Yesterday
we saddled up the youngsters on hand and finally made our first visit to the
new airplane museum. That would be the
one that moved away from Galveston and up to Ellington Field near Houston. We were going to go to the big grand opening
they were planning, but the dates for the opening just happened to coincide
with the biggest event of the year in Galveston County, so we didn’t make
it. As it turned out the event was
canceled anyway. Oh, that big Galveston
County event? Hurricane Harvey.
Sure
we felt the requisite sense of betrayal and all when they made the decision to
leave, but after seeing their new digs, I can hardly blame them for jumping
ship. The building they are now in is
huge. Not one, but two hangers hold the
planes themselves. And they also have
several different exhibit halls and a special events room. The exhibits are hands-on, and each one
teaches something about flight from the perspective of science, engineering and
technology. They even had a place that
taught you how to make a paper airplane that would actually fly. Mine was a bomber. Last time I saw it, it was flying in the direction
of Kemah and Galveston Bay (No, not
really, but it did fly pretty well and almost smacked Zak in the head one time). Speaking of Zak, he and his brothers and even
his Dad all did a passable job in the hang gliding room. Fascinating contraption where you sit in a
swing and technology combined with a huge video screen takes you on an actual flight. Each movement you make causes your screen persona
to react as if you were in flight. Zak
and Caleb and Josh got within 100 feet of the target. Not bad.
Luke was having too much fun just swinging to pay attention to the movie
in front of him. Not totally technologied
out yet, that one.
The boys
(That would include Josh – in Luke’s
name, of course) also took part in a scavenger hunt the museum provided. It was self-paced. All you had to do was find the exhibits
mentioned on the paper and answer the questions. At the end of the journey you turned it in at
the gift shop and received a little toy airplane and a certificate signed by the
president of the museum, himself. To Josh’s
credit, he did allow Luke to choose which toy he wanted. Now whether he lets Luke keep it remains to
be seen. About the only thing we didn’t get
to do was experience a flight simulator.
As it turned out, you have to be ten or older, so Zak was the only one
who would get to do it. Problem was, by the
time we got there the flight instructor was out to lunch. We salved our disappointment with a quick
shopping trip in the gift shop.
Our
final destination in Texas was … drumroll here … Pancho’s. Yep, Josh’s all-time favorite Mexican food
haven just happened to be less than ten minutes away, so where to have lunch
was a no-brainer. And it was indeed a
grand experience. Josh downed nine
tamales (Much fewer than the
record-setting numbers he put down as a teenager). We were there as he passed on to the next
generation the finer points of eating a Pancho’s sopapilla. It was enough to choke us up a little bit (or was that the enchiladas I had?). It was truly a touching experience. One that we will certainly have to repeat as
often as we can, at least until Waco opens its own Pancho’s.
Psalms
19:7 says, “The law of the Lord is
perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes
of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.”
Father,
thank you for excitement in Caleb’s eyes as he tried to take in all the airplane-related
goodness around him, for the determination in Zak as he searched for the next
clue in his scavenger hunt, for the awe in Luke as he surveyed the hanger from the
balcony, and for the absolute glee in AnnaGrace when she finally located her
Mommy way up there in that balcony. Amen.
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