The Big Trip to Dothan

Many of you may not that know that Adam and I LOVE museums of any kind. I guess you could call us museum junkies!! When Adam's mom was temporarily working in DC about 7 years ago, I had the opportunity to stay with her for a week and spend hours upon hours in museums. It was terrific! Of course, we are sharing our interest with the kids. In OKC there were lots of good local museums to get out and explore, but here in Panama City, not so much. And the ones that are here, well, they are, uhhhhh, well, you could say that they are___________ (you fill in the blank).

Because the museums here are ____________, that means we are off for grand adventures to find the good ones. We've been a couple of times to the air museum in Pensacola. It is terrific, but a long drive. We've been to a couple in Tallahasse - one bad, one good on that tally. And there are more to discover there, but last weekend we decided to head north to Dothan, Alabama. Doesn't it seem weird to think that Alabama is NORTH???? Anyhoo, we headed to Ft. Rucker, outside of Dothan to visit the Army Air Museum on its base. It was about 90 minutes away. Dothan is a pretty non descript place, but they do have a bigger mall than we do! I think Dothan is a farming area, what they farm, I have no clue. Anyway.....................

As we arrived at the museum, the kids were getting excited - a lot of helicopters and small planes outside and the building actually looked fairly large, so the potential was there. We get inside and discover that there is some ceremony taking place in the main exhibit hall where all the cool stuff is. Lots of people in uniform or dressed in suits, etc. And, it is so quiet, you could hear a pin drop. Not exactly ideal circumstances for a 2 and 6 yr old. I'd tell you what the ceremony was if I knew, but noone seemed to know what it was for. Even the little lady in the gift shop was clueless. Oh, and there are a few tables with catering trays, punch bowl, etc. Good grief. I won't go into the details, but there was some screaming from a certain member of our family who is 2 years old. She very specifically said "I want that way" pointing towards the ceremony (they all ignored us). Finally the ceremony was over (we went outside for a while and came back in after it was over) and now it seemed appropriate to go in the main hall to look at the great displays. But then someoone wasn't happy with her sippy cup and was eyeing that punch bowl. The visit ended with me taking her to the car while the boys finished up oohing and aaahhing at all the big helicopter displays and then we made our way home.