Niche sightseeing

When each of my kids graduated from high school, my gift to them was a trip to wherever they wanted to go.  B was very quick to choose his adventure, and we spent several weeks trekking in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.  E has been more....thoroughly deliberative...in selecting his destination; this summer, as he finishes his Masters degree in aeronautical engineering, he's finally decided on his high school graduation trip.  

(A Handley Page Halifax, at the Yorkshire Air Museum)

We've met up now in England, where we are fully immersed in E's favorite form of travel: aircraft tourism.  

(A Vulcan--a Vulcan, people!--at the Newark Air Museum)

Our family have spent a lot of time and effort traveling to see airplanes. We once spent 2 weeks in California visiting 9 different iterations of a single aircraft. So in some ways this portion of the adventure is not such a departure from custom. What's new (to us) is the density of air museums in England relative to the land mass.  Because England was on the front lines of two world wars, there are TONS of decommissioned wartime airfields--small, local endeavors--that now host tiny but passionate air museums or commemorative sites, as well as a few quite huge collections.  

(A near-mint-condition Avro Shackleton, Newark Air Museum)

So while other folks are touring the castles and art and the grand holdings of the imperial basement, you'll find us happily wandering along the national byways looking for airplanes.

(Inside the Shackleton's front gunner bay)

(And we're also seeing some castles)