Tinkerblue

Great White Shark = 115 Suitcases

Now you know. Not sure when that piece of information will prove useful.

Still in Vancouver

We should be starting our descent into LAX about now. Instead I'm still on the floor of the departure gate at YVR.

It's grey and wet outside, but look. Our plane just arrived. So we'll be leaving soon. Better late than never. And it means I won't be hanging out at LAX for 7 and 1/2 hours.

Off To A Good Start

So Kim dropped me at the airport around 1115am. Plenty of time for my 130pm flight from Vancouver to LA. PLENTY OF TIME as my flight has been delayed by 2 hours.

So I'm hanging at at YVR, eating my free lunch (Alaska Airline gave me a lunch voucher), using the free Wifi and waiting. There'll be a lot of waiting today.

Ah but it's all fun, at least I'm going somewhere warm and sunny.

We Fly For Pie

Raspberry pie at Chilliwack Airport. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

OMG I so new to go for a run this week. Maybe even more than one run.

Reno Air Races

I'm out in the train. I left this morning. At the same time hubby was leaving to spend the weekend in Reno, Nevada for the Reno Air Races.

He's been planning it since this time last year. A group of them went. About 20 guys. Some yesterday, some today.

Today, there was an accident. Today a pilot crashed into the stands. The pilot was killed, and reports right now about injuries and fatalities are confusing.

We have sporadic cell phone service on the train. I arrived into Kamloops to my phone buzzing insanely. Text messages, emails, voicemails, Facebook messages etc. I've spent the evening trying to make sure everyone we know was safe.

They are. I won't say they are unaffected, a friend was in the stand, he was uninjured but did see others injured and loss of life caused by the debris.

To everyone who tried to contact hubby or myself, thank you. We appreciate your thoughts and concerns. We are grateful that all our friends are safe. The air-races have been cancelled for the weekend.

To the family and friends of the pilot, the organizers, the injured and those who lost their lives we send our thoughts and prayers.

Places to Fly - Tillamook Air Museum

We've been to Tillamook Airport a few times. But until now we haven't made it to the Tillamook Air Museum. (cheese always took priority).

 

The Air Museum is housed in Hangar B. Hangar A and Hangar B were military blimp hangars. They were built in 1942 to house the blimps that were used for coastal patrol and convoy escort during WWII. Hangar B was built first and took 9 months from December 1942 to August 1943. Hangar A? Hangar A was built in 27 days. Hangar A was destroyed in a fire in 1992. Hangar B is now home to one of the top 5 privately owned aircraft collections in the world.

 

 

The photos don't really show the size. But Hangar B is huge. You can see if from miles away. It's the largest clear span wooden structure in the world.  

 

• 192 feet tall - that's 15 stories
• 1072 feet long
• 296 feet wide
• Over 7 acres in area
• The doors alone are 120 ft high

 

The letters on the roof of the hangar? Each letter is 100ft in height. And the lines in each letter are 20ft wide. It took 2 weeks to paint them on. 

 

Inside the hangar is a collection of 30+ aircraft, a cafe, gift shop and theatre. Entry is normally $9.00 for the museum and an additional $3.00 to tour the Guppy. The day we flew in was the day of a show and shine, so entry was only $5.00 for the museum and the Guppy. Nice.

 

 

I want a Mini Guppy. It has bunk beds behind the cockpit, so you can have a real nap. Although our hangar is not big enough to house this thing, and hubby is not allowed to buy any more planes.

 

 

We spent a good couple of hours wandering round, reading the history, watching the film, eating tacos and shopping in the store.  Hubby's Dad would love the planes here - they're all war era planes.  But I'm about aviation museum-ed out for the next year or so!

 

 

 

Places to Fly - Tillamook Cheese Factory

We love cheese. We love to fly.  Tillamook Cheese is in Oregon. Not far from the Tillamook Airport. Perfect. Last year we flew to Tillamook Airport and then rode our bikes to Tillamook Cheese. It's about a 20-30 minute ride. Good exericse. Gotta work off the cheese somehow.

