I'll Sit This One Out!

As many of you may know, the space shuttle Discovery recently retired to the Udvar-Hazy Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, located in the suburbs outside of Washington, D.C.  Discovery, perched a top a NASA 747, flew from Cape Canaveral to D.C. for it's last flight, touring the city and making a very exciting day in the D.C. area!

I thought I was going to miss it - I had my last pregnancy appointment that morning at almost the exact time it was scheduled to arrive.

Luckily, thanks to being early, I was able to make it all the way out to Dulles Airport (well, a highway overpass overlooking the airport!) to wait with hundreds of others, hoping for a fly over.

I always loved the idea of being an astronaut, but I never excelled at math or science, so that wasn't going to work!  I was always jealous of my brother, who had been to space camp when I was younger - but I never got to do anything like that, either!

Instead, I rode Mission: Space.  The only ride I've ever seen that included barf bags.  I rode it back in 2005, before it had options - there was no "green vs. orange" it was just "go."

Image from MSNBC.com

Borrowing techniques from NASA, this simulator uses a multiple arm centrifuge to give the allusion of accelerating.  You're spinning and tilting, getting up to 2.5 G's of gravity (2.5x your weight pushed against you) all while watching a screen that's shooting you to the moon.

I can still remember thinking "if this goes on for 5 more seconds, I'm going to need one of those bags" and walking off a bit woozy.  Everyone walking off looked slightly green and headed for the water fountains.  With my friend Jen, we had to sit and relax and couldn't eat for a good while after.  

In the times I've visited since that one occasion (and that's a lot!) I've either successfully convinced the others that it's just not worth the pain or enjoyed some people watching time while waiting for others.  

This is one attraction that I don't plan to ever ride again - and that's a short list.  Actually, this may be the only attraction on that list.  

What attractions do you avoid?  Have you had a similar experience or do you enjoy this ride?  I'd love to hear your experience, either in comments below or on the facebook page!