Night Flights

Yes, it’s been quiet here at Mt. Hope lately.

What I’ve been doing instead of blogging: sleeping, reading light romance novels, watching season 1 of When Calls the Heart (be still, my teenage heart) on Netflix, attending the CC parent practicum and Essentials (English grammar and writing) tutor training for three full days (the kids were all in learning camps), and heading out on an overnight field trip with the boys to Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum and Waterpark!

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We attended a Night Flights event with some of our charter school friends at Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. We returned home this evening and I’m exhausted, but excited to share some pictures with you!

The drive up to Evergreen is one of my favorite scenic routes. The weather was gorgeous yesterday afternoon when we set out. We passed miles and miles and miles of vineyards (and more vineyards), orchards (especially hazelnuts), rolling hills, trees, fields (wheat, rye grass, lavender, mint, and many other crops), horse farms, plant nurseries, and more gorgeous scenery.

We met up with our best friends and began the evening on the playground.

The kids had some free time in the space building. It was rather nice to have the place to ourselves!

Our group was served dinner in the café. We then headed to the IMAX theater to watch ‘Living in the Age of Airplanes.’ After the movie, we walked over to the aviation building.

 

Our guides gave an educational presentation (which was fantastic and entertaining) about the early history and principles of flight.

 

The students were able to go inside the Spruce Goose to learn more about it. It is ginormous.

The students were also able to go inside the B-17 Flying Fortress (one of only a handful of the WWII bombers left!).

After the educational program, we gathered our sleeping bags and settled in. See that blank floor space in the picture below? Yeah, that’s where we all “slept.” Right under the tail end of the Spruce Goose. I did have my best girl friend in the whole world right next to me. It was almost like we were back in high school as we talked late into the night. [grin]

I think the kids did mostly settle down around midnight. We were awoken by an air raid siren at 6am. Seriously.

Once we had made ourselves more (or less) presentable and gathered up our gear, we walked back over (in the rain) to the space building for breakfast in the café. We cleared the tables after breakfast and used the space to build paper rockets for a rocket launching contest outside.

After rockets, we were given more free time in the space building before the museum opened.

When the museum opened, we killed a couple hours in the aviation building again.

By that time, the kids could hardly contain themselves because they knew what was next on the schedule: the water park. Pictures tomorrow!