The flying circus airshow

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Giving mom a breather
Location: The flying circus air show

So we are heading out again. Just Emma and dad. I had heard about the flying circus air show several times. But as far as the family goes nobody had ever been there because... well it's in Bealton... or well in the middle of nowhere so how fun can it be...

Anyway it was hot air balloon weekend (not that we saw them all since you can only launch them early morning/evening). But we did finally see the air show...

What better way to start an air show with planes from WWII than this:



And given the location (US) a parachute jump bringing in the flag :-) Emma got very excited to see him landing.



Just before the show is starting up the planes are lined up along the fence (ohh yeah you can actually go way up close and see the planes before and after the show and even get a ride in one if you want to...).



Here the planes are taking off. It's pretty cool and it gets even better (well according to Emma). They are not too loud and do pretty cool tricks... yep there you have it from a four year old (the loud ones are the jets we saw at the air show at Andrews Air force base)



Despite not seeing a sea of hot air balloons we did see a different kind of balloon. Smaller ones that is... Basically the raise balloons in the air and the planes have to pop them... with the propeller on the plane that is... Sounds easy right... but those things move in the wind and it can be a bit bumpy that close to ground.



Here is a couple of fly by shots. yeah I kind of like these planes. Much better chance of getting a good shot of them ;-)



Bombing the red baron running around the landing strip.



Here is another feature I haven't seen before. One plane fly up way high and drops a roll of paper towel. While it's descending the pilot has to cut up the paper towel as many times as possible. Kind of like an extremely close dogfight...



A little twist ;-)



In the old days where the distances were big and transportation kind of slow. Mail was picked up from remote locations by plane. Not only were it picked up by plane but they sometimes couldn't land. So instead the mail bag was tied to a piece of rope which would be raised up into the air and the postal plane would catch the mail bag using a hook (kind of sounds like a computer game but ... it's for real).



The next one was really cool. Well as long as I am not the one in the plane that is... What happens when you are in a single engine plane and that one is shot off...
yep... no problem... just land without it...
The cool part is when you stand on the ground and can hear the wind as the plane cuts through it. As you can see in the photos the propeller isn't moving at all and it's not because of a fast shutter speed more since it's just not moving...



We didn't get to see this one in the air but it sure does look sleek and dare one say sporty ;-)



Of course we would have to get a photo with Emma posing in front of the plane. As you can see it was a pretty warm day and shortly after this photo we packed up our stuff and left for home. I was a little concerned that the wee one would get overheated. So we missed the last part of the show but we had fun.



Ohh yeah well even though it was far from good conditions for a hot air balloon they did want to please the crowd a little bit and the ReMax hot air balloon team did inflate their $48,000 custom balloon to show it off. And hey that was very cool and now I can see why they don't set them up mid day. It was hard to control. But here it is.



That is it from our visit. And I hope we will be back there before the end of the season and get the rest of the family with us since it's very nice down there for setting up you blanket and all to just have a good time :-)

Thorup strand

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Travel Date: July 27, 2008
Travel Destination: Thorup strand

Here is a couple of photos from our trip to Thorup strand. It was one of those days where mom would head off with farmor to do other things and the girls wanted to go to the beach... soo... yeah of course ;-)

Here is a few "mood" photos from the beach and a couple of panos to finish up the post ;-)



Along the coast there are several of these buildings. They are housing the rescue boats. Usually colorful buildings all with the Danish flag on the front doors.



Here you can see how the fishing boats are pulled up on the beach when they are not out on the water. On the west coast this has been done for a long time and when you don't happen to have a harbor near by this is a good way of protecting the ship from the waves.



Here are a couple of panoramas from the beach. You may have to click it to see the full photo. They tend to get rather wide and not show well in minimized format.

Visiting Hollins farm

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

After having talked about it for the longest time ever we finally visited Hollins farm for the Pick-your-own Fruits & Vegetables. Actually we were primarily going for the peaches but as it turned out they sure had a lot of other things to offer :-)

I got some photos that I posted on my photo blog and they can be found here: Sunflowers, Butterflies.

Just since I am experimenting with taking panorama photos of everything here is a view over the corn field and hills. (As usual you may have to click the photo to get a larger version).



It was a very beautiful day to visit and not only were there a blue sky but the temperature seemed to be ever increasing while we were there.



Initially we started out picking berries. Later on Jacki got the pots boiling and made some of the best ever sweet ice tea I have had. Not only was it ice tea but it was just as sweet as it should be. You know kind of southern style sweet :-)



Moving on to the peaches posed a different challenges. Not only were there row on row of peach trees but also different kinds of peaches and they do hang a little higher than the berries so it takes a little extra effort to reach them. But we managed (well I must admit I was mostly taking pictures) to pick some peaches and get them in the bag.



Ok... here is one photo I didn't take... Guess why??? Anyway, we were heading off to find some carrots and followed the signs to the field. First thing I see is Jacki standing a couple of foot in the field thoroughly examining some weeds. That's when I learned something new. She didn't know what a carrot top looks like. But I guess growing up getting carrots in a bag from the store how would you know. I however (well it's been a few years) grew up in my grandma's backyard where plenty of carrots were growing. They were however not surrounded by that many weeds but kept in rows and all that good stuff. I looked like most carrots were either too small or had already been dug up so we weren't too lucky. Emma however did get a carrot to show off ;-)



On to the tomatoes... and yes they grow on bushes like these and the real good ones seems to be hiding near the ground. Emma was real good at finding them once she got the trick and we got some good fresh tomatoes out of it. Notice how every picked tomato is inspected before being placed in the tray.



Here is the fun part or well deffinently different. Corn... Emma didn't hesitate following mom in the corn and I must admit that the corn we brought home turned out to be real sweet and when eating it with dinner it's almost like candy only a lot healthier :-)



Here is Emma posing... but wait what's that in the background???





One raided potato field + one tractor.... yeah kind of reminds me of seeing a fishing boat heading for the harbor while the fishermen are cleaning the fish on deck being followed by a hoard of seagulls.

Ohh and here was another interesting point and another thing learned about my dearest, sweetest loving wife. How do you tell a potato from a rock? Turns out they are quite similar but there were a few experienced people around to help out with that one :-)



And should you be in doubt yourself here are the potatoes. Well not that I dug them but I sure did photograph them ;-)





You know being all busy with all the farm is offering I completely forgot to mention that on this trip we were joined by Kristy, Cliff and Cameron. As you can see there are a couple of avid photographer here too ;-) and you know. You have to teach them while they're young ;-)



After the trip to the farm we went back home and fired up the grill (yeah I know. It may be old but I prefer charcoal).
While dinner was getting ready Cameron and Emma was playing in the living room.





Now how cute is this...



And just a few extra of Cameron the "little" cutie ;-)