I'm not a big airplane geek, but I appear to be related to 4 or 5, and hey, who can pass up a chance to see the Space Shuttle?  We took a weekday and went to the Smithsonian's Air and Space annex, at Dulles airport in Virginia.  This is a brilliant museum - the curators did a fantastic job of creating a three-dimensional display space for airplanes, helicopter, hangliders, and spacecraft.  The hardcore military history buffs were enraptured, and so was the two-year-old boy…for 4 hours.  FOUR hours, people!

The weekday lack of visitors meant that the kid had room to stretch his legs and burn off some toddler energy, but the stroller was very nice to have also.  He loved looking up and down at the aircraft, and getting close up to things he's only seen in pictures.  The "virutal cockpit" kiosks were placed at child height and operable by a toddler, but the displays of model aircraft were more interesting to him.

Now that McDonald's has hooked up with the Smithsonian, there was even an affordable and child-friendly place to eat, where we could all watch airplanes landing at Dulles.

Really, the only bit of fussing was about the flight simulators.  He really really wanted to go for a ride in one, and one of them admits kids of any age…but when we got to the hatch of the black box, he flipped out.  Even though we were the only people riding the sim, I didn't want to force him through his panic, so he sat out the ride with his father.