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)