National Air Force Museum

From the beginnings of flight to current uses, this museum is amazing!

It starts with the Wright brothers

And their studies with wind tunnels and finally getting the military to understand the use of their invention. 

This museum has THE plane that dropped the bomb on Nagasaki - which wasn't actually the initial chosen target. (The first choice target, Kokura, was not able to be used because the pilot was required to have a visual of the location and it was too cloudy, so he proceeded to the 2nd option, Nagasaki.)

Next to the plane is a fat man bomb.

And nearby is a demilitarized Little Boy that was an active weapon in 1945.

Throughout the museum, we were pleased to recognize and know the stories behind what we saw. 

From the atomic bombs from Los Alamos. 

To the Tuskeegee airmen.

To the WASPs who served (that we've read about in a biography of missionary Betty Greene).

To the Doolittle Raiders (that we've read about in a biography of missionary to Japan, Jacob Deshazer). 

Scott got to attempt to connect to the Hubble telescope.

We revisited the Vietnam war, here known as the Southeast Asia war.

We saw a variety of minute man missiles (among others).

New additions to this museum include a model of a shuttle with flight simulators.

And the previous 4 Air Force one planes, which you can walk through!

We could have spent 2-3 days at this museum, and more of we didn't already know the stories behind much of what we saw. We were bummed to only give it one afternoon. This is another place we'd love to revisit someday. 

More Columbus and another Williams family

Since Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy this park name is fun.

After the Capitol, we explored a little, and then got some lunch.

This spaghetti warehouse was just like the spaghetti factory back home. They even had a trolley car inside. 

While we were eating, grandpa texted us that we were right next to Grubb Street. This has been one of the interesting uses of technology while we are on our trip. Scott's parents and Scott and I all share our locations with each other. So we can see where they are (all over the world) and they can see where we are. At the beginning of the trip, their (what I lovingly call) "stalking us" was a little disconcerting, but it has turned out to be really fun. Mom would text, "I see you're at the Hoover dam right now." And then she would ask us questions or prompt us to go look at something that she had seen when she had been there before. 

So today, grandpa's text prompted us to go take this picture.

Grandma found this one up the street where the RV couldn't go. 

Toward the end of the day, grandma headed to West Virginia to see if she could find some sites where her grandparents first lived. And we headed to meet some friends from our past life. 

Scott & Frances Williams lived in SoCal many years ago. We had a blast catching up with them and sharing stories of life since we last saw each other over 10 years ago!

We were going it try a new Ohio place to eat, but their dining room was closed for renovations. The Five Guys across the street worked out great and we were thankful to spend an evening together. 

Camping on the West Virginia border was eventful as there was a crazy storm going on outside. It kept us up most of the night. I was wondering how people lived with such feelings of peril as I felt that night, but in the morning, I found out that storms that bad only happen once or twice a year. Guess we're just lucky! (:

Columbus, OH - Capitol #44

The Ohio Capitol has many unique features that we had not seen other places. 

This map of the counties is inlaid in the floor and is the starting location of an hour long tour. 

At this point, we were underground. 

They have a small museum here primarily to teach youth about government. 

Ohio has a full time legislature. 

Upstairs we headed into the senate chamber. Senators can serve 2 consecutive 4-yr terms then if they serve elsewhere or take time off, they can come back as there is no lifetime limit to serving. (In fact, the current president of the senate has formerly served in both houses.)

33 senators meet here and, uniquely, the gallery (where the public watches from) is on the same level as the senators themselves. 

99 representatives meet here and they can also serve for 8 years (in four 2-yr terms) before having to take a break and then they are able to return as well. The house gallery was up a level, as we've found in most other capitols. 

On this special day 152 years ago, President Lincoln's body passed through here on its way to be buried. And today, a soldier stands at attention accompanying the casket on display in the rotunda as period-dressed onlookers mourn. 

In a separate building connected by an atrium, senators have their offices. This was originally built to house the Supreme Court. 

The state seal in stained glass. 

Outside, Lincoln-period costumes and cannons were all over the front lawn. 

Creation Museum

We were so excited for the opportunity to visit the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky. 

We had planned to start our visit inside, but several (read: 10+) bus loads of senior tours had just been dropped off, so after a half-hour attempt to explore inside, we decided to go outside first and do the inside later. 

There were fun things to do outside. 

Spot the dinosaur on the garden. 

Back inside, we started with the standard 7 C's that are foundational to Answers in Genesis' discipleship plan. 

They start with recognizing that people have different worldviews. 

And show how that impacts the way you see different parts of creation. 

The Bible is the ultimate authority in everything. 

This scene is straight out of Inherit the Wind - a movie we read about and watch in Challenge B. 

The Garden of Eden was perfect. 

Then sin enters the world and the flood comes. 

Noah...

Addressing the geology of the Grand Canyon in light of the flood. We were just talking about this while we were there so this information is so timely to confirm and enhance what we were talking about. 

Sy still just loves dinosaurs. 

The insect exhibit didn't allow photography inside but there were HUGE beetles and more. (These butterflies were outside the exhibit.)

Back outside...

A Zorse and Zonkey (both zebra mixes) were in the petting zoo area that showed the breeding of similar "kinds". 

The goats could only be fed from outside the fence, so they were always facing out. 

We were so blessed by our trip here. Though much of the information presented was new to us, we were excited to find that much of it was not new! Rather it was confirming and reinforcing things we've already learned.

Overall, the museum was well done. In some ways, we've been spoiled with great museums and aquariums and zoos in SoCal so that the exhibits didn't stand out as much as it would have if we'd not had those experiences. (They were similar in quality.) If we lived nearby with young children, this would be such a great place to have annual passes to! We always had zoo or aquarium passes, but this place is so great because it gives the Creator all the credit.