We made the hour & 15 minute drive to Dayton, Ohio yesterday to visit The National Museum of The United States Air Force at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

I am going to admit that my immediate thought was that this was going to be a really boring field trip. We went to check out the Cincinnati Warbirds last year and other than standing on a plane, we were so bored we wrapped it up early. I expected this would be the same, but I am always up for a field trip, especially somewhere we haven’t been before.

The museum itself is free, but they ask for a donation in exchange for a map of the Museum. They have put together a scavenger hunt for kids to keep them engaged and reading exhibits. Parking is also free. They also have strollers, wheelchairs, and mobile scooters to borrow for free while you are visiting, if needed.

The kids really enjoyed being able to climb inside the jets, walk inside airplanes checking out the differences between them, and doing the Virtual Reality simulation (although it did scare Sasha a bit.)

I really enjoyed checking out the various artwork from different insignias, planes, jackets. I loved looking at different times throughout history. The real life displays were very cool.

They have many displays about Women in Aviation throughout history as well which is especially nice when you have 4 daughters.

The food was affordable, but the selection was very small. Vegetarian options included an Uncrustable PBJ or a side Mac & Cheese. There are several meat sandwich options, both cold and hot. Meals include chips & a drink. We chose water bottles so we could take it in back the museum with us.

Buildings 1-2 were about early airplane history and wars. Buildings 3-4 were missiles, NASA, and the United States of America Presidental planes.

It is a very big museum and I recommend splitting it into 2 separate field trips: buildings 1-2 first then going back for buildings 3-4. There was way too much information to be able to fully take in in just one trip.

We all had a really good time and I really appreciated that the kids were allowed to be very hands on at this museum; that made it a very fun experience for them. We also really liked all of the photo ops for the kids. They thought that was really fun.

Overall, it was a good field trip. The kids asked to go back. Next time I’d like to bring some extra money for the gift shop as well as our own water bottles to refill.

Fun fact: My husband made and inspected the wire ropes within this museum.

Until next time ♡ Mama Morozov