Airplanes, Vineyards, and Thistle

Yesterday after work and breakfast we headed over to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum for some serious aviation goodness. It's funny that I lived in Long Beach (CA) for all those years a mile or two from the Spruce Goose and never even saw it until I moved to Oregon and saw it here in McMinnville. We'd flown into the McMinnville airport and walked to the museum. From the road you can see (huge wall of windows) the plane inside the museum and I said to Kevin "It doesn't really look that big. How huge is it, really?" (Can you even SEE it in there, from here?)

Well I can tell you, it's freakin' HUGE. 

This is a great museum. There's one huge building with all airplanes (including the Spruce Goose), and another building with a very rich space exhibition. So much information!!

I loved the look of the engine guts of the SR-71 Blackbird. This is an amazing aircraft. Since 1976, it has held the world record for the fastest air-breathing manned aircraft (Mach 3+, West to East coast in 67 minutes), and was used primarily for reconnaissance. Read more about it here. 

Next door to the main museum there's a water park, with a water slide that comes out of a 747!! How cool is that? (Not today, though…it was 36 degrees here.)

Last night at the Joel Palmer House we had a glass of a pinot noir we really liked (Seufert Coleman 2009) so we thought we'd go to the winery and see what else they had. (We're learning a bunch about pinot noir this trip. I know, it's about time!) We tasted several pinots at Seufert that we really liked (and brought some home). We got some recommendations for a couple other wineries, and next headed over to Stoller Vineyards.

View from the tasting room. As you can see, the weather was amazing!

During the warmer months, those huge window wall doors are opened up and the lawn is covered with adirondak chairs and tables. Sounds like we need to come back with a picnic! (We brought home a Chardonnay and a 2009 single vineyard Pinot Noir from Stoller.)

 Also, last night (second day of Kevin's birthday extravaganza), we went to Thistle. Small, cozy, only a couple of blocks from where we're staying, and SO GOOD. We did the chef's whim menu (giving up all decision-making, just like we like it) and it was so worth it. Reasonable prices for fabulous, creative food. Highlights: the steelhead tartare, the kale salad, pork rillettes, and the cardamom panna cotta.

Birthday celebration day two! Success!