This weekend Isaac and I headed to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We were pretty much there against our will. Our mission was to complete a homework assignment. He argued that he didn’t think it was fair that the teachers were making him spend his free time this way. I dared not admit I agreed with him. It would have been easier to do the research online or at the library. He had to research the early years of the space program and “his” planet, Neptune, the eighth from the sun. I sat on the sidelines while he wrote away. He liked that Sputnik was described as the size of a basketball and that dogs were the first animals in space. He also reminded me, more than once, that Uranus is the verbal whoopie cushion of the solar system.
Once the most visited museum in the world, attendance has dropped at Air and Space. I’m not sure why. It still floats my boat. Here's an AP story, from last week, explaining the dip in visitors. If we’d gone on our own, with no pressure to perform, I’m sure we would have enjoyed the place.
By coincidence, I read an item in HotelChatter this morning about Richard Branson’s plans to open a space hotel that will orbit the moon. Here’s what Branson projects: “We believe we can programme a two-man spaceship, with a bubble on the top, so we can send you off from the hotel, programme you to be a few hundred feet above the Moon, and you will skim the Moon's surface before going back into the hotel. We hope that this will happen in my lifetime.” This just seems like something from Jules Verne, despite the technology being there and all.
In another coincidence – imagine! -- I found a sweeps for a parent-child Space Camp at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Which camp depends on the child’s age. For details, click on the OFFICIAL RULES.
To enter, click HERE. You can enter once daily through April 6.
For good measure, here’s an adult-themed sweeps: two nights at The Phoenician, in Scottsdale. This closes on Wednesday, February 28. To enter, click HERE. Note: It does not include airfare.
