Cowbright: Day 1 - DC with Henry

Yesterday we met up with our grandson Henry at Ronald Reagan Airport in Washington, DC. It went smoothly except for Henry accidentally leaving his birth certificate on the plane. But with a little extra effort it was recovered and we were off to Fairfax, VA. It was nasty weather but we made it to the hotel after stopping at a Chick Fila (of course) for dinner.

The next morning we were up early to drive to the National Firearms Museum. Henry is like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to gun knowledge! I have no idea where he has learned so much, but we were both blown away by his knowledge of the subject. Seriously. I do know that his paternal grandfather Bill Whatley, who served as an Air Force pilot in WWII and later served in law enforcement as a constable, had a nice collection of guns, which Henry's dad now owns. So I'm assuming this is where Henry's interest in firearms comes from.

Needless to say, he was excited about going there as it is home to a display of approximately 3,000 firearms. It was amazing to us how he knew the names and types of so many of them. The museum was "heaven" to a teenage boy with an interest in firearms!

NRA Firearms Museum

where do I look first?

world's tiniest gun

From there we went to a firing range so he could do some practice shooting. We had to jump through a lot of hoops for a 16 year old to be able to do it but we got it done. He's done a lot of practice shooting with his Dad in Colorado, but not in a different state as a minor. I bought him a t-shirt so he could say "been there done that." However, he said he could never wear something like that to school, and I can understand why with all the crazies running around with guns in this day and age. Henry was able to choose 2 from hundreds of guns to shoot. He chose a 9" barrel AR15 and a 10mm robo cop gun.

decisions, decisions

pow pow pow!

a good shot!

When we were finished there, we drove in really yucky weather to Washington, DC in order to get there in time for our 2:30 pm Capitol Building tour. We had just enough time to find the apartment we rented, throw our bags inside and call an Uber to take us to the Capitol. It was a good decision, as it was too far to walk and parking is next to impossible in that area.

We were among hundreds of others, most under umbrellas, as we walked from the drop off point up to the building. We had a very knowledgeable and interesting tour guide and I think we will always remember visiting the Capitol together. Naturally, I took a lot of photos but I will only post a few.