Open Daily (Except Christmas Day): 10:00 AM until 5:30 PM

" Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."
Neil Alden Armstrong

Have you ever:
• experienced space in 3D as if you could actually touch the stars?!!
• tasted freeze dried ice cream that our astronauts eat for dessert?!!
• touched an actual rock from the moon which is estimated to be
   four billion years old?!!

If not, you should visit the most popular museum in the world which features attractions from space science and nature like you've rarely experienced. This museum offers to the world some of the most famous aircrafts in history including the Wright Brother's Kitty Hawk, Lindberg's Spirit of St. Louis and John Glenn's Mercury Space Capsule which orbited the earth three times in 1962. A theater shows popular films on a screen 5 stories high which add to the sense of flight in the film. If you are afraid of heights don't go. The movie "To Fly" carries you through the air in a hot air balloon as it traces the story of man's flight. The Albert Einstein theater enables you to view simulations of 9,000 stars, the Milky Way, distant galaxies and other planets. After such stimulation, how about lunch in the restaurant "Wright Place" or the cafeteria "Flight Line" seating up to 800 people. As you can tell, the Air and Space Museum tracing the history of aviation and space exploration is a " must see" in Washington.

NEARBY: National Museum of the American Indian

Open Daily (Except Christmas Day): 10:00 AM until 5:00 pm
Timed free passes are required to visit the museum.
(866) 400-NMAI (6624)

The NMAI has one of the largest and most extensive collection of Native American art and artifacts in the world—approximately 800,000 objects representing over 10,000 years of history, from more than 1,000 indigenous cultures through the Western Hemisphere. Much more than a collection of exhibition galleries and artifacts, the NMAI actively promotes “cultural continuance.” Through our exhibitions, and most importantly, through our educational programs and outreach to Native communities, the NMAI helps Native people revive and sustain their cultural heritage. In doing so, the NMAI has established collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships with tribal communities throughout North, South, and Central America. The hallmark of this museum is that all aspects of our exhibitions and programs are presented from the Native perspective—“in the Native voice.

Throughout the museum, the works of Native artists are on display as “landmark objects” in the public areas, including a 20-foot totem pole by carver Nathan Jackson (Tlingit) and a bronze sculpture by Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo), as well as a carving of a Kwakiutl speaker and Navajo weavings from the museum’s collections.

” The museum’s Changing Exhibitions Gallery features the works of Native artists George Morrison (Grand Portage Band of Chippewa, 1919-2000) and Allan Houser (Warm Springs Chiricahua Apache, 1914-1994). Through fall 2005, more than 200 works of art, including drawings, paintings and sculptures will be displayed.

The “Window on the Collections: Many Hands, Many Voices” exhibition offers a view into the vast National Museum of the American Indian collections by showcasing 3,500 objects arranged in seven categories. Objects include animal-themed figurines and objects, beadwork, containers, dolls, peace medals, projectile points and qeros (cups for ritual drinking).

The demonstration program features Native boats, which will be under construction in the center of the Potomac over the course of the first year. The program begins with the construction of two boats, a Native Hawaiian canoe and an Inuit kayak.