Spring Break Fun

What does a family do when their Spring Break is so wet and rainy 

that building an ark doesn't sound like a half-bad idea?

They go swimming in a 747 Jumbo Jet, of course!

We decided to spend some time at the Evergreen Aviation Museum and Waterpark in McMinnville, Oregon, where the waterpark is indoors and they have waterslides exiting a 747 on the roof of the building!  What a concept!  (Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of our family in the waterpark since cameras and waterslides don't really mix.)  But, we had loads of fun in the wave pool, the vortex pool, and riding all the slides.  We were shriveled raisins by the end of the day.

The next day we went next door to visit the Aviation Museum and the Spruce Goose.  What a remarkable piece of our nation's history is the Spruce Goose.  I'm just completely fascinated with the whole story, the time period it was built, the man Howard Hughes, etc.  It's amazing.

When I was young my family went to Southern California and we saw the Spruce Goose on display while we were there.  I didn't really understand much about it then, I just knew my parents were enthralled with it and that it was an important piece of history.  Now, I realize why they were so fascinated.  And, now I know that the plane was only on display for two years in the 80's and then sat in storage until it was brought up to Oregon in the mid-90's.  How lucky I was to see it when I was a kid and I didn't even realize it!

There were many other airplanes and helicopters in the museum.  We toured the B-17 "Flying Fortress."  Wow!  It gave me a greater appreciation for the hard work, sacrifice, and dedication of our service members who manned these planes during the war.  Flying the planes and manning the guns was no small feat.  What hard work, perseverance, and endurance they had!  Amazing.

 

In yet another museum building there were various spacecraft displayed.  The kids enjoyed seeing a replica of a space rover on Mars and I liked the rockets on display.  The one below was so huge they had to dig a pit into the museum to fit it into the building.  The kids wanted to look up into the thrusters, so they did!

 

And, the grand finale, was the SR-71 Blackbird on display.  

All I gotta say is, cool.  

Very cool.  

And classified.  

Very classified.