When my Aunt and Uncle were visiting at the start of August, one morning we got a phone call while I was in the shower – the parents felt like visiting a museum. Where should we go? Obviously HARS was my first thought. I knew I wanted to make friends with VH-OJA soonest.
I threw out that suggestion and the parents agreed, and the other half left the bathroom, and a few minutes later I was yelling his name because I just remembered.. call them back and tell them to wear covered shoes. You need to wear covered shoes to visit HARS. My mother has this habit of wearing high heeled clogs which mean her toes and her ankles are exposed to the world. Luckily they had not left home yet, and sneakers were the order of the day for all.
I personally chose to wear some sneakers that Sephyroth had sent me in this package. It felt right that I should wear something he chose to a place I would love to take him. It also felt right that as we went to view VH-OJA, there were Breaking Bad style clouds floating about.
A moment happened which I have dreamed about since I was a child.. There I am, standing on tippy toes, touching the underside of a 747. I will not lie to you, there was salt water forming in my eyes from happiness.
There was also this moment which I had dreamed of for many years – touching the tyres of a 747. They are smaller than I expected them to be. HARS had to come up with a way to tie the tyres down because there can be a lot of wind at Albion Park and in high wind conditions, 747s *want* to fly. Here is some video of that happening to a plane in storage.
If you think about it, that “want to fly while on the ground” characteristic speaks to an amazingly designed plane. No wonder the 747 has been an incredible aircraft for such a long time.
HARS was a fantastic museum to visit. There was a lot to see. It is a small world – we ended up on a tour with the guy who services our vehicles and quite a lot of kids, which could have been deeply annoying but they were very well behaved considering the tour went for two hours and I think maybe twice there was screaming. If we’d been 20 minutes earlier there would have been no kids on our tour, and the tour that went just after ours was just two people.
We will go back again – each tour guide has different personal areas of interest so each tour will be different and they will each have different stories to tell. If you like or love planes you will love this place. Even if you do not love planes, you will probably still enjoy visiting HARS..
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Weekly Wrap Up –
This week we’ve recycled the former chook triangle into a cage to sit on top of the garden bed. It was first chook proofed with hardware wire during the week, and then today it was covered in fly wire to protect the plants inside from moths and caterpillars.
We’ve also recycled the hardware wire covered cat door we created when our new little kitty arrived home a couple of years ago and made that into a cover for the nasturtiums. The chooks have been out and about quite a bit since Thursday after a few days locked in, free ranging and eating spiders. Pics next week as this post is already picture heavy. :)
We’re watching 2 episodes of 24 a day at dinner time – this was a show neither of us had ever seen. We’re enjoying it. It is nice to watch a show together and it rarely happens that we both like something. Mr Robot has inspired us to try some new shows and find things we like.
I am watching The Pacific by myself – another show we have never seen. There are three reasons I wanted to see this show –
– on our last trip to Hawaii I became interested in WW2 history. I brought home 4 books on Pearl Harbor and I got a couple more for my Kindle.
– Anything Tom Hanks has been involved with you can be 100% sure it is going to be pretty incredible has been my experience. I’ve seen 5 episodes and this is no exception to the Tom Hanks rule.
– Rami Malek, again. Though the character he plays is deeply creepy.. and I do mean creepy.
Oddly enough, I discovered that I have the companion book to the series on my e-reader, so I am reading that as well..
That is superbly awesome! I think that I should make my way to the EAA museum one time. I was there in school (I remember hearing the story of SC Johnson’s trips to Brazil to get carnauba wax) but haven’t been back since.
And it’s amazingly cool that you had some of me there with you in spirit when you touched the 747! :-)
It was such a happy moment for me.. bucket list item ticked. Now, I just want to marshall one of the things in to park with the lighted wands, and we’ll be all set. :)
I love the plane photos, especially the wheel shots.
Good idea to convert the chook triangle temporarily.
I did spend all that time painting it, might as well get more use out of it. :) If we get any more chooks we will be getting chicks so we won’t need the triangle again. :)
What a fantastic experience to get so close to the planes. We went some years ago to a military aircraft museum in the UK which was like stepping back into the past.
Hi Ness, thanks for dropping by my blog! ;) I enjoy yours greatly.
It was a wonderful thing to experience, I’m so glad HARS exists. :)
I am a little but plane obsessed so I would love this! I live near to an airport and we quite often go and get our fix there, watching them take off and land. We have a cute aeronautical museum that is a lot of fun too.
Hey there Happy Homebird.. :) I’ve been an aviation geek since I was a kid, but now I live quite some way from the large airport so I don’t get to spend a lot of time watching planes anymore.. whenever we head to Sydney we usually stop by for a quick watch. :)
I am not sure why but wordpress threw you into the spam bin – I’ve pulled you out of there. :)
I’ve checked out your blog, what a lovely design! I’ve added you to my feed reader. :)
Now awesome to fulfill your dreams!
Thanks for dropping by my place, Betty! ;)
That looks like a fantastic museum. I got to love planes when I was cleaning them and have been to lots of air shows. I need to check out some museums too.
HARS is pretty awesome. I believe the UK have a few good Aviation museums though I am not sure where.. :)