It Is Summer

And that's a fact.

Date nights watching cover bands:

Independence Day in... Independence, where else?

Another trip to Boston for work:

You're not enjoying the summer as much as Lily:

But you can sure try...

Rose spent probably the hottest week of the summer at camp, but it builds character:

Next month: vacation!

2019 Quad City Airshow

After a hiatus of a couple of years, the Quad City Airshow rebooted this year, so we went and checked it out. It was a hot day; the temperature was 95º with a heat index of 107º, but there was a breeze and we brought our own shade. There were lots of cool static displays to check out: 

This is the first time they've had a C-17 Globemaster at the QC show. This monster can haul military trucks and still has enough power leftover to be able to takeoff/land on very short runways. The cargo bay can handle 170,000 lbs. of equipment and the overall length of the plane is half a football field. It was cavernous inside:

It was really difficult to capture the whole plane in a single picture. I even tried taking a panoramic shot on my phone:

It's too tall:

Cynthia tried it, too:

The After Shock jet-powered fire truck was on display before the show started. It reaches speeds of around 400 mph:

I liked the wooden prop on this old plane from the 1930s:

People were allowed to walk through/climb inside a lot of the static displays:

The rest of my airshow photos are posted here: Quad City Airshow album

The umbrellas kept us from melting on a very hot day:

Also, the gyros at the airshow were awesome. There are always a lot of food trucks to choose from, but that one is always the right choice.

Marion Plane Rides

There seems to be a common theme to my blog posts just recently...

We went to the Fly-In Drive-In event at the Marion airport to take some plane rides and we ended up on the news! Cynthia and Rose are in the very first plane featured and I'm visible in the plane that appears in the video at 00:25 (you can kind of see Emily in the backseat): Marion Fly-In Drive-In

Cynthia and Rose were in the plane just ahead of us waiting for takeoff:

It was the first time flying for both Rose and Emily. I think they had fun.

It had been raining, but cleared up right before we got there and the flights were just starting when we arrived. Even though it wasn't sunny, it was still really cool to go up in a plane:

That plane that looks like a dot in the middle of the sky is the plane that Cynthia and Rose were riding in:

I think that's Marion High School down there:

That's Collins Road and Lindale Mall in the distance:

Linn-Mar:

During the flight we kept drifting through low-hanging thin ghostly clouds:

Hey, there's a roundabout! That thing that baffles Iowa drivers:

See the runway up ahead?

They offered helicopter rides as well, but they were shorter than the plane rides and more expensive. This one was just taking off as we were about to land:

Coming back down:

Cynthia and Rose's plane again:

That was a lot of fun and maybe we'll do it again soon.

The airport had several planes and helicopters on display in and around the hangers:

Rose tried out a helicopter:

Good times! I think the girls are ready for a plane flight to Pensacola...

Cessna Ride, 1994

I was recently going through boxes of old photos when I ran across pictures of my first plane ride. In October 1994, my aunt and uncle (who live in Pella) arranged for me to ride in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk piloted by a friend of theirs. The flight was only about 30 minutes long, but it was a lot of fun and very memorable. It was a on a very still autumn evening just before sunset, perfect for flying and taking pictures.

My Grandma Brackin and my sister Abby are in the lower right corner of this photo:

I'm standing in the doorway of the plane and my dad is right behind me. My uncle rode along with me and my dad stayed behind. He's not a fan of flying.

My mom taking pictures of my dad taking pictures of the plane taking off. Everything was documented in full detail, we got it covered:

During the flight I saw a barn burning, so we circled it for a few minutes so I could take pictures:

Then we flew out over Lake Red Rock:

And that's it; those are the only surviving pictures of that experience. If I remember correctly, there were at least two rolls of film with pictures from that evening, but this is all that's left. It's enough, though! We buzzed around over Pella and along Highway 163, before circling back and making a steep landing on the small airstrip. We made a very rapid descent onto the runway; I think the pilot was having fun with us. It was worth every minute.

School's Out for Summer II

Emily finished elementary school! I think she'll be sad to leave Garfield, but a lot of her friends will be going to Franklin with her in the fall. It helps that she's already been to Franklin many times and sorta knows her way around. 

Rose graduated middle school at Franklin and even though those weren't her favorite years, she did well. She won the President's Award, Principal's Award, and a Math Olympiad Award. 

See her?

At the end of the awards ceremony she got to sing with the choir again, her favoritest thing in the whole wide world:

Congratulations, Rose! On to Wash...