The oxymoron I speak of is "family vacation." As I figure it, a trip has to either have a reasonable expectation of being relaxing, or be exciting in some way, in order to count as a vacation. (Preferably with elements of both, but let's not be picky.) Not that I don't love my family, but we don't do particularly well together in confined spaces for extended periods of time, so on the whole, it isn't exactly tranquil.
As for exciting, they have once again chosen New Jersey as the site of our mostly-yearly temporary migration, so that's pretty much out too. Not that I have anything against New Jersey either, but I'm not a beach person and boardwalks have long since lost their novelty, so going "down the shore" (when there are so many places we haven't seen yet, and several we're always saying we should go back to, yet never quite manage to) is just kind of lame.
Not very relaxing, not very exciting... it's not so much "vacation" as "let's move to New Jersey, and then move back home a week later!" :/ But hey, at least this year, we're staying in a different town... (Instead of another year in Ocean City, we're cheaply renting a neighbor's vacation home in Cape May. That's almost exciting, right?)
The upside is my Dad discovered the NAS Wildwood Aviation Museum, which we explored today!
Historic Hangar #1 was restored and converted into the museum
UH-1 Huey Can't remember/figure out what this one is!
Bell OH-13 Sioux Helicopter Kitties like airplanes too!
HH-52A Seaguard Helicopter (this one served on board the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker vessel "Polar Star")
Air and Space 18A "Flymobil" Gyrocopter 1940's radios and transmitters
Vultee BT-13 Valiant Marine OE-2 Bird Dog (Cessna 321)
T-28C Trojan with arresting gear for carrier-deck landing
Propeller balancing area in the prop shop Wright Cyclone R-1820 engine (used in B-17s)
Bethlehem Steel! Smile, Daddy!
TBM Avenger (the type torpedo-bomber stationed at NAS Wildwood during WWII)
Grumman F-14 Tomcat (a la "Top Gun") Lockheed T-33 Thunderbird / a Blue Angels' A-4 Skyhawk
Army Boeing-Stearman PT-17 Kaydet
The part of the hangar we couldn't get to! Can't remember what these are either, but there's lots!
There were a lot more exhibits too, including "All Available Boats" (about 9-11 rescue ops), a whole area about the Coast Guard, and a ton of historical stuff from WWII, when it was an a Naval air combat training station. Very interesting stuff. And I got a hat.
Cara and Quinn came down to hang for a few days... I think he's afraid of the sistercreature. (As well he should be?)
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