Daytrip: Dayton, Ohio

Our family loves daytrips, weekend trips, and traveling of all sorts. We've always tried to fit in day trips here and there over the years whether it was a drive through the mountains, a hike, a picnic, exploring nearby cities, etc. We love spending our time together finding new places.

This past weekend was no different. We decided on a whim to drive to Dayton, Ohio to visit the Wright Brothers Museum and The Wright Cycle Company. So, after running some errands and visiting another great place (for a later post), we headed to Dayton.

The original cycle company of the Wright Brothers

We only had two hours to spend because we got to the Wright Brothers Museum around 3 and they close at 5 right now. However, it was the perfect amount of time to go through the museum and visit the cycle shop next door.

When we arrived, we were greeted by friendly, informative staff members who gave us an overall idea of the museum and where to start. The first thing we did was watch the 30 minute video on how the Wright brothers got started and how they endured failure after failure and then small successes here and there to become the very first people to fly an airplane. It was fascinating and inspiring and I was amazed at how they never gave up. They both lived to see their dream become reality. Little did they know just how far their invention and dreams would go. Orville actually lived to see interstate flights, then WWII planes and the great advantage planes were to the war. He also saw passenger flight become reality in the States and even internationally. Then, he witnessed NASA's aerospace flights before he died. It must have blown his mind!

A replica of the grocery they used to shop at.

Did you know the Wright brothers started out in the printing business and then owned a cycling shop? Their original bike shop building is still there and you can go inside it where it has been recreated on the inside to look like what they think it may have looked like back in the day. There is only one picture of the shop from its glory days and in that picture, the building was in the background of a picture of a lady holding kittens. Historians took the photo and used the picture to recreate the facade of the actual building. The family lived just around the corner from the shop.

 Upstairs is a parachute exhibit. Pretty cool!

We are fascinated by the Wright brothers mainly because aviation is a big part of our family due to my husband's job. We have visited Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk, NC where they did some test flights of their planes. There is a monument built there, as well as, a museum documenting their time in NC.

If you have a chance to visit Dayton, Ohio, I'd definitely recommend this inspiring little museum and cycle shop. You can also visit a couple other locations like the air field where they did their many trial runs on a few of their prototypes. There are tours available and we hope to go back very soon to see the sights we missed this time!