Part 1, our last fun day together, Sunday, August 28, 2011

Our plan for Sunday, to go to the Elk Cove Winery and to go to Lincoln City to see the Pacific Ocean and a bit of the beach. Our final stop back in Portland--3 Doors Down Cafe for dinner. I had looked up addresses on the Internet and gave them to Milton to put into his Garmin. Once we had everyone loaded in the Zipcar, we decided to head for Lincoln City first so that we wouldn't be at the winery early in the morning.

That ride to Lincoln City took me along the same route that Mama and I followed many times to Spirit Mountain Casino where we had fun playing the penny machines. I had not been that way since she died in January, and I am so glad that I had family and friends with me as memories flooded in continually.


One of the things that Mama and I did was to drive through the grounds of the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum and Wings & Waves Waterpark in McMinnville, Oregon. First thing that caught my eye, the 747 on top of the waterpark. Yes, on top of the waterpark which is inside the building which houses 10 waterslides, a wave pool and a children's museum which teaches all about the power of water. You can see some of the waterslides coming out of the plane!



Second thing that caught my eye, this shuttle used by the museum to transport folks between buildings and vehicles, I'm guessing. Cool design!


And the last thing that caught my eye, something I will go inside and see one day, is the Spruce Goose, the largest plane ever built. I pulled to a stop in front of the building and took this photo through the front passenger window. With the help of Picnik, you can see it pretty well through the glass wall, all four engines on the wing to the right and just one of them on the wing to the left. The plane's wingspan is 319 feet, 11 inches. See the white dot there toward the left at the bottom of the photo, right at the second open window? That is a man's ball cap! Yep, a full grown man! He's facing the window, looking down at one of several display panels which surely tell the story of this gigantic airplane. And be sure to notice the tail, right up there close to the American flag. The plane's height is 79 feet 4 inches, which I assume is from the tip of the tail down because I also found this statistic, fuselage height 30 feet.

Here's what I found out about it on their Web site: Built entirely of wood due to wartime restrictions on metals, this massive airplane stands as a symbol of American industry during World War II. Learn more about the history, first flight, and legacy of this mammoth plane. The largest airplane ever constructed, and flown only one time, the Spruce Goose represents one of man’s greatest attempts to conquer the skies. It was born out of a need to move troops and material across the Atlantic Ocean, where in 1942, German submarines were sinking hundreds of Allied ships. Henry Kaiser, steel magnate and shipbuilder, conceived the idea of a massive flying transport and turned to Howard Hughes to design and build it. Hughes took on the task, made even more challenging by the government’s restrictions on materials critical to the war effort, such as steel and aluminum. Six times larger than any aircraft of its time, the Spruce Goose, also known as the Flying Boat, is made entirely of wood. Originally designated HK-1 for the first aircraft built by Hughes-Kaiser, the giant was re-designated H-4 when Henry Kaiser withdrew from the project in 1944. Nevertheless, the press insisted on calling it the “Spruce Goose” despite the fact that the plane is made almost entirely of birch. The winged giant made only one flight on November 2, 1947. The unannounced decision to fly was made by Hughes during a taxi test. With Hughes at the controls, David Grant as co-pilot, and several engineers, crewmen and journalists on board, the Spruce Goose flew just over one mile at an altitude of 70 feet for one minute. The short hop proved to skeptics that the gigantic machine could fly. Perhaps always dreaming of a second flight, Hughes retained a full crew to maintain the mammoth plane in a climate-controlled hangar up until his death in 1976.

Flat Stanley visits the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, Oct. 14

Miss Edna, Flat Stanley and I headed for McMinnville because I figured that the little guy would love visiting the airplanes and helicopters. I know I've been wanting to see that huge wooden airplane, the Spruce Goose, the one that Howard Hughes designed and had built. McMinnville is only an hour from Portland by Buick.



Flat Stanley had heard Miss Edna and me talking about the Dairy Queen in Newberg where we've enjoyed a milkshake or two. As we neared it he asked, "Could we stop for an ice cream cone, please?" I like a young man with good manners! All he wanted was that ice cream cone--it's big enough to satisfy a crowd of people! Mama and I got the four chicken stips meal to share.





"Look! Look!" Flat Stanley hollered, excited at what he could see from the highway as we approached the turn off for the the museum. Colorful hot air balloons! As we got closer, I realized they were teathered and that a small crowd had gathered no doubt waiting for their turn in the basket.

We were thrilled to see this kind of aircraft, so to speak, which made us even more excited about touring the museum. Unfortunately, the museum was closed for a private party, preventing our entering it. We did have fun outside, though.



First we spent a moment of silence at this memorial, right out front of the museum. I was happy that Flat Stanley wanted his photo beside it so that everyone could read what it says.



Flat Stanley decided this was close enough to get to the camo-jet on display outside the museum building that houses the Spruce Goose.



On the opposite side of the entrance to the museum, Flat Stanley poses in front of a plane that sports a pin-up girl on its nose. When we visited the museum's Web site later on, we found out that soldiers sometimes called planes like this one Gooney Birds or Goonies. "That's funny!" Flat Stanley said. I asked him if he'd seen that movie "Goonies," and he told me that he liked it a lot. (Maybe we'll get to go over to the Cannon Beach so we can show him that great big rock that's in the movie. Folks affectionately call it the Gooney Rock; it's official name is Haystack Rock. We'll see how it goes with time and the weather--sometimes the roads can be bad between here and the coast in the winter. The possibility of a visit is a secret, so don't tell the little guy if you see him, OK?)



We found this sign in the ground beside plane.



Out in front on the plane, there's a small sitting area with this sign in it. Flat Stanley wondered about having the benches and the picnic table there in the little garden. I explained that many of the visitors to the museum would be veterans of different wars, some of them getting on up their in years. Those folks would appreciate having a bench to sit on while thinking back to their days in uniform. "I bet families with kids would like that picnic table," he told me, "because they could sit down and eat something before they go inside the museum." He's a smart kid, isn't he?





Around to the side of the parking lot between this building and a new one being built, there's a fenced area. Flat Stanley decided to stay in the car to take a look at this Navy helicopter. Miss Edna made sure he didn't fall out onto the pavement.



At the back of the main museum building, Flat Stanley spied this plane. We didn't know what it was, but he wanted his photo beside it anyway.



Then we walked to the front of the plane for a photo and found out that the plane is a MIG. Can you see it in the orange circle? "I like the paint on this plane," Flat Stanley said. "I bet it's blue on the bottom and camo of the top to make it hard to see from anywhere at all. What do you think?" he asked me. I had to agree with him. "I'm proud of you for noticing that," I told him as we drove away from the museum. "We'll come back for another visit soon," I promised.

You can see that Oct. 28 visit at Portland (OR) Daily Photo. You won't want to miss it because the little guy had a blast--got to meet some "movie star" types even!