The Air and Space Museum pictures!

Yes people, we were the second country on Earth to stuff a guy in a really heavy, hot spacesuit and launch him into orbit in a tin can!

A shot of the lunar lander.  Trust me, it's MUCH BIGGER in real life.

A shot of the planes suspended above the main lobby you walk into.

A shot of the cockpit of the fighter jet.

Proof that pretty much everyone beat the U.S. to the idea of fighter jets...

One (or THE, I don't remember) of the first fighter planes.

Different kinds of plane engines...hard to believe a two-stroke was what powered the Wright plane!  They're so tiny, they're freaking cute!

A sign explaining that the garden grounds around the Castle are actually a roof garden for a museum that exists underneath the Castle...sweet!

The Smithsonian Castle.  It's impressive inside, too!

 This definately isn't rural Colorado!  Taken off the Promenade, looking towards 8th Avenue.

I have many more pictures of the Air and Space museum, and I will be the first to admit that I got tired halfway through the museum.  So the pics you see are from the FIRST FLOOR.  The second floor has many more exhibits, and I wished I'd spent more time watching the clips from the 20's and 30's about the first plane flights...those were truly interesting because they showcase the fact that pilots, once upon a time were superheroes in the minds of the American public.  I've got to go another day and do the second floor of the museum...and then I've got my pick of 16 other museums along the National Mall.

I imagine it'll take me some years to see everything, if I'm still out here. But it sure is educational...and awe-inspiring the things humans have been able to accomplish in the past 150 years.