Wednesday, January 16, 2008

College Park Aviation Museum: A Review

Lucas and I both get a little stir crazy when we've been inside the house for too long. Yet, in this cold winter weather, I don't like being outside for too long, either.

What is a Mama to do?

Why, explore the many wonderful gems of the Washington, DC metro area, of course!

Yesterday we had a "play date" with our good friends Kerry and Jack at the College Park Aviation Museum. What fun! It is an adorable little museum very close to the University of Maryland College Park campus. Admission is $4 for adults and $2 for children age 2+ (under 2 is free!). As Lucas is just 2 and I'm an honest woman our total admission was $6. Kerry and Jack got in for $4 total.

It was money well spent!

For the first hour we had the entire place to ourselves! Mind you, the "entire place" is basically a very large open room with lots of airplanes, educational games, books, crafts, etc. The boys loved running back and forth among the planes then ended up spending a lot of time in the books/puzzle/craft area. Other than some general supervision, it wasn't hard work for the Mamas. Most of the place is pretty indestructible. Kerry and I learned a lot and enjoyed some of the activities, too.

The site definitely is historical. The tiny College Park Airport, the world's oldest continuously operating airport, is actually where the Wright Brothers trained the very first US military pilots.

I'd strongly recommend this museum for kids of all ages (older kids would definitely benefit more from the educational aspect than our 20 mo. and 2 year old did) and adults. For those of us used to the vastness (and hoards of people) of the Smithsonian Museums, this was an enjoyable change of pace!

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