Hut, 2, 3, 4

My mom has been visiting us at the beach, so we've really been up for some extra exploring. Last week, we drove the kids down to the Aviation Museum at the Cape May Airport. It is about a 40-minute drive from Ocean City. You can preview the venue at: http://usnasw.org/. If you're a AAA member, be sure to bring your card for a discount off of admission.

Will is a collector of facts, greedily stuffing them into his pockets like other kids would candy or toys. He just wants to know, and has a special interest in the military. A few years ago, we went to the National Air Force Museum at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with my grandfather, a WWII and Korean War Air Force pilot. Will still talks about that trip and had really looked forward to checking out this museum.

It was right up his alley. This is a no frills museum--a huge hanger at the Wildwood Naval Air Station and Cape May Airport. It is filled with restored air craft and vehicles, many from the Vietnam and Korean wars. Many of them are equipped with ladders, which the kids can either climb and inspect the inside of the plane or actually sit in the cockpit. Will was in his element. I followed him around while he tried plane after plane after plane, his face decorated with a perpetual grin.

Will especially loved a display on radar. He officiously sat at a desk surrounded by outdated radar equipment, pressing buttons and yelling commands to imaginary soldiers. He relinquished control after accidentally setting off an alarm, obviously set up to startle kids in command. His eyes were wide as saucers as he slowly backed away from the display, to the amusement of the museum docent.

The Franklin Institute has also provided several hands-on exhibits that work to explain the mechanics of flying, such as how the angle of the wing changes the flight pattern. Will enjoyed those as well, but they came in a definite second to the airplanes.

Following the Aviation Museum, we headed to the Historic Cold Spring Village (http://www.hcsv.org/), an open-air Early American museum. The boys had purchased army helmets at the Aviation Museum and continued to wear them here, dutifully marching through the museum grounds. Will, with his love of facts, thoroughly enjoyed this visit as well. The museum features a collection of 20 restored buildings, each one with a guide dressed in costume, who will tell about the building and answer questions. Will particularly liked the school, where he learned about slates and the dreaded dunce cap.

Mosquitoes were out in force that day. "I'm afraid we grow there here, too," a guide explained. We were miserable, hot and itchy after about an hour and decided to call it quits, much to Will's disappointment. That's a trip I'll try again in the fall.