A short reunion

Here are some more pictures from my time in Portland this past weekend. (Captions are for the picture above)

Dad, Mom, Grandpa, and Grandma talking over a light lunch. This was a the beginning of my allergy stricken day.

Dad cooking some extra thick & juicy steaks. Great job on cooking the steaks Dad! Thanks Mom for all the other delicious food!

Adriel, Dad, and Grandpa talking before dinner. I tried to get some pictures of the wild bunnies in the backyard, but they were very rude and would not pose.

The backyard garden. Mom made some yummy strawberry rhubarb pie, with the rhubarb coming straight out of the garden. Extra fresh, and of course, organic.

Just a neat tree in the backyard.

Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum

This past weekend I drove down to Portland to visit my parents for a little birthday celebration. Amazingly enough, four birthday's in our family (Dad, Mom, myself, and Sean) are celebrated within five days of each other. My older brother and his family also made the journey to Portland, along with Grandma. Two days later, my other Grandpa and Grandma made the trip from northeastern Washington and I was able to see them for an evening before traveling back home. I had a blast during my time with Mom and Dad, as I always do. I was fed way too much, but who can resist any of Mom's made from scratch scrumptious recipes?

On Monday, the three of us headed south to McMinnville, OR, visiting the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. They also have an IMAX theater, and we watched a 3D movie describing the creation and construction of the International Space Station. This museum is particularly famous for having the only Hercules in existence. You may better know this plane as the "Spruce Goose", designed by Howard Hughes. It only flew once, back in 1947, but to this day still holds the record for longest wingspan of any aircraft ever made, at an astonishing 319 feet.

After NASA retires it's fleet of aging Space Shuttles in 2010, one will be joining the museum and taking it's place among the other rockets and space craft within the "Space Hangar". Over the next two years, a water park on the museum grounds will also be constructed. This park will have the added twist of a gutted Boeing 747 used as the launching pad for multiple water slides. Sounds like I need to make a return trip after a few years.

Where I lay my head down at night

Ok, this post is mostly for Anna since she's been asking to see my place. But I'm sure everyone else will enjoy seeing the pics as well. For those of you who don't know, I'm renting from a co-worker of mine... who also lives here. I have the upstairs bedroom, bathroom, and loft to myself and we also share the kitchen, living room, and dining room. Oh, I also have half the garage which is really nice. So here are those pics I've been promising...

Here is my loft area... so kind of like having my own personal living room. It is directly across from my bedroom and bathroom. I painted it right before moving in. Yep, two different colors.

The kitchen... well, that was kind of obvious :)

The downstairs living room with a really hot fireplace.

And last but not least, my bedroom... fully equipped with black-out curtains.

Time to fly!

Hip hip hooray! I finally got to fly! For those of you who don't know, my roommates father has been a pilot for 35 years and will be retiring from Hawaiian Airlines next year after 25 years with them. He started as a "puddle jumper" with Hawaiian, flying from one island to the next. After four years, he gained enough seniority to fly routes from the mainland to Hawaii. Currently he flies the Boeing 767-300ER out of SEATAC.

Ohhh, ahhh, can't wait to get in!

Being that flying is his passion in life, he also flies on his days off. At the Olympia airport, there are two planes tucked away inside a hangar, one belonging to his father, and the other his own. Today we flew in his plane, a small "kit plane" two-seater, for almost an hour. After cruising around for a while, he gave me the controls for about 20 minutes. It was great being in control of a plane... what an incredible feeling of exhilaration it gives! We then headed back to the airport, and just in time, as lil' ol' me wasn't feeling too great. After all the sunny weather we've been getting, today was pretty cloudy and windy, especially for a small plane. Well, it really wasn't that bad, but my stomach just can't take much. To fly VFR (visual flight rules) you need to have a minimum 1,000 foot ceiling (before the clouds) and three miles of visibility. We easily had the visibility, but the cloud ceiling was just a tad above 1,500 feet. So we flew between 800 and 1,300 feet for just over 100 miles. Not a bad first flight. Now if only I could get my air legs under me! :)

Will I fit? Actually it wasn't that bad!

These kits are pretty spendy, but extremely efficient. The engine on this plane is only 110 horsepower and weighs in at a measly 150 lbs. However, it is turbo-charged and also has the capability of producing 100% power efficiency up to 18,000 feet. I was told this is quite rare in small engines, as the higher you get, the thinner the air is, and the less efficient the engine. Most small engines will only produce 75% power at 7,000 feet, so this makes a very large difference. One of the upgrades he's done to the plane is purchasing a new in-flight full feathering propeller, allowing the pilot to adjust the pitch for different aspects of flight. The tri-blade is made of carbon fiber and cost a cool $3,000. Looks like this hobby will be a long time in coming.

Not a bad smile considering at this point I wasn't feeling to hot and just wanted to put my feet onto solid ground.