Palm Springs Air Museum

Following are a ton of photos and memories from a great week long vacation we took with my parents to Palm Springs the first week of August. My parents were kind enough to invite us to come with them and use one of their time shares for the week- it was awesome. We stayed in a really nice Marriott timeshare and enjoyed watching movies, swimming, visiting a couple museums and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa- it was a fabulous and relaxing vacation. Thanks again Mom and Dad, we had a great time with you and can't wait to go back again.


We went to the Palm Springs Air Museum and it is filled with airplanes from WWII. They even had a small model replica of Pearl Harbor that had lights and told you the order of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It told you the damage on each ship, etc. It was really cool.

Alex standing in front of a P51 Mustang.

This is where the gunner sat on the B-25 Mitchell. A veteran that was a gunner was there on the day we visited giving the tour of this airplane. The space was very tight and you can see that the area the gunner was in was very small, but the glass and metal surrounding him was bullet proof and he could release directly out of it if he had to parachute out.


Kate and her Dad.

The boys got to go inside and tour a B-25 Mitchell. ( No, I do not remember the names of these planes, but Alex does. - that kid has an incredible memory.)

Grandma and Kate looking pretty as a picture.

Swimming, Swimming and more swimming!!!

Palm Springs is very hot in August- every day we were there the temperature was over 110 Degrees. Are we crazy? No way. We spent at least 2 hours a day at the pool (in the pool) and it was a blast. The kids months of swimming lessons paid off, and we all had a wonderful time playing in the pool. Grandpa had as much fun as the little ones- they played catch and did trick flips into the pool while catching the ball. Kate had a great time with the water wings on and her life vest. We really enjoyed just hanging out together and playing. It was my favorite part of the entire vacation - and my kids loved it also. Grandpa getting ready to make a throw.


Kate showing Grandma how she floats on her back.

Alex doing one of his cool trick catches.

Nick with trick catch.

General Patton Museum

As part of our fun in Palm Springs we drove about 45 minutes away to the General Patton Museum- it is literally in the middle of no where, but while touring found out it was where they trained soldiers for WWII. I know this vacation is sounding very much like a history lesson, but I happen to have a 9 yr. old son that is enthralled with WWII. He loves to read about it, watch movies about it, ask his mother who has no clue, dozens of questions about it. You have to take advantage of opportunities to feed the mind at this age- they sometimes are hard to find.

I really enjoyed this museum- it is so interesting to see all the WWII memorabilia- the place was packed with info and artifacts. You can learn so much interesting stuff.

Statue of General Patton and his Dog ( don't recall his name- sorry -Alex probably does).

This map is printed on silk to help withstand the weather. The green item on it is a clicker- the Army Airborne used this device when being dropped into enemy territory. They would click once and if a friendly was near they would click twice.

This is a wall left from a chapel that was at the Desert Training Base here, with

Grandma and Kate posing for me.

Here are the boys in front of one of many awesome tanks they had there on display.

Kate's favorite way to visit a museum.

The USS Midway

The last part of our trip we went to San Diego for the day and spent around 4 hours on the USS Midway- it was an Air Craft Carrier, now it is a museum. My boys thought it was really cool. They had a ton of planes on deck you could check out up close and you could go through the entire carrier and see where the crew slept, ate, got medical care, the mail room, etc. It was awesome. I would highly recommend it to anyone- well worth the time. We could

have easily spent another hour or two there if we had the time.

Above are Nick and Alex getting briefed in the briefing room (remember Top Gun).

Here are the kids listening to the prerecorded tour- you would enter the number for the area you were at and get a detailed tour about it.

Above is a jet all the kids got a chance to sit in.

This is a photo up by the control tower with the plane deck below. Kate was not tall enough to go on this tour and she was very ticked about it. (Luckily for us - my parents had gone before so they entertained Kate while Bryan and I took the boys).

Alex got to demonstrate steering the boat while the tour guide explained all the men that worked in this area of the control tower.

This was a really fun day and it is incredible to see - it makes you very grateful for the men and women that serve in our military and live on these aircraft carriers for up to 3 months at a time.

San Diego Fun!

While in San Diego we took the kids to a San Diego Padres Baseball Game... It was pretty fun-those huge stadiums are so cool. If our kids could have made it to the ninth inning the Padres even won- on a grand slam at that- Bryan and I were way sad we left at the end of the eighth to say the least. We had a great visit with our niece Whitney and her husband Garrett and it was a fun part of the trip.

Nick and Alex watching the game.

Myself and our niece Whitney who lives in Oceanside now!

Whitney and Kate at Breakfast at this restaurant at the end of the Pier- it was a great
view of the ocean- very pretty!




Whitney's husband Garrett and Alex ( you can see the ocean behind them).

Here is a picture of us on the pier. The smudge mark is on every single photo we took

there. I am very sad about it.

Cute Kate!!