Travel

1. Arlington, Tomb of the Unknowns (make sure you're there for the changing of the guard), Iwo Jima/USMC Memorial, JFK's tomb/Eternal Flame.

2. Holocaust museum - IIRC, this requires reservations (even pre-COVID), unless you are a veteran.

3. National Mall - Washington Monument, WWII memorial, Vietnam memorial, Lincoln memorial, Korean War memorial.

4. MLK, FDR, and Jefferson memorials.

5.Take an Uber/Lyft to Mount Vernon

6. Air & Space Museum, American History Museum, National Archives.

7. Capitol tour - as someone else mentioned, if they're even conducting tours any more after what happened on 1/6. Contact your representative as soon as you know what dates you'll be there, and they may be able to arrange a personal tour or a meeting with your representative.

For air and space check out the new Udvar-Hazy one. Really cool and you can check out a faux Air Control tower that is very close to Dulles. They have a live feed of pilots and tower controllers talk and you can (depending on the wind) get a great view of planes coming in for landing.

Not to mention they have an SR-71 blackbird, which is probably the coolest plane in the world. They also have an old Shuttle (Discovery?)

Thanks for the tip! I didn't realize that there was this museum as well. Looking at the website they have some very nice exhibits of aviation history as well. I've seen an SR-71 at Hill Aerospace Museum in Ogden, Utah which was very cool to see up close. My other favorite there was the A-10...the gun on that this is soo cool! Admittedly though, I want to see the Spirit of St. Louis, Glamorous Glennis, and Friendship 7. Though I would like to the Wright Flyer in Udvar as well.

3. The Vietnam, Korean and Lincoln memorials are all stunning and beautifully designed. I have to say though I’ve never seen a more atrocious design then the WWII memorial! Design by committee with just about everything but the freakin kitchen sink added in. There’s no dignity at all. The intent was noble, the end result is terrible. JMHO, but they botched the idea big time.

The Enola Gay is also at Udvar-Hazy.

Funny story, near the EG is a Piper Cub exactly like on my uncle has. I took a picture with the Cub and situated the camera so the EG was also in the pic, texted to my uncle (who is a big history buff) and said really cool plane here, not sure what that silver one is....

We went for a week in 2010. When the week was up we realized we had just scratched the surface so we went for another week in 2011. Where to start with highlights?

1. We contacted our Congressman who lined up a Capitol and White House Tour. Those were great.

2. The Metro is super easy to navigate.

3. Arlington National Cemetery is a must. And we walked up to the Robert E. Lee house that overlooks the cemetery. Also interesting. And at the bottom of the hill is the US Marines (Iwo Jima) Memorial.

4. We took a night tour called Monuments by Moonlight that I've recommended to many people. The Korean Memorial will give you goosebumps at night.

5. Toured Ford's Theatre.

6. Took a Gray Line guided bus tour to Gettysburg. This was an all day trip but worth every minute.

7. Of the Smithsonian, our favorites were Natural History and Air and Space and Udvar Hazy.

8. One memorial you don't hear much about but we really liked was the FDR. There is a section for each of his terms.

9. Met up with a friend who drove us down to Mount Vernon which is also very worthwhile.

You can also take the Metro to Alexandria, then do a dedicated river cruise to Mount Vernon. It’s a nice way to really see the river and the approach to the home. Since MV used the river for goods it tied in really nicely, plus just seeing the sites along the way was nice.

If you go to the Korean War Memoria be sure to approach the platoon (squad??) from the rear. It's quite haunting IMHO, especially at dusk.

See #4 above.

Snapped this when I was in D.C. and it was snowing. Always loved this photo....Chilling

Nice pic. I remember telling my wife that before seeing this Memorial I had not thought it possible for statues to be too realistic.

I flew into DC the day they brought the shuttle to the museum. We had to circle for a while because the shuttle made a couple of photo opp passes over the Capital Mall. They weren’t lettering any flight land during the event.

After I landed I went straight to the Air and Space Museum and people were gushing about the experience. They showed video on loop on one of the big TVs in the museum.

I flew out of Dulles on the return flight a few days later and our gate faced the shuttle as it still sat atop the 747. We taxied right next to the shuttle and thankfully my seat was on the right side of the plane for a view.

Cool work trip.

I also flew into Newark and circled as Air Force One landed ahead of our flight. We just happed to have the gate across from the area they parked AFO. It was cool to see it close up. It was even cooler to see the weird small black jet that pulled up next to it as we waited the deboard. The wings even folded so I assume it was a navy jet.

On the way out of the airport I was stuck in a traffic jam as the presidents motorcade returned to the airport (short speech). Just as the motorcade goes by 3 Ospreys took off from just behind a fence by my car and nearly made me poop my pants.

The Mall at night can be incredible, too. Took this from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

[attachment=0]Cap-WaMo-Rotated.jpg[/attachment]

The Winston Churchill statue at the British Embassy is neat too, one foot on British soil, one on the US (his mother was American).

I have 40 days to decide if I will postpone my Hawaii trip the hotel I am staying at is telling masks required at all times including being at the pool. And also all beaches require masks ?

Does Hawaii still have a 14 day quarantine requirement upon arrival?

If you truly want to have a “normal” experience imho you would be best served to postpone. We canceled a trip to Kauai a year ago and I won’t even think about trying to reschedule until life is back to normal, and safe.

No longer 14 day quarantine, if I pass Covid test 72 hours prior and have all the paperwork to prove I passed but most likely postponing my trip

That'll be a hell of an interesting tan line. Not exactly the full Hawaii experience. I had to cancel our trip as well. We had a nice place booked on Maui over Christmas. It was tough to cancel and I am still bitter.

