The Spruce Goose

Deb and Dave in the cockpit of the Spruce Goose

Sunday afternoon after I posted the blog, we had a friend pose for a few more sunset shots!!  After supper David shared some of the bourbon he had purchased with our Oregon friends.  They had a “rip-roaring” fire and between that and the waves crashing on the beach, we slept well.

Monday, it was only about an hour to our next stop in McMinnville, so we got up leisurely and got to our park and then went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum.  We spent the entire afternoon there.  The Spruce Goose (or actually Hercules) is housed there along with an amazing assortment of historical planes.  There are 4 buildings.  The first has a 747 on top and houses a water park!!  When we were here before the 747 was parked out in the yard.  The 2^nd building houses the Spruce Goose and historical planes through the Korean War.  The 3^rd building is an IMAX and finally there is the Air and Space Museum.  It was a lot to take in!!  We tried “skyping” my dad while we were there and he was able to see some of the Spruce Goose but I know he is awaiting this blog and pictures.  We took the extra tour into the cockpit of the airplane and got to sit in Howard Hughes seat!!  It was a lot of fun.  The whole time we were so sorry Daddy and Dick Kuklentz weren’t with us as they would be loving all of the history and planes. 

The Spruce Goose was so large Dave had to stitch together a panorama!!



The Water Park Building... see the slides? 

The Black Bird  SR70

Deb pretends to work the radio station in the Spruce Goose

Curtis P40
They said these were flown out of Alaska

Part of the Berlin Wall in the Space  Building
They were talking about Sputnik and the race to space.



Lockheed P-38
Note Japanese flags on side to show hits
This plane shot down Adm. Yamamoto, the designer of Pearl Harbor