 

This year, Kim, Joanna, Miss M and Kenny were with us and they don't have bikes (yet). So riding was not an option. Luckily the Tillamook Airport has a courtesy car that we borrowed. Actually it's a truck and we couldn't all fit at once. Well Miss M wanted us to sit in the tray and just do one trip, but it's not really legal so we passed on that idea and made two trips.

 

 

Upstairs in the visitors centre is the viewing platform, where you can watch the factory at work. Yes, they are big bricks of cheese.

 

 

Downstairs is the tasting station. We may or may not have stopped at the tasting station first, then gone upstairs to view the factory and then back down to the tasting station. Just saying. My favourite is the Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar. Hubby liked the Pepper Jack.

 

 

Once we were done tasting, we had to buy. Squeeky cheese and a small block to have as appys back at camp. And a brick to bring home. Those bricks below are 5lbs each. We didn't buy them. We thought about it, but we went with smaller versions.

 

Tillamook Cheese doesn't only make cheese. They make ice cream too. And of course we had to taste it. We didn't buy any to take home. No cooler in the plane. Mmmm, now there's an idea.

 

 

And one last look at all that cheesy goodness.

 

The view of Tillamook Cheese Factory and Visitors Centre as we flew back to Nehalem Bay.

 

MacGyver Style Fly-In Camping

This weekend is the Abbotsford Air Show. Hubby flew in yesterday morning because our plane is on static display (parked under a B52!) and he's working the CASARA booth. I had to work at the train station yesterday morning so I resorted to driving over.

Barb and Jerry, our friends from Quesnel, have flown down for the air show and are camping on the field. We decided on Friday night to join them. So when Hubby left yesterday he packed all the camping gear in the plane.

Well almost all. He forgot the tent! He packed the poles and the pegs, but no tent. How do you forget the tent? Kind of the most important part of camping.

His first suggestion was that I drove home and get it. Yeah, no! So Hubby and Jerry MacGyvered a tent.

A bright orange tarp, some bungee cord and a few pegs, all borrowed from Barb and Jerry and my car = a tent.

Of course it was a hot day yesterday, but once the sun went down it was chilly. I used my yoga mat for a bit of extra padding between me an the ground and a picnic blanket for extra warmth. My work fleece was also still in the car, I wore it over my pajamas. There is something to be said for leaving random items in the car.

It was comfy and we slept well. So all's good in the end.

Oh, did you notice that Hubby's sleeping mat, sleeping bag, and t-shirt are all safety orange to match Jerry's tarp? Hubby may be forgetful but at least he matches!

Happy Canada Day

Hubby and I flew down to the Oregon coast for the weekend. We're camping with our friends Fred and Joanne, Doug and Aline, Kim, Joanna and Deka.

We spent the afternoon hanging out at the campground, reading, telling stories, riding our bikes, reading...

And the evening sitting round the campfire, drinking wine and roasting marshmallows.

We may not be in Canada (we're camping in Oregon), but it's been a great Canada Day.

Places to Fly Evergreen Wings and Waves Waterpark, McMinnville Oregon

Last year hubby and I visited the aviation hall of the Evergreen Aviation and Space Musuem in McMinnville.  Nehalem Bay is only a 30 minute flight from McMinnville. This year hubby and I along with Kim, Joanna and Miss M had planned to spend the morning at the museum and the afternoon at the newly opened Evergreen Wings and Waves Waterpark.  But once we arrived, we were surprised that they didn't offer a combo pass. The museum was $27.00 pp and the waterpark was $30.00 pp. For anyone who can't add up that's $57.00 each. That's a little much.  We tossed a coin and decided as it was hot and sunny we needed to cool off. So waterpark it was.

 

 

What's so special about the waterpark that we flew all the way to Oregon? We could have gone somewhere closer to Vancouver. Are you kidding me? Look at what's on the roof of the waterpark.

 

 

It's a Boeing 747. There was no question we were going here. I'm not sure who was more excited. Hubby and Kim, the pilots? Or Miss M who is 7. The pilots are both in their 30's by the way. The 4 big slides start out in the fuselage of the 747. The guys were all over the stats... how to get a plane on top of a building and so on.

 

Joanna and I were all about the people watching. There were an awful lot of ill fitting swimsuits. When you're my size you should not be wearing an itsy bitsy polka dot bikini! At least it made us feel good about ourselves. All our girly bits were appropriately covered, with no muffin top hanging over. It was not a pretty sight.

