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Astronaut at the National Air Force Museum
This summer, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, we took a trip to Ohio to visit the Armstrong Air and Space Museum and The National Air Force Museum. The Air Force Museum is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio. The museum is absolutely huge and after starting our day in Wapakoneta and driving over an hour additional to Dayton, it didn’t leave us with much time to explore. At first, we didn’t realize how big the museum is and spent too much time in the Civil War to World War II exhibit. Yes, the museum has artifacts dating back to the Civil War! Before this visit, I had no idea air travel played a role in the 19th century (below)!
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to explore the exhibits dedicated to the Korean War, Southeast Asia, or the Cold War as we made a mad dash to check out the space exhibit. We were there to celebrated the moon landing, after all. The space exhibit reminded me of visiting the Kennedy Space Center and exploring the missile garden. If you are looking to go in-depth in the space program, The Air Force Museum is not the place to do it. They do have a cool flying astronaut (top), but it is much more set up to tell the story of the Air Force, not NASA. If you are looking for that, definitely check out Armstrong Air & Space or head down to Florida and the Kennedy Space Center.
Early army pilots flying a blimp
I will have to plan another trip back to this area to see the parts that we missed! I really wish I could’ve explored the Presidental Air Craft and the uniform exhibits! I’m not in any way a military fanatic, but it was interesting to look into a very specific part of our history. We will probably pair a return visit with visit to the nearby Wright Brothers National Museum. If you are in the Dayton area, The National Museum of the United States Air Force is a huge museum and not to be missed! The museum is free to visit, although since you are entering an Air Force base, you do have to go through security.
Thanks for stopping by! To read about some of our previous trips, click here. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
Apollo flag hanging up at the Armstrong Museum.
It’s amazing, thinking of all of the things we are celebrating in 2019. 100 years of Grand Canyon National Park, 75 years since D-Day, and this past weekend we celebrated 50 years since men first walked on the moon. We decided to celebrate this momentous anniversary, we would visit the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio, home of Neil Armstrong. The museum hosted a week long celebration for the anniversary, featuring rocket launches, a Run to the Moon race, and visiting astronauts.
Armstrong’s Apollo 11 space suit
The Armstrong Museum opened three years to the day of its namesake taking his “One small step for man”. Neil Armstrong was present for the opening and presented the museum with moon rocks he had gathered during his lunar mission. The museum is unique with its look at space exploration, with a focus on Ohioans from The Wright Brothers to John Glenn, and of course, Armstrong. The museum is home to the Gemini 8 spacecraft, Armstrong’s suits from the Gemini and Apollo missions (left) as well as his Navy Uniform, and the airplane in which he learned to fly.
Of course, being a special anniversary, the museum was packed during our visit. We all kind of toured the exhibits as a constantly moving snake. But, it was a nice museum and I was glad we visited. I know my husband, being a big space fan, has wanted to visit for years. If you are in Northwest Ohio, its definitely worth a visit! After leaving Wapakoneta, we headed south to Dayton to the National Air Force Museum. Be sure to check back next week to hear about that! The following week, I will return to my coverage of our Mainely Acadia trip!
Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
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On a rainy, late December day, we headed out to explore the Toledo Museum of Art. We visited this museum on a field trip in high school, but we had bus trouble that left us with not much time left to explore. Ever since then and I have been wanting to return. I’m glad I finally got the chance.
ñI was most excited to check out the glass gallery. Opened in 2006, the glass gallery is located on the other side of the street from the main museum and the building is made entirely of glass. Several times a day, the glass gallery showcases glassblowing demonstrations. When we were there, the artists made one of the Three Little Pigs while telling the story. It was fun and kept the kids in the audience entertained as well. The glass gallery was a lot like a smaller version of the Corning Museum of Glass. They even offer glass workshops that allow you to create your own glass projects on certain days. These are not offered every day, so check the website for details.
The museum is a bit smaller than the Detroit Institute of Arts, but there was still a lot to see. The thing that I remembered most from my last visit were the ruins of the monastery at St. Pons de Thomieres (above, right). They have the artifacts put back together and arranged in a room with blue lights on the ceiling that make it look like you are outdoors. It stuck with me from all those years ago and it was good to see these artifacts are still on display for people to experience art and architecture of the middle ages.
