Today was a bit slower by the standards we’ve already set this week. After breakfast at 0800 we headed south a little after 0900, winding through the towns of Lake Oswego and Oregon City. We didn’t stop or spend any time looking at anything and will save our attention for return visits to those two towns at a later date. We were bound for the Woodburn Premium Outlets to do a little shopping (and to soften everyone up before I made them go hang out at a museum).
A couple hours later and with a lighter pocketbook we found our way along the backroads of Northern Oregon, bound for the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.
After a quick lap around a portion of the Aviation wing of the museum we had an appointment with the docent for a private tour of the Spruce Goose. Before that though we saw some pretty cool planes ranging from an old Jenny and a replica of the Wright Brother’s plane, all the way up to an SR-71 and an F-117. I have at least 5-6 of the planes there hanging from my office as scale models and several (like the A-10 Thunderbolt II tank killer, the PBY Catalina flying boat and the Cobra gunship helicopter) were aircraft I had plans to do in upcoming builds.
With our scheduled appointment at hand we met up with our guide and entered the largest wooden aircraft ever to fly. For most attendees at the museum all they see of the aircraft are the two views below, from behind the plexiglass screens.
Because we scheduled the private tour we were provided access to the rest of the craft as well and led through it by our guide. He explained how they used beach balls for flotation in the wing pylons, the fire suppression system, and more and then we went from the main deck up the winding staircase to the upper flight deck.
Sitting in the captain’s chair, donning a fedora and thinking about what it must have been like for Howard Hughes on that one lone flight to get off the ground nearly 80 years ago was pretty cool.
Then, the guide played a short audio clip from one of the 17 or so reporters that were onboard during that first flight so we got to do a little more than wonder what it was like.
It’s hard to believe this thing is 20 feet wider than a football field. At one point you are allowed to stick your head out of the top of the cockpit and I got a panoramic view wingtip to wingtip and that really helped provide scale.
And here we can see the majority of the hull of this flying boat.
The museum is made up of two separate large hanger-like buildings, the aircraft wing and the space wing. After our tour of the Spruce Goose we finished up the circuit of planes and headed over to the space side.
Of course Kay couldn’t pass up the cutouts at the entrance and we all had to suit up.
It was interesting to see craft ranging from a V-2 Rocket to a Redstone and a couple engines related to those I was familiar with from my time at Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Unfortunately the missile silo for the Titan II was closed so we could only observe it from floor level.
There were a number of additional exhibits, and overall it is an interesting museum worthy of at least one visit.
We finished up and headed back to the house to relax a little before our dinner reservations at Chart House for Kay’s fake 50th Birthday (long story involving lunar and solar calendars and Korean birth registration practices in the mis ‘70’s).
When we arrived they had our table ready by the window and we ordered from the custom menu they prepared for Kay (Notice the top of the middle column “Happy 50th Birthday”)
The crispy spicy tuna appetizer with pickled cucumber proved good enough that we ended up needing two orders.
The Kimchi Calamari is always a go to favorite there of ours, but they bring out so much that we had to get a to go box.
Everyone else ordered up a steak but this time I decided to go lighter and opted for the Macadamia Nut crusted Mahi with a peanut sauce, mango relish, mango sticky rice and asian green beens.
Everything was perfect, the view of the river was great (Couldn’t see Mt Hood today as it was overcast and drizzly all day) and everyone left stuffed and happy with the company.
Kay and I started to realize today that our week together with B3 is almost over and the kids will head back to school and I will have to go back to work soon. But, we have one more day together before they head back to Chico on Saturday and we intend to make it a full day (even though it is supposed to rain tomorrow).
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s adventures after we have a river lunch boat cruise, and we attend the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival.
