come tell me that his arm was sticking out- she was keeping a close eye on his down there LOL
So, after we picked up Bear at Nautilus, we headed a bit further east to Virginia Beach and went to the Viriginia Aquarium. The kids' favorite things there were touching the sting rays and Brenna's other favorite was the large sea turtles.



After we were done at the aquarium and had lunch, we went back to the VA Air and Space museum. They had a special exhibit on medical technologies they called Zap!- it showcased the surgical uses of lasers, gamma rays, ultrasound, etc. In the little kids area of this exhibit they had a giant Operation game for the kids to play- that was fun (and much easier than the regular table size version ;) ).
In their permanent exhbitis they showcased lots of different types of airplanes and space equipment. They had the original Apollo 12 capsule on display.
I was surprised to walk around a corner of the main floor and find myself face to face with the front end of an actual B-24 Liberator. This is the closest I've come to seeing one in person. The nose of the plane was original and they had a reconstructed back end behind it. They had a similator in the back end of the plane that took you on the Ploesti mission. It was nice to see a good display on the B-24. Too often this plane is ignored in favor of the B-17 in part because there are so few of them left.
We discovered the other lucky thing to happen today as we were driving back across the bay to go back to the Air and Space museum- traffic was backed up for miles trying to get across the bay through the tunnel. Construction of some sort had started up and was blocking 2 of the 3 lanes according to the radio traffic report. Because of our early start and getting the time the museum opened wrong we had managed to get across before they started the construction for the day. Our rearrangement of the schedule also means that we won't be trying to go down there that way again. Traffic luck was on our side once again.

After we were done in the air and space museum we had a quick dinner and took the kids to the beach for a few minutes to dip their toes in the sand and see the ocean since it is something that we can't do at home. We didn't stay long as it was getting late, but the older girls enjoyed running and playing on the sand, and getting their feet wet. Bryce just acted bored though he did play in the sand a bit, and Sarah didn't enjoy sitting in it much- maybe she was too tired after running around all day.