Day out in East Kirby, Lincs.

As P is home this week, we decided have a family day out today. We've been pondering over where to go since the weekend and have had tears from the kids who have both wanted different things. K wanted anything horsey, B wanted anything else (but suggested planes at Duxford), P and K didn't want castles, K didn't want walks, I was happy to go anywhere! Whilst doing all our planting yesterday, K suggested a trip to Kew Gardens. She'd done a trip there with the school a couple of year's back and had a good, if exhausting, day. This seemed a perfect suggestion, until we realised we'd need to leave home pretty early and possibly suffer the rush hour traffic to get us there for a decent time. P and I brainstormed the idea of somewhere Norfolk/Suffolk area, and had settled on an interesting looking museum which housed collections of practically anything in the past from cars to Barbara Cartland memorabilia! Looked good, the museum was inside incase the weather was bad and they had some grounds and a few animals if the weather was OK. Settled!

K went to bed and said "it's a museum, I don't really like things like that" (she hadn't really enjoyed the York Castle Museum which too housed collections of memorabilia). We don't generally pander to the kids that often, but when it comes to a (hopefully) happy family day out, we needed to push the right buttons for everyone, so back to the drawing board.

By chance, on the wonderful internet, I came across the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre in East Kirby. Fabulous! A nice size collection of interesting World War II things (perfect for ending out last topic) and a Avro Lancaster (my favourite) that would perform taxi runs at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. today! YES, we'd found our day out (and decided not to tell the kids until we got there!!!).

Great day out, packed a picnic, had the most glorious weather, and a good time was had by all. We arrived at 11 a.m. to experience the first taxi ride. This means the Lancaster (named "Just Jane") fires up all four of its beautiful Rolls Royce engines and gently moves along a short runway. It may sound a little boring, but it is truly stunning, amazing and VERY noisy.

We saw a bunker, air control tower, exhibitions showing a typical 1940's living room and a bombed house (complete with air raid siren, falling bombs and the sound of fire, which was a bit scary for B), lots of cases showing found "bits" from shattered bombers, bombs and artefacts that had once belonged to crew members, varous war time vehicles and a Spitfire. They also had a Dambusters bomb plus other bombs whose sizes where truly stunning, and loads and loads of squadron photos, one of which (the Dambusters crew photo) may well have had my Dad's face in amongst all the other young faces.

The kids seemed to enjoy themselves. They kept coming out with snippets of information that they'd previously learnt, together with some questions that needed answers.

Well worth a visit, it ticked all the boxes for everyone - YIPPEE!