Skydiving

July has been pretty busy. I finished my job at Tesco and got to spend some time at home in between. The weather wasn't as hoped but we managed to head out to the river and for lunch and a few walks. One of the main reasons for going home was Dad's 70th birthday. And instead of doing something normal, he wanted to go skydiving. So we all went.

Signing in.

Mom was not going to go up in a plane, let alone jump out of one! So jumping, it was myself, my dad, my sister, brother-in-law and one of dad's friends who was also 70th year. We were split in runs, so Dad and I went first, Craig and Uncle Jim second, and Kerry was on the third flight. We all decided to have the video packages (who knew if we were going to do this again?).

On the way up.

Dad jumped first

He's off.

Then my turn.

It was an experience.

Oddly I wasn't nervous jumping (my fitbit says my heart rate got up to a massive 90 bpm) - maybe because I was firmly attached to someone who knew what they were doing. We did free-fall for about 45 seconds and were falling at about 120 mph, hence the wonderful face lift photos. :)

When he pulled the shoot, that hurt. I had straps around the top of my legs, my shoulders and across the chest, and damn the legs straps hurt. It was very pretty coming down but I totally screwed the landing. You are supposed to lift your legs up and land on your butt. But thanks to the straps my legs were numb and didn't go up. So I landed on my knees. I had some impressive bruises for the next few weeks. Though not as bad as my brother-in-law who go a huge bruise on his thigh from the straps.

Dad was glad he did it, but like me, not over-keen on doing it again.

After the skydiving, we all went back to Kerry and Craig's house for dinner. She had done some decorating and got a cake for dad. He was very happy with it all.

Happy with the giant balloons.

The awesome cake.

Dad was very happy with his cake and apparently it was a very good red velvet. He had a great time. So did I, though it took quite some time to get over the bruises and aches. 

Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

When we got to the Reston office on the Monday morning, there was no one there we were supposed to meet. Luckily a random person in the office took pity on us and let us in and took us for lunch (there are very few places to eat without driving). 

So we left early and when to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy centre, near Dulles airport, which is another part of the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian. And it was worth it. The place is huge and full of planes etc. And they have a real shuttle, the Discovery. (I had a complete geek out.)

Shuttle!

So many planes. 

It was difficult to believe that some of the planes and helicopters actually flew. They seemed a little flimsy.

Tiny.

But the best bit was the shuttle. We saw it fro many different angles working our way through until we got the space part.

Bud stunt place.

They seem have forgotten the tail

I think you put the plane on

tiny helicopter.

A flying military platform (it wasn't very successful).

Helicopter - well, blades and a seat.

Plane to you detect and use as a car. I want one.

Literally called Tiny.

Balloon capsule

Demi's favourite - The black bird. 

Blackbird, the stealth plane

Plane used to defend atPearl Harbour

Cute.

One of the galleries is devoted to space with the shuttle (yes I took more photos) and other space bits.

Discovery

Apollo 11 mock-up

Rocket.

Quarantine module for the astronauts after returning from the moon

Our last stop, before the gift shop, was to go up the tower and get a view of the airport. Which was fine, but we have a closer better view from out office windows at Heathrow.

That night, we went out to an amazing restaurant for dinner. It was mainly a winery so all the meals were created to pair perfectly with a wine. It was good and we had more than enough to take home left overs for the next night.

Washington DC

On our free Sunday in Virginia, we went in to Washington D.C for a look around. Despite living in VA for 2.5 yrs I had never been into DC centre. We started at the Lincoln Memorial at the west end of the Mall.

Lincoln Memorial

The reflecting pool and Washington monument

Heading in

Lincoln

From inside

ON the spot where Martin Luther King did his famous speech.

We headed along the reflecting pool towards the monument past the Vietnam memorial. 

Vietnam memorial

At the WWII memorial

There is usually a fountain here in the summer

At the Washington Monument 

There are a lot of memorials around that area so we went down the other side of the pool to the Martin Luther King monument, which is nearer the bay and very peaceful. We were pretty much the only people there sadly.

Martin Luther King's view

We both decided we did not want to go near the White House while a certain someone is there, so we took a photo from a distance and moved on.

White House from a distance

African American Museum

We wanted to go the the African American History museum but didn't realise it was one of the few you needed to pre-order tickets for. So they turned us away. We went to the Early American History instead.

Bat Mobile

Julie Child's kitchen

They have a room containing some of the dresses of the first ladies. Some were nice, others ... I am glad fashions have changed.

Michelle Obama's dress for the inauguration.

Protests.

I have been wanting to go to the Smithsonian for ages and was so happy to be able to see some of the museums. (The Early American history is one of them. All of the museum we saw that day were part of the Smithsonian group.)

Smithsonian castle.

Heading towards the Capitol building.

We did have a wondered around a sculpture park but neither of us were too keen on art. Still we can say we did it. I can recognise one sculptor, Henry Moore, who I studied for my art GCSE.

A Henry Moore

created in strips.

Bunch of depressing guys.

Men!

I was super excited to go to the Air and Space Museum. It was pretty cool, but there were a load of galleries which were shut which was disappointing.

Apollo landin module

One of the first Wright brothers planes.

Looking down on Apollo

Mock up on Hubble

The Enterprise. (I am such a geek and proud!)

Due to the number of closed galleries, we didn't spend too long in the Air and Space (we went to the larger museum the next day so I wasn't too disappointed) and we took in one last museum, the Native American Museum.

We took a break in the cafe before going round the museum - our feet hurt! I got an iced tea but forgot to ask for an unsweetened. One bottle was 90% of my daily sugars. It made my teeth hurt.  

I think this one was my favourite museum of the day. 

Jacket.

Peace belt.

One of the rooms was devoted to how America has coopted the Native culture and used it for promoting things etc. Some made me wince. Some weren't too bad I guess.

Indian barbie.

Hanker-Chiefs. 

Our last stop (we sort of stumbled there on aching feet) was the Capitol building. We only took a photos from the outside before getting an Uber back to the hotel

That night we were both so knackered we ordered take-away and I got to get some time with the USA Netflix. :)