KPDX (Portland, OR) February 2016

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Its a Sunny Seattle Day and down to Portland, so we dust the plane off and head to Portland for the day! We land at Atlantic Aviation and get a rental can for the day. Our plans are simple, lunch and OMSI! The Oregon Museum of Space and Industry is great for kids and The Little Dude loves the Museum. First thing first though, lunch! We decide on Lardo for some giant sandwiches and spicy fries! It was so good, the name “Lardo” is very much earned! Then we are off to the Museum.

Little dude could really spend all day here exploring. He loves all of the hands on exhibits and this time we do a show in the planetarium. It is a little old for a 2.5 year old, but still holds his attention pretty well.

 

It is amazing how fast 2 hours at the museum can go! We decide to  depart  to be back at our home airport before sunset. The short winter days make it harder to squeeze in day trips, but it was so great to get the airplane our so early in the year!

 

KSTS (Santa Rosa, CA) November 2015

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Its mid November and we decide to squeeze in a weekend trip with friends to Santa Rosa. The reason for the trip isnt a super happy one, their fur baby Norby isn’t doing so well and could use a cheer up visit. This is one of the few trips that we are going to do at night over the mountains from S50-KSTS. We load up the plane and the 2 kids for a 2 hour flight.

As soon as we pull the plane from the hangar though, we get a light sheen of ice! How is that possible? it isn’t raining and there isn’t any reason for it. We figure out it is just moisture in the air that stuck to the warm wing when we pulled it out from the hangar. We are able to get all the ice cleaned off and have a successful flight to KSTS.

We fly in and the tower is already closed. We land at the Sonoma Jet Center and pick up our mini van for the trip! We are staying with Norbys Mom so we aren’t staying in a hotel for this short trip. Since we get in late, it is straight to bed! The next morning we explore downtown Santa Rosa and notice all the Peanuts Statues! Santa Rosa is the home town of Charles Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts. It is fun to find snoopy and wood stock all over town!

Then we decided to go wine tasting! Wineries are great for kids because they have nice property that kids can explore and enjoy. We even searched for kid friendly vineyards! After a few wineries we went for Sushi dinner before heading back to relax.

The next day was just a departure day as we had a 2 hour flight a head of us and the weather was marginal to come home. Our home airport only has a GPS approach which only goes down to 1600 feet. 1600 feet in Seattle isn’t very low to break out of the clouds in Seattle. We decide to change our destination to KBFI and land there. KBFI has an ILS approach that will get us low enough to see the runway and land. After receiving a new ATC clearance, we are vectored to the approach. We land and park at Clay Lacy aviation, but we still need to get back to S50 about 20 minutes south for the cars. We are able to rent an Uber suburban to fit us all and head over to the Auburn airport. Thankfully we always fly with our car seats!

 

 

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KFHR (Friday Harbor, WA) September 2015

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As summer was winding down, we invited another family to go flying with us to the San Juan islands. The San Juan islands are about a 5 hour journey from Seattle that involves a drive to the ferry docks, a wait, a ride on the ferry, and maybe a connection. With the airplane, we have the drive to the airport and a 30 minute flight!

We planned our accommodations at the Earthbox Inn and we were able to secure a minivan through M&K Autos. Us plus our friends make us 6, and with 2 kids around 2, a minivan was surely needed. It was a beautiful day that we met at the Auburn airport for our short flight. Loading the Bonanza with 6 people including 2 car seats meant that everyone only gets an overnight bag and since it was a short flight, we didn’t need much fuel.

With the kids secured in the way back, we flew over to KFHR and landed in the proposed 30 minutes. Once there we found transient parking easily and unloaded from the plane, though the gate and into our van. I short 3 minute drive had us to the hotel. The hotel offered us 2 large rooms that were side by side and out front was a small patio with tables and umbrellas, it was great for meeting back up. We were on the main road and walking distance to the ferry terminal and everything in-between. We decided to do dinner at the Cask and Schooner Public house and plan the next day.

We decided to go tide pooling near Lime Kiln State Park. The park is known for its Orca viewing, but we didn’t see anything. We did the path down by the water and let the kids explore on the rocks and logs looking for jelly fish and anemones.

We then kept going around the island to Roche Harbor from Lunch. The whole Friday Harbor Island is small and you could probably drive al the way around at the 35mph speed limit in 2 hours. Roche harbor is on the north end of the island and has a resort and its own airport. We stop into the Lime Kin Cafe for a delicious counter service lunch and then try to go back to the hotel for nap time then its time to explore the park and come back to relax with pizza on the patio. On the way back we passed a camel! We later learned the camels name was Mona and she is some what of a Friday Harbor icon!

The next day we go south so see the other side of the island before loading back up in the plane to head back to Auburn. There was a low over cast layer, so we had to pick up an IFR clearance back, and the kids feel asleep.

 

KSHN (Shelton, WA) August 2015

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It is a nice August day and we decide to take the afternoon to go visit our friend who is a fire fighter in  Shelton, Wa. He is working so we know we have to be flexible and he may have to go at any time. Sanderson Field (Shelton airport) also has sky diving on the airport. We land and watch some of the parachute jumpers land. Our Friend meets up and takes us in the Ambulance to lunch! The Little Dude is pretty excited about being able to ride in the ambulance! We have lunch at Roosters a small diner attached to the gas station. Near the end of lunch the pager goes off and our friend has to take a call. No Big deal, we brought the carseat just in case we had to taxi back to the airport, which is exactly what happened. The local taxi is there in no time and were back to the airport for a quick flight home. We wish we had a longer visit and got to see the town but we know how to be flexible.