Our final day, with one more thing to do before we go home. OK, more than one thing because we have to watch a couple more ships transit the lock. Well, that's the point of staying at the Inn at Lock Seven, isn't it?
Packed up and ready to leave well before check-out time was a new and exciting experience for me, especially with a party of four. But, there we were, getting ready to drive away with more than an hour spare. How on earth did that happen?
We were heading to Hamilton and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. Having just written that out, I have realised that "Warplane" is a made up word, and it's proper meaning could easily be a surface upon which a war is fought. But we all know what it really means, it's War 'planes, as in Aeroplane or Airplane. Pedantry is not yet dead, so I shall abbreviate it to CWHM.
The museum is a collection of aircraft, many of which still fly, and a workshop from which these aircraft are maintained. It occupies a purpose-built hangar in the corner of Hamilton International Airport and is quite the place to visit.
The entry fee is very reasonable (a little over $14 for an adult), and for that you get a nice little interactive display about Royal Canadian Air Force people over the years, before they let you lose in among the aircraft in the main part of the hangar. I was very surprised to find that we could walk under the Lancaster Bomber, one of only two still flying, and the Douglas DC3 Dakota, both of which regularly take to the skies. Indeed, for a fee, you can fly in them yourself when they're scheduled to fly. This particular day both the Lancaster and the DC3 were resting, but outside on the apron, a de Havilland Canada Chipmunk and a North American Harvard were up and running and taking lucky punters (albeit members of the museum) for half-hour trips over Hamilton. That's the true meaning of interactive.
It was excellent to be able to walk in among the aircraft, although obviously not to touch them. The place was teeming with museum guides, old geezers who really enjoyed their work showing visitors around, and on this day, parties of children getting special tours with said guides, and all for $14.
Charlie loved it, too, and was able to sit in a Canadair CT-114 Tutor and twiddle the controls for all he was worth, all under the expert eye of a museum guide of course. He didn't realise it, but it was the same type of aircraft that the RCAF Snowbirds Aerobatic Team fly, so I was moderately excited.
There was a nice little cafe on site, too, which looked right out onto the apron, and we sat watching the two excursion aircraft prepare for flight while we had some lunch. Indeed, it being such a nice day, they had the patio open, which was the outdoor part of the cafe and gave you not only the view but the sounds of the aircraft as well. DW and I sat for a while out there and watched as both the Harvard and the Chipmunk buzzed the airfield and then came into land.
We spent a happy couple of hours wandering around, and even spent a little money in the gift shop, before we started our homeward leg of the trip.
There's not too much to be said about driving the 403 and the 401 that hasn't been said before. Too many drivers are complete numpties, they drive too fast and too close, and it's little wonder that there are nasty crashes almost every day. Thankfully we arrived home having avoided all that, but there'd never much pleasure to be had driving on Ontario's 400 series roads, and I'm always relieved to be off the darned things
Three nights, four days, quite a lot of money spent but everyone enjoyed it. The weather was good, if a little warm, and despite the drenching at the Falls, it didn't rain once. I think we can file that trip away as "Successful".
