Adventure – yes, this was an adventure – a BOYS adventure, I might add. I was talked into going on this one. Well, bribed, actually. I took the bribe because I was promised that after visiting the tank museum, we’d head to Stanford to eat lunch and visit the Cantor Museum.
I love Stanford!
I just feel smart being there – smart and happy. A trick…so I willingly went along.
I’ll give Pops credit for not knowing that the tank museum tour would be over 3 hours long!
Apparently, this is the largest, private collection of tanks in the world. Now, why you’d want to collect tanks is beyond me. I collect turtles – that seems much more reasonable to me. There were over 250 tanks to look at – and I can tell you, all the men on the tour would’ve been happy to see even hundreds more.
To me, tanks (and war) belong in a “man’s” world – actually on a “man’s” island on this “man’s” world and then way out to sea. A place I never want to visit.
But, since it was an adventure and since I did take a ton of photos, I figured I’d share a few here. If you live anywhere in the Northern California area and want to visit this museum, check out their web site and arrange your tour by clicking here: http://www.mvtf.org
Now, for some photos – trust me this is a very small sampling of what they have to see. When you arrive, after driving up and up into the (beautiful) hills of Woodside (very ironic visually- pretty hills, large ugly tanks), you see 3 large warehouses placed in the shape of a “U” and these tanks are parked outside them.
Pops and his friend, Dwight were so very excited. Bubba had no idea what he was in for.
Then, you go inside the warehouses and hear information about each and every tank – including the oldest one they have – which I believe was from 1914. They have tanks from the Czechs, Germans, Russians, Asians and Americans (and probably more countries, my attention may have been wandering).
From what I heard, there’s actually a “Tank Rehab” show – or something like that, and some of the tanks here have been featured on this show. Apparently, you get to watch the tank being cleaned up and restored. I’ll stick to “Deadliest Catch” for my drama thank you very much.
I have truly, never seen this man so quiet, still and attentive. Did they pass out special treats for the men before the tour began while I was using the facilities and walking Bubba around? Because, I certainly missed them and I couldn’t stop fidgeting and pacing around the warehouse anxious to make a getaway.
They also have many guns, launchers, and other things for which I didn’t retain the names of. It got to be actually a little bit scary at times.
Please, no, don’t let him even get this close!!! He might like it!
Oh my!
Trying to find any humor at this museum was near impossible, but I did see this sign for performing CPR inside one of the tank doors – not sure what language it’s in. I’m kinda thinking that knowing CPR would be the least of your worries while being shot at riding in a tank.
Some tanks had small paintings on them. This one shows what I felt like after the 3+ hour tour!
After the 3+ (can I say again 3+) hours of touring this museum, we did finