Evergreen Museum, McMinnville, Oregon

Evergreen Aviation Museum is one of those off the beaten track "must sees" for us.  It is located south-southwest of Portland, Oregon in the farmlands of Willamette Valley.  Driving to McMinnville can be a great by itself.  As we drove through the back roads of the Willamette Valley, we drove past farms growing a variety of crops, several dairy farms and numerous nurseries growing a wide variety of plants normally found in our yards.  It was amazing to see all this land being utilized in this manner. 

We crossed a sign that stated, "heirloomroses", with an arrow pointing.  Well, Lee wanted to stop and we did.  The entire property was covered in the widest variety of roses that can be imagined.  I told Lee to find what she wanted, and off she went.  I found a nice wooden swing bench located under a shade tree surrounded by a fragrant rose garden and just "hung out".  We left the property with a couple of specialty roses to plant at our home and great memories of the wonderful smells of the rose gardens.

This is one of the nursery buildings at the Heirloomroses gardens.  Their were thousands of rose varieties to choose from.  It was overwhelming!

Lee was in heaven.  She looked and touched so many rose plants during her visit.  And yes, we did purchase two plants that are not traveling with us.

When we arrived in McMinnville, the first thing we noticed was change.  We had visited McMinville several years ago, but several new buildings have been added since then, as well as an IMAX theater.  The WOW factor was high for both of us as we toured the facility.  We listened in of several tours and roamed the building storing all the meticulously restored aircraft.  The main attraction was Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose".  This is a huge aircraft made entirely from wood.  It still holds several records today for being the largest aircraft.  From World War II airplanes to jet engines displays to helicopters and a SR71 was also on display. 

The Evergreen Aviation company is a mega privately owned aviation company.  The owner, Mr. Delmar Smith, is the founder of the museum and often flies the vintage aircraft.  One of the features that was very unique for a museum, was that many of the aircraft in the museum are kept in flying condition.  Apparently, when he wants to fly one of the museum aircraft, he calls to have the maintenance crews ready the bird for flight.  Not a bad deal!

The Hughes flying boat was housed in the Evergreen Museum.  This airplane is super huge and sports 8 giant radial engines.  It is designated as a "Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark".  It was too big to get in one picture.

After many attempts of taking pictures of the Spruce Goose, I settled on a picture that showed 4 engines on on one side of the wing.  Remember, this airplane is made entirely of laminated wood.  It was amazing how it was constructed.

Lee is standing next to one of my favorite airplanes, the P-40.  This airplane was made famous by the flying tigers.  This one looked brand new.

Lee is standing next to a MIG 21, built in 1975.  It was an airplane built around a huge jet engine.  Built by the Russians.

Another shot of the "Spruce Goose".  It is actually mounted in a pit in the floor, so the bottom of the aircraft is another 10 feet below the floor.

This is for our friend David.  This is the flight suit of Capt. Peggy Carnahan, the first woman to attend flight training.  She now is an executive pilot for Net Jet, Inc.  I would like to request her for my next flight with you guys.

The Evergreen Museum is now a family destination park.  A new water park building sports a 747 as the launch for water slides.  It is mounted on top of the building.  Look at the waters lids tubes coming out of the side of the aircraft.  Inside the building is a "wave pool".

Our short video of the aircraft of Evergreen Muesum.  Enjoy!