No Fear of Flying

Today we decided to take a little family trip out to Galveston to the Lone Star Flight Museum. It was a gorgeous mostly sunny day, 77 degrees...perfect! It was really interesting to drive through Galveston and see all the damage. It was just crazy! There were so many parts of it that were just completely trashed and abandoned, it was really sad. I wish I would have taken some pictures...

The museum we went to had been damaged, but was able to fly out the planes that were in flying condition before the hurricane. The ones who couldn't fly had to stay behind and get flooded. So, half of the museum was still closed so they could fix the planes. We got to see some pretty cool planes anyway. Aaron LOVES airplanes, he's pretty much obsessed with them so it was really neat to see his face when he woke up from his little nap in the van, looked out the window and saw an F-100 Super Sabre!

You can't really see it very well, but seriously, just look at that big smile! It was like being in a candy store. Here they are in front of one of that actual Navy Blue Angels F8F Bearcat! These were designed to defend against the Japanese airborn kamikaze attacks in the 1940's. It was a pretty sweet little plane!

This is us in front of a B-17 Flying Fortress. These are one of my favorite planes. Can you imagine the rumble of the formations of these beasts flying overhead with their 4 engines? Sooooo cool!!! These bombers were amazing. They were used in WWII to bomb Germany and during the Pacific war to bomb Japanese ships. They dropped more bombs during WWII than any other bomber. They could defend themselves and they could get back home even after being all shot up. Seriously, these planes were AWESOME!!! Ever see "Memphis Belle"? And, if you look reeeally closely, you can see me in all my pregnant glory. haha. Yes, I am standing next to the B-17 to make me look smaller.

Here's us with a B-25 Mitchell. This plane was actually a very humbling experience to get to see. This is the plane that they used in the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo in April of 1948. Don't know what I'm talking about? If you saw "Pearl Harbor" (the one that came out a few years ago with Kate Beckinsdale and Ben Affleck), remember at the end they had to fly those planes off of the back of the battle ship with an insanely short takeoff? They launched 16 of them and 15 of them crash landed somewhere around eastern China. The men who flew these knew it was most likely a suicide mission, yet they still went and defended their country. Thankfully, of the 80 men on the planes, 69 of them eventually made it back to U.S. lines.

Well, there is your history lesson for the day. It was so nice to be able too get away for a day and do something as a family! It's something I think we'll do a lot more often. :)