Vacation mash up

Damon in the saaaand with diaaaaamonds

Hacker in the background and elderly Annie in the foreground

Tiny frog in the left hand window, checking out Lainie's wreath

Aunt Lainie, Hinrew & Muggin, and us

We used Damon's fourth grade Every-Kid-In-A-Park pass to check out all the new exhibits at the Wright Brothers Memorial. We hadn't been there since Liam was in 4th grade and they've added quite a bit since then. It was hot, but there was a great breeze blowing, which was one of the reasons the brothers picked Kitty Hawk to test out gliders in the first place. I read on vacation and highly recommend David McCullough's The Wright Brothers. It is excellently done and made visiting the Memorial that much better.

A certain someone was up to no good while out unsupervised. At least he didn't come home with any more wool blankets...

Getting some kisses from Hacker. Check out how hard that tail is wagging. He is such a love bug!

The Wright Brothers Memorial

How did it get to be September already?

I guess that makes this post a blast from the past as it happened over a month ago. While in the OBX, we used Liam's fourth grade national park pass (you GOTTA get one if you have or are a fourth grader! Go to this link and set it up! Click here so you don't miss out!) for our very first visit to the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kitty Hawk. 

It was like a bajillion degrees with equal humidity, yet off he goes:

It was fascinating to listen to the spiel given by the Ranger about the mechanics of flying. I'd never really thought about it before, much less in the high humidity of a hot afternoon. I also had never thought about "fuselage" as being a French word or known anything at all about the French word "aileron" meaning "small wing." All I could think about was my Pap Pap. I wish I could have listened to the whole talk with him. He would have understood every word, even though it was being given in Southern.

As I was fighting off tears, the Ranger called on Damon, out of the entire audience, when he talked about the aileron. Damon was hot and shy, but did his best, and received a paper airplane for his efforts. The Ranger laughed about giving him his very first French lesson. The paper airplane was still circling the backseat of my car not even two weeks ago, so I'd say that's pretty good. 

We got there late in the day and kind of had to hoof it around to see what we could see before they closed. It was probably just the right amount of time to do it as nobody had time to complain about being bored. Of course the sign says to not be on the display, but somebody's kids got up there anyway.

And then we found this photographer getting his picture taken.

After the talk we got back outside to see where the previous flights had taken place. Takes one, two, and three were all pretty similar:

But then, WOW, check out how far take four went. Waaay over there! I can only imagine how exciting that must have been.

I'm so glad we went, and I'm betting we'll go back when Damon gets his fourth grade park pass. Maybe by then we'll know a little more about airplanes.