My guess is it'll be extra expensive to travel after things get back to normal as everyone tries to get away.

I used to work in a building in Eagan near 494 & Lone Oak. My office was on the 4th floor. One time when George W Bush was President he flew into MSP. Air Force One flew right over our building and was pretty low as it was so close to the airport. It was really cool and everyone on our floor applauded as it passed over. You could also see the massive lineup of aircrafts at MSP that had to wait for AFO to land and taxi.

I pulled a motorcycle down to AZ last March but only was able to ride one afternoon and the next day when we stayed in Flagstaff. Visited friends after that and came back early to to Covid concerns.

I'll watch and see how the national vaccination program goes and specifically in the SW. I would do another trip if things work out.

Interestingly just yesterday I watched an episode of a series called, "If We Built It Today" or something like that and in this latest episode it was about Washington DC. Basically talked a bit about the fact much of the city is built on former swamp, the Jefferson Memorial is sinking, it's not a great location to access on the whole (despite 3 airports), etc. It's all hypothetical only as it's not going to happen but it was a very interesting watch.

I’ve seen AIr Force One up close once while at Andrew’s AFB and it’s definitely a cool sight.

When I was in the Air Force I was one of two officers in the running for a job to be a communications officer on the Secretary of Defense’s airplane (which was housed in Omaha at the time). Part of me regrets bowing out before they made their choice because the job could have been cool

I’ve been in or on a bunch of military planes over the years but the coolest experience for me was seeing the B2 fly right over my car on base one day. Back in the late 90s you rarely ever saw one so that added to the intrigue for me

My tentative plan is 2024. I hope to hell things are back to normal, and I don’t need to take much PTO for a Frozen Four (since it will be here) so I’ll have ample days to spend on a tropical vacation. ??????

So I’ll finally get that 10 year anniversary trip I was promised for our 20th. Better late than never.

Timing is everything...

Planning on two different trips, or one double-length?

May I suggest Cocolobo on the island of Roatan, off the coast of Honduras. We’ve stayed there twice and LOVE it. Very romantic. Very inexpensive.

We went to Roatan on a cruise. Unfortunately it poured rain the whole time we were there so we didn't get to enjoy it as much as we would have liked.

West End is the opposite end of the cruise side, very quiet and laidback. And we’ve stayed on Roatan 5 times, twice at Cocolobo. Safe, friendly, English is common, tons of bars and restaurants, most very cheap. Roatan is a popular dive destination.

I actually came across the photo of AFO on my phone over the weekend. I am disappointed I didn't have a photo of the black plane that accompanied AFO.

Guessing it looked something like this?

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I see what you mean. No it was a small fighter type jet. Black with folded wings.

Folded wings seems odd, I don't think any current Air Force planes have folding wings, those are all Navy. Too many options to try to guess on that, though.

The only AF plane I ever recall that was non-fixed wing was the FB-111 and that was a sweep winged plan. The only black ones I recall in recent memory are the F-117 and B2 stealths. The F117 I thought was retired though

Maybe it’s something they can fold up and transport in a cargo plane? With one of the limos? IDK.

Might be specialized and not widely used?

Maybe [mention]Bertogliat[/mention] had too many long islands at the airport that day. :giggle:

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The F-18 Super Hornet had fold-able wing tips as I recall. Was built for aircraft carrier use I believe. Wouldn't be totally out of the realm of possibility for it to be used with it.

We saw the Motorcade return to the White House in 2014 during our trip to DC. Coming from the base, they sent Marine One and the Motorcade. You didn't know which he was in until the last minute when Marine One diverted away. I was told this is common procedure. There were at least 3 if not more jets flying at an altitude above Marine One.

I’ve never seen AFO but got stuck in Houston airport once for several hours because it was landing at MSP and therefore my flight home couldn’t land at it’s scheduled time so we all got bumped to later flights. I honestly can’t remember when this was, or what the president was doing in MN.

For a long time I thought I was able to say I had seen Air Force One. I was wrong though, as they are only called that when the president is on board.

Fun little tidbit: Nixon's presidency ended while he was flying home to California. This changed Air Force One into Special Air Mission 2700 mid-flight.

If you are ever in the LA area it's worth visiting the Reagan Presidential Library just for the opportunity to walk through the former AF1 (707 version) & Marine 1 on display.

There will be no technicality that will be overlooked on the message board!

LA area is funny. It feels like Sioux Falls is closer to us than his Library is from LA

I double-checked and Trump's flight home had already landed before Biden was sworn in this year, so that's still the only time that's happened. You missed a zero there, though, it was SAM-27000, to match the tail number of the plane. The current "Air Force One" planes are tail numbers 28000 and 29000, and use SAM 28000/29000 as their call-sign any time they're flying and the President isn't aboard.

Especially since it's better to measure driving in time instead of distance. I am not sure what is officially considered the LA metro area but seems larger than New England.

Second reason why I never want to visit my sister who lives in LA, traffic. She lives 5 miles from her job, back in the day when she would drive to work, it would take over an hour. Nope.

First reason I don't want to visit my sister... :crazy:

My Hawaii vacation in March is set, I need to pass Covid testing 72 hours prior to departure so I will not be in any lockdown, I will sky dive for my second time ??

With your luggage?

Yeah - we had to drive from Northridge to Irvine as part of a work trip. We may have taken a pit stop at Randy’s donuts along the way but it felt like it took us 5 hours

The Randy's Donut stop means The 405 which is always a cluster!

For work I am usually in the Monrovia/Acadia area and occasionally in Irvine. No easy way to get from here to there. What is interesting is from Monrovia it's about the same time to SNA as it is to LAX....easiest decision ever.