Tillamook getaway

This last Monday Christina and I took a day off and drove out to Tillamook. Our first stop was pancakes and then off to the Tillamook air museum. What a place! The museum is housed in an absolutely huge WWII blimp hangar which held 5 K class blimps during the war. (Each was twice as big as the Goodyear blimp). These blimps kept the western coast safe from enemy submarines and provided escort for ships travelling across the ocean.

Well the blimps are there no more, but now there are around 50 planes on display. Here are just a few shots. The first shot is the hangar, something like 7 football fields would fit inside the hangar, let alone the fact that it is 15 stories tall!

Here's me, Adriel, in front of a WWII dive bomber, this was the largest rotary engine plane ever built, and boy was it big for a single pilot plane....


Christina in front of a WWI pilot mockup. (We were taking the audio tour, that's why we have headphones on.).

The famous DC-9, probably the most successful commercial plane ever. It's a beautiful plane, especially there in person. Very graceful design of the 1930's.

And Christina's personal jet... (Of course with today's gas prices it would be parked in the garage all year).


Speaking of planes in a garage, I found my dream project for "when I grow up." This is a kit that, in the '70's, you could purchase for $1500. With today's materials the same experimental plane can be put together for around $7000. Guess what engine it uses?... The same as you find in the old VW bugs!



When I was a missionary kid in Indonesia we flew around in these little Cessna 185's. As a kid they seemed much larger, now my head hits the wings (Christina is a cute little button, much shorter than I)...


Here's a Bell Ranger, you see them all over the place as news and police choppers. I love helicopters, they are amazing mechanically, but was surprised at how small this chopper was in person, when I stand next to it I can look right over the top. Not any bigger than a mini-van.


Well, after Christina finally dragged me out of the museum we headed to the Tillamook Cheese factory and then out to the beach for the afteroon. Later we enjoyed some outlet mall shopping and then a dinner date. Here's the beautiful Oregon Coast beach shot...