Ready, Set, JUMP!

The Oregon International Air Show is taking place this weekend in Hillsboro, which means that unusual aircraft can be seen in the skies in surrounding areas.  It wasn’t biplanes practicing maneuvers in the sky, as in previous years, but unusual guests in our tasting room.  We had the pleasure of being visited by three of the pilots and flight crew of the Golden Knights-an Army Parachute Team from Ft. Bragg, North Carolina.  There are two teams that travel around the country to different air shows, and this Golden Team had dropped 8 skydivers out today for the Hillsboro show.  Their team can consist of 15, so they were traveling light today.  They assured us they were off-duty and on their own leisure time,  so were free to taste wine.  One  was taking wine and chocolate home to his wife.  Smart man.  My co-worker and I were recipients of the badges that are probably usually reserved for little kids, but we proudly wore our parachute pins the rest of the day.

Their website is:   http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/GoldenKnights/

IT consultant, eh?

Today, had a chat with a mother from Nova Scotia and her daughter, from Ottawa.  The daughter is living in Salem for a year as an Information Technology specialist, helping the state of Oregon condense all of the current programs for Children’s Welfare and Adoption into more techno-savy systems.  She described herself as the token Canadian on  the staff.

Other guests today included an employee of our local country club, showing off the area to his business associate from out of state.  ”Give ‘em your best”, he said..  Of course, that must mean the most expensive wine, doesn’t it?

Also, had a caterer from an  Asian-owned BBQ company in Portland who picked up 3 cases of juice (and a can of dark chocolate drops) from us today to be used at an upcoming wedding they will be doing (chocolate drops only for their ride back to the restaurant).  ”Oh, that traffic in Dundee!  Isn’t there another way to get back to Portland?”  Nope, or at least not one we tell people about.  We possessors- of-secrets-locals—we don’t tell all we know.

Flying sheep?

Just a quick note from the mother of one of a pilot. She wasn’t sure exactly where her son is at the moment, but most recently, he had been flying sheep in, or out of, Australia.  Now that would have been  an interesting flight to crew on.  Bah, bah.