Discovery

If you're a homeschool kid, who is currently learning about the solar system in science, and a real live space shuttle happens to be planning a fly-over riding piggy-back on a jumbo jet near your neighborhood, your mom is going to take you on a field trip to see it.

 

It doesn't matter how jet-lagged you are after a three-week vacation on the west coast. It doesn't matter if your little brother is cranky, or you barely had a chance to scarf down breakfast. You are going to see the space shuttle.



It doesn't matter that you have yet to gain a deep understanding of the impact of the Apollo missions, the tragedies of the Challenger and Columbia or the fact that space exploration may not pervade your generation the way it did your mother's. 

She will drive you to the harbor where the view is uninhibited by buildings. She will schlep you and your siblings out of the car, point your chins toward the sky and urge you to keep watching, because the shuttle is coming soon!

You'll know it's remarkable when the marbled blue and white sky suddenly becomes vacant of its usual bustling air traffic and you hear the roar of a fighter jet. That jet is preparing the way for the behemoth 747 and its tired, space-age passenger.

You will watch with the other spectators and you will cheer when it thunders overhead. You will do this because you know that's what you're supposed to do.

Then you'll play on the shore for a while ...

... and toss pebbles into the Potomac.

You'll get sandy and sweaty.

And when you head back to the car and your mother asks what you liked best about your morning at the shore, you won't be able to decide. It's a toss up between spotting the shuttle, playing on the waterfront or saying hello to the cow in front of the ice cream shop.