Enjoyed the exhibit, we did

On Sunday morning we got up and drove North until we saw this:

Which is much bigger than it looks here:

But maybe you can get a better sense of it when you see the boys under one of the engine cone thingies:

You'd think they'd be wearing some sort of aeronautics shirts, but no.

They were all decked out in Star Wars wear because we'd driven to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville for this:

Allow me to back up a smidge ... the night before, they had me lay out ALL of their Star Wars shirts so that they could choose their shirts the next morning based on "what felt right." Since we have about 201 Star Wars shirts, they had plenty from which to choose. And choose, they did. Just before we left the house, I got one shot:

So anyway, back to Huntsville. When we bought our tickets, it was about 105 degrees. No joke. And we were instructed to "follow C3PO's footprints" around to another building to enter the exhibit.

I don't know how 3PO was able to get there without passing out in that metal suit, because I almost died on the quarter-mile walk.

Once we got into the exhibit, we saw things.

Lots of things.

I would tell you what they all are, but I don't really know.

I CAN tell you that they looked extraordinarily life-like. Or, you know, as life-like as science fiction characters get.

I tried to read the informational signs so I could learn more about all of these things that seem to course through my boys' veins, but 1) I was busy chasing a toddler around a very dark warehouse populated by hundreds of people and eerily lit displays, and 2) I'm actually not all that interested in it. (BLASPHEMY!)

We walked through the entire thing, and it was REALLY hard to keep up with the kids. They kept darting around to see The Next Big Thing. Like Leia, R2 and 3PO.

Jakey only squealed when he saw two things. This was one of them. He screamed, "Ah-too-dee-too!"

This was one of the things I found most interesting because it's one of the vehicles we have at home. Plus, it was really big.

This next item was the cause of a huge tantrum thrown by the 2-year-old. Do you see the Warning marked in red?

Yeah. Jakey was too young to ride the hovercraft, but the other two boys got to do it.

Have you ever heard an angry, indignant, deprived 2-year-old wail in a dark warehouse with 40-foot ceilings? No? YOU'RE REALLY MISSING OUT.

Luckily, one of the other highlights of the day was just around the corner. Once Jakey had recovered from The Ageism Incident, we moved over to a display case holding HIM:

And I must say: Yoda was the highlight of the day for me. He was exactly Jake's size. Too cute!

Me: "Jakey, Yoda looks like he's your height. Do you think he's 2?"

Jake: "No. He not 2."

Me: "But he's just your size. How old do you think he is?"

Jake: "I dunt nuh. But he NOT 2."

I guess the wrinkles gave him away.

The only other notable I took a picture of was Chewie, although there were well over 100 figures in the exhibit. I'm considering it my public service of the day to not show you ALL of the pictures I took.

Side note: Chewie was HUGE. I'm only 5 feet tall, but even so, I had to tilt the camera WAY up to get a picture of him. I bet he was at least 8 feet tall.

The exit from the exhibit was really neat ... it looked as though we were in one of the ships. (The Millennium Falcon? The Death Star? Jet Blue?)

And of COURSE they hit you with the gift shop as PART of the exit, so you couldn't get out without going through it. Nick had to try on some masks. Darth Maul, good to see you again. Haven't seen you since Disney.

3PO, we've missed you.

And, oh. My sister is about to melt. Get ready. Jakey had to try one on, too.

All in all, a pretty good experience ... we were there for several hours and enjoyed what we saw, but if we were to do it over again, Jake and I would probably skip it. He's not QUITE at the age where he can appreciate exhibits without action -- or at least action without ageism.