Last month (yup, a little behind) we had a really special trip with my Grandfather. He along with the rest of my family came over for spring break, but we didn't see the standard English tourist sights, no we had some very specific plans in mind.
Grandpa flew B-17s over here during WWII, and our goal was to find his old airfield and as much information about the area as we could... and we were quite successful. Here we all are at the memorial that marks what used to be the main gate. All the buildings and roads are gone (except for one huge hanger), but a lot of the runway and taxiways are still there, crumbled down concrete with crops growing up in between them. It's really cool, and you can totally see what the layout of the base was like.
After visiting the memorial we headed to the local pub for lunch, where we found these these two lovely British women who were teasing my Grandpa. Too cute. They said they were looking for good American men because they missed them the first time around!
After we left lunch we started driving around the old airfield it's self. After a while we noticed a car following us. We slowed down to let it pass, and it stopped beside us. It was the guy who takes care of the memorial, we had met him earlier, and he's waaaaay talkative. Anyway, he and this other guy run a museum for the airfield out on this farm. And we told them Grandpa served there. So they tracked us down in the car to bring us to the farm turned museum. It was a little odd, but pretty cool at the same time. So we followed them to the farm / WWII museum, barreling down single lane roads at 60 mph. Ah, British driving. When we got there, it was actually really impressive. They had two big buildings filled with memorabilia from the airfield. They found my Grandpa's name in several places, and we were able to see what missions he flew in, and what position his plane was in. A ton of history was there. Here we are outside, just in this guy's yard... turned museum! (The boys were in the car, they were way over it by this point...)
A few days later we headed to Duxford where we got to climb up and through a B-17. We felt like VIPs, getting to go behind the ropes and everything! Here is Grandpa giving his hero shot from his seat.
Here are the two pilots and one wanna-be pilot in the family. They're all looking pretty sharp in the cock pit, don't you think?
The boys were checking out the gunner's seat. N thought that was pretty neat, to get to climb all thourgh the plane... the rest of us had to agree!
Here's the whole group of us, outside the plane.
And here is N and T, both pretty much done with Duxford at this point! (Although I think T was more done with the airplanes than N... imagine that.)
We did manage to get in a little general sightseeing. One day we went for a walk in Cambridge. The flowers were just starting to bloom, so Grandma L got some really good shots of all three boys!
N is sitting up on one of the bridges over the river Cam, watching the punters go by.
And here is Uncle T with the King's College Chapel behind him. It was amazing. One of the coolest churches I've seen. So perpendicular.