 

 

Anyways, first up we paid our entry fee and our locker rental fee. See the blue band on hubby's wrist? That's our locker key, you just wave the band in front of the black thingy and voila the locker opens. At least there is no key to lose.

 

 

 

There are 10 slides. We did not have time to go on them all. But that's okay. We were actually too old for 3 of them. Ages 2 to 4 only? Can  you say ageist?

 

 

We also didn't make it into the play area which had another 3 slides, with no age or height restrictions.  It looked like a lot of fun especially when the fire fighting bucket dumped 300 gallons of water on everyone.

 

 

We didn't even make it into the leisure pool, hot tub or vortex pool. We did however have multiple rides on the big 4.  While not the biggest, or the longest, or the fastest or the highest slides in North America, they were just perfect for us. I'm not actually a fan of big water slides - I managed to knock myself out going down the water slide at the world jamboree in Sydney. That kind of turned me off them for awhile.  

 

The Mach 1 slide has a minimum height of 48". Miss M was tall enough. Not sure what would have happened otherwise. This is the only ride that you don't take a tube with you. It's just you and your swimsuit. Oh, if your swimsuit has any metal decorations the staff will not let you on this slide. We saw them turn away several people who had metal grommits on the pockets of their boardshorts.

 

Mach 1 is the orange slide. The description from the website says, "This is a high-speed enclosed body slide with tight wrapping turns, switchbacks and drop sections that leave the stomach in the air. Riders shoot down this slide at daring speeds." None of the 4 of us were overly impressed with it. Also because you can only slide one at a time the line up took forever. We only went down it once.

 

Tail Spin is the blue slide. Hubby and I took a double tube. From the website, " This is a high-energy single/double inner tube ride that features fast acceleration off the start and transitions into a tight series of figure eight high banking curves." This one we all liked. I think we went two or three times. The last time we all took single tubes, it's much slower. The double tubes with the weight of two adults move a lot faster. Next time, double tubes all the way.

 

 

The yellow slide is the Sonic Boom. "This slide offers an “outdoor water park” feel with a view of most of the park.  Above the roof, the top section of the slide is transparent to allow glimpses of the shape of the plane and building.  Inside the park the top section of the slide is removed and there is an open top.  Better suited for first time or novice riders this is a superb lead up ride to the higher energy rides."  Um, yeah. Translation = boring. We only did this once as well. Then it was back to the Tail Spin.

 

Everyone's favourite slide? The green one. The Nose Dive. Joanna was a bit concerned, because she thought we had to go down head first.  No idea why it's called the nose dive, but you go feet first. Well most of the way! The best part is the big bowl above. Hubby called it the toilet bowl slide. 

"Nose Dive is a high-energy two-person inner tube ride that combines a fast initial drop into a high rate bank turn.  It leads the riders into a dark oscillation section before ‘breaking out of the clouds’ through a hologram image and into the circular bowl below. The ride culminates with a smooth transition and dropout for a spectacular splash and water landing."

Apparently there's a hologram just before the bowl, but we all missed it. Not to worry, the slide was still awesome. I'm not sure how many times we went down this one. Lots.

 

We finished off the day in the wave pool, or Splash Down Harbor as it's officially known. Hubby needed it to be a little deeper, even with the waves on he could still touch the bottom. The rest of us were fine. We missed Dive In movie night, it was the night before. You can relax in the pool and watch a movie on the big screen. This week it was Jaws. 

 

Lunch was a burger, fries and a drink from the Milky Way Cafe upstairs. The portions were good, the food not bad, and for $6.00 there were no complaints.  We missed the H2O museum. It sounds like it might have been worth a look. I'm not sure any of us even knew it was there. 

Overall it was an afternoon well spent. I think we would all agree that we got our money's worth. Our only suggestion is that they need a combo pass or a 2 day pass with the museum and the waterpark.  

 

note the attention to detail. We are walking back down the entry road from the museum/waterpark to the airport. Even the road is painted to look like a runway. The building you can see is the headquarters for Evergreen Aviation, and infront of the building is a plane. It looks like it's taking off down the runway.