The museum is free for anyone to visit but parking is $7 for nonmembers. To plan your visit visit ToledoMuseum.org. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
Old Man’s Cave is the most popular area of Hocking Hills State Park. It is the center of the park. The campground is here and of all the trails in the park, Old Man’s Cave had the most to see. Anticipating the crowds, I decided to visit Old Man’s Cave on Monday morning figuring that the weekend visitors would be gone and the crowds would be less. The rain that had been forecasted all weekend, finally came and I think that helped keep the crowds down too. If you were spending the whole week in Hocking Hills, you were not going hiking in the rain.
As you can see in the above photo, there were still people around and I was glad they were there. I used to be afraid of having people in my landscape photos. Now, I feel like the people in that photo add a frame of reference to the landscape. You can’t tell how big the cave is without people in it for perspective. The people also add life to the photos. They show that this is an area that people explore. They give meaning to the bridges and steps in the landscape.
Old Man’s Cave Upper Falls
While the rain kept the crowds down, it also really added to the atmosphere. Walking through the rainy, foggy, gorges felt like walking through another planet. It felt unreal. It reminded me of walking through Disney World, but this was not created by people. Really, words cannot describe this area. It has to be seen to be comprehended.
As I mentioned, the Old Man’s Cave Trail had the most to see of all the trails in Hocking Hills. There are five main sections of the Old Man’s Cave area, making up about one mile of trails: Upper Falls, Upper Gorge, Middle Falls, Lower Falls and Lower Gorge. Of course, one of the features of the trail is Old Man’s Cave (top) where a hermit lived in the late 1700s. The Grandma Gatewood Trail also begins here and continues on to Ash Cave and Cedar Falls.
Read more in my Hiking Hocking Hills Series: Camping & Hiking Hocking Hills, Ash Cave, Cedar Falls, Conkle’s Hollow and Rock House. To plan your trip to Hocking Hills, visit HockingHills.com If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
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The hike to Rock House was the last hike of our full day in Hocking Hills and it was the hardest hike we did. Rock House is the only true cave in the park. It has a ceiling that is 25 feet tall and the main corridor is 200 feet long and is 30 feet wide in spots. Native Americans used the Hominy Holes as baking ovens. Troughs and holding tanks have been carved in the stone to collect rain water. Robbers, murderers and bootleggers once used this out of the way cave as a hideout. A hotel was once erected on the grounds on what is now the picnic shelter. (HockingHills.com)
The Rock House trail is only a half mile long but it is a half mile of large, uneven, sandstone steps. The trail is narrow and children and dogs should be closely supervised. The rock house at the end was totally worth the climb. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The giant rock house was significantly cooler and less humid than the surrounding areas and was nice break at the end of the climb. This would be a great place to visit around magic hour for better lighting for photos. The light was pretty harsh when we were there and made the spot difficult to photograph.
Read more in my Hiking Hocking Hills Series: Camping & Hiking Hocking Hills, Ash Cave, Cedar Falls, Conkle’s Hollow and Old Man’s Cave (coming soon). To plan your trip to Hocking Hills, visit HockingHills.com If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
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When we arrived at the Cedar Falls parking lot, I heard so much screaming I thought there was a roller coaster at the end of the trail. Instead, at the end of the half mile trail we found the largest waterfall by volume in the park. You can see from the below photo, this is another popular spot in the park. The screams that could be heard from the parking lot were from visitors stepping into the chilly water and under the falls. Luckily, the water flowing from the falls wasn’t at full force when I visited, because stepping under the falling water can be dangerous.
Unlike Ash Cave, the Cedar Falls trail is not ADA accessible. It starts with a set of stairs known as Democracy Steps. These steps were designed by artist, architect and mathematician, Akio Hizume, to be “pleasant and relaxing”. I have to say, of all the steps in the park, these were some of the easiest. Before looking at a map, I had forgotten stairs were involved in this hike. According to HockingHills.com “The lengths of individual steps are varied, so that walkers alternate the leading foot, establishing a comfortable pace and rhythm… It reflects mathematical principles of the Fibonacci sequence and the one-dimensional Penrose lattice.” Who knew math could make stairs more enjoyable?
Thank you for stopping by! Read more in my Hiking Hocking Hills Series: Camping & Hiking Hocking Hills, Ash Cave, Conkle’s Hollow, Rock House and Old Man’s Cave (coming soon). To plan your trip to Hocking Hills, visit HockingHills.com. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! You can purchase prints on Etsy and Fine Art America. To see inside my camera bag, check out my Gear Page. For information about our new Guided Photography Tours, visit GuidedPhoto.com.
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