Friday, September 23, 2016

{CoffeeShop Family Flying Circus Adventures} Chapter 6: "Messina Hoff at Aggieland!"

Interested to read more of the {CoffeeShop Family Flying Circus Adventures}?

PrologueChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3,  Chapter 4, Chapter 5Entire series (newest posts first)

A special thanks to my husband Paul who flies the plane and edits all our videos. Please subscribe to his Texas Gooney Bird YouTube channel if you are interested in following our adventures. It would make his day!

Paul's video of our adventure is embedded at the bottom of this post or you can view it directly on YouTube. :-)

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So a few months ago it was a gorgeous day and not too hot, so we decided to fly to our old stomping ground of AggieLand and visit the Messina Hof winery.


Our home airport at Hooks was hosting the Commemorative Air  Force and we were able to see some amazing warbirds as we taxied to the runway.


Our local B-17, the Texas Raiders, was also there. It is one of only eleven B-17's that is still flying in the world and you can even purchase tickets to ride in it! That is on Paul's and Duke's bucket list.


Imp and I were living it up in the back seat.


And enjoying our amazing view. We might not have a/c, food and drink service, or a bathroom, but every seat on our plane is first class.


Duke, the co-pilot of our adventure, was also taking it all in.


I love when we are flying low, about to land. Everything looks so cute when you are looking down from a thousand feet up in the air. I love the tiny houses, horses, cows and barns.

I also love seeing lots of open fields just in case we have to have an emergency landing. ;-)


Here we are!


Coulter Field at Texas A&M. Paul last flew here 30 years ago, which is weird since he is only 29 years old. ;-)

Unfortunately we arrived too late to borrow the courtesy car, but Messina Hoff is only a mile or two away and we love a good walk.


It was nice walking on the taxi-way. Pretty views.


But then we arrived on the country road. High weeds, fire ants, and crazy fast trucks were a few of the local attractions.

For a small country road there was quite a bit of traffic. I guess people really needed their Saturday glass of wine.


We were getting close!

Pant, pant.


Walking, walking, walking.

Wow, it is getting a little hot. As we got closer I did see a few other couples walking on the side of the street toward the winery.

What is going on?


After what seemed to be ten miles of walking, we finally made it and found out that Messina Hof was hosting a music festival! That explained all of the traffic.


It was a perfect day for an outdoor concert.


Paul and I enjoyed the music and the view and the kids fed the turtles.


Then we ordered a cheese plate and a bottle of their finest white unfermented wine. OK, I guess it technically was not wine, but rather a bottle of their finest white non-alcoholic grape juice.

Paul legally can't drink and fly and I didn't want to make him jealous, so we all had grape juice. And it was pretty darn good!



Wow, this is a fun day!


After our snacks we walked around listening to the music and visiting some of the booths. The kids were sipping on their last glass of grape juice. I think they felt very grown-up walking around with a wine glass.


But all good things come to an end and the sun started going down and we headed to the airport.


On our way back we found out there was a gate at the end of the airport which would have saved us a few minutes of walking.

Next time!


It was a gorgeous evening.


And we weren't the only ones out there enjoying it.  Well, we didn't see anyone else walking but we did see some people flying.


Better get home, the sun is going down!


Home sweet home. What a great adventure!

Please check out Paul's video below. I seriously had no idea that this nerdy math-loving guy I married had such an artistic side to him. 

Continue following our flying adventures in Chapter 7!


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7 comments:

  1. Sounds like you had another fun adventure. Thanks for sharing.

    Oh and it is amazing how many years one can stuff into 29! My dad is 29 as well with an additional 47 more years of experience!

    Have a great weekend gang.

    Lisa D.

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    1. Hee hee! I totally agree! And I always love seeing your comments Lisa, thank you so much for reading my crazy posts!!!

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  2. Such great adventures and photos in your plane!!!

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  3. So crazy to see yalls old stomping grounds are college station! I'm from right outside there (Somerville). Small world!
    Your life is pretty much what my husband is aiming for after retirement I believe. Being able to just fly off to Aggieland (or wherever) for a weekend in his own plane that he flies. lol
    Super cool post this weekend!

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    1. I grew up going camping at Somerville and need to go back and visit with my boys. And that is great about your husband.

      We were thinking of waiting to do the flying, but then we decided the best time to do it for our family would be when the kids are young, before college. Who knows if we can afford it then (or if we are healthy enough to fly!). But we are going to enjoy it as long as it lasts. We are making great memories.

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Rita