Steven F. Udvar Center - Discovery

[Geonovast]

There's a 99% chance that I will be in the DC area at the end of July for my wife's uncle's funeral at Arlington.  Initially she was going to fly out for the day, but we've decided to make it a vacation.

Obviously I plan on going to the Steven F. Udvar Center, but really my only objective there is to see Discovery (despite not being the shuttle I want to see).  I don't people very well, so I will not be spending a whole lot of time at the museum, unless they're not very busy.

Any other suggestions on what is a must-see at the Center, or if there is anything else to do in DC?  This honestly really sucks as I have no interest in an aircraft museum.

My wife wants to do a grand tour of the Smithsonian, but honestly I'm not sure there's enough Xanax on the planet to get us to actually survive a trip there.

[cubinator]

There's the National Air and Space museum, which has many more spacecraft, including the Apollo 11 command module. There are a lot of museums, and it's really hard to visit them all so just pick a few of the most interesting ones. 

[TheSaint]

We're actually planning a DC trip for 2020. But our trip is going to be very different than yours from the sound of it. We're going to museum until our feet fall off. NASM/Udvar-Hazy, American History, Natural History, National Archives, Capitol, White House, walk the Mall, Arlington, probably take in a few Civil War battlefields.

[Geonovast]

Well, we're here at our hotel in Arlington.  Thankfully the wifi here is excellent, unlike the half-way hotel in Richmond, IN. 

I've got three full days here.

As far as I'm aware, the Apollo 11 CM is not on display right now.  Which SUCKS given that the 50th just happened.

I'm definitely going to hit up the Space Shuttle Columbia memorial at the Arlington National Cemetary. 

Probably see Discovery tomorrow.

It's going to be tough getting around, because holy cow is traffic insane in this city.

[razark]

4 hours ago, Geonovast said:

As far as I'm aware, the Apollo 11 CM is not on display right now.

I believe it's in Seattle.

I was lucky to see it by chance last year.  I was at Space Center Houston for an unrelated event, and it happened to be there on tour.

 

(One of these days, I need to go and see the place again.  It's been years since I've actually seen it.  Just been there for various events.)

[Geonovast]

That was quite a lot of airplanes, but that wasn't all that thrilling.  I did get to see Discovery though! 

 

There is an apollo CM Boilerplate there

 

They also had something interesting in the restoration area, although I didn't see any info on it.

 

I think they're working on a podracer as well