Friday, May 23, 2014

The RAF Museum in Cosford, England


This is when I really really really hope you like airplanes!

That's becasue we DID see enough airplanes to sink a ship at our 2014 Shutterchance meet-up, held at the RAF Museum in Cosford, England, on Sunday, May 11 (Mother's Day in America but not in England)!  In my last post I showed pics of all 28 of us who gathered for the day.

RAF stands for Royal Air Force and the museum is located in Shropshire, offering "a fun, entertaining day out for all the entire family. Situated next to an active airfield, this is the only place in the Midlands where you can get close to so many breathtaking aircraft for free."

 The show actually begins outside, which is where we all started to meet up, one by one.

And starting outside, you discover it's not just about airplanes.

But mostly it IS...big planes...

...and little planes that snuggle right in under the big ones.  Over 70 planes altogether in 3 buildings.
The feat of getting them all inside, fitting together like puzzle pieces, must have been Pure Magic.

There were war planes, of course.

Actually, the planes started running together for me.  I don't have a clue about most of them!
But we kept bumping into each other as we went along, which was the big fun of the day.

Don't you love how many planes (and boats!) are named after women!  :)

 To be honest, airplanes are photo-ops waiting to happen.  Who would have known!

Definitely worth a meet-up of photobloggers, right?!

 It was chock full of all kinds of stuff for kids of all ages.

There was even a shop to satisfy any of our RAF/war interests.

There was even an exhibit of the Berlin Wall.
This is Europe, of course, where especially WWII is up-close and personal.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I know I showed people pics in my last post but this meet-up was especially special
because of 2 long-time SCers we met for the first time:

 Elizabeth (left, with Astrid) is from Arizona and is unofficially married to Frank, a Brit.
We've had lots of correspondence with Elizabeth because their situation is similar to Astrid's and mine,
an internet romance from two different countries begun on our same photoblog.

Ray (right, with moi) is an Australian married to a Thai lady living in Thailand who has been with me
on SC since 2006. His visit was planned and kept a secret by a couple other SCers.  
What an incredible surprise and treat to finally meet him in real life!

 As you'd guess, someone (Penny!) got us all organized for a group photo.

And here we are, just the SCers (well, one isn't) minus 2 who somehow missed it.
21 of the 28 present that day are actual SC photobloggers, 18 here in the pic (and Penny makes 19).
I'll say it for us all--what a motley crew!
(thanks to Maureen, Brian's wife, who took this picture)

14 comments:

  1. Wow...that would all run together for me too! What a fun trip!!

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    1. If you had been there, Robin, you would have been our token Shutterchancer, just like CherryPie! :)

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  2. A trip to the museum is fun no matter what's on display.

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  3. It was a fun day out at the museum, 12 men and 6 +1 (Penny) women in the picture. What a group and we 'see' these people even more often than our own family, THESE people are my family........
    Great pictures, it is great to see what you saw and what I saw, and we were at the same place (grin).
    what a memory to keep, thank you IHVJ

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    1. If you did your own post, it would probably look entirely different, which is the surprise of it all. Different witnesses to the same thing! What a memory, indeed. Bedankt.

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  4. And now I find that the England part 2 is already in my email! It seems you have found a new favorite subject. I especially liked you next to the big wheel, but the panorama (I hope it was shot that way) at the end is the best. Great shot. Now how about stitching together the 18 shots you guys took of the shooter?

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    1. LOL about a new favorite subject, Ted. My guess is that I will rarely be in a place where I'll ever have the freedom again to shoot without Security looking over my shoulder. HA!

      The lady standing next to the big wheel is the wife of one of our photobloggers. I asked her to stand there for scale, which sometimes helps, right!

      I'll have to ask Brian how many pics Maureen took of that group shot. Hmmm. I never even thought to ask him. Believe it or not, I have never learned to do panos yet...the stitching. I have the tool, I think, but have never used it. Maybe that should be a new goal for me!

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  5. I love your view of the museum exhibits. I have been to the museum many times and you have captured it completely differently than I have during my visits.

    I see you managed to capture Mr C smiling after his previous serious face ;-)

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    1. Isn't it funny how everyone who goes is a witness to something different, Cherry! And yes, of course we knew Mark could smile!!! :D

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  6. Great Stuff Ginnie. It was the best meet up so far and will be a hard act to follow!

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    1. I agree with you totally, Bill. A hard act to follow, indeed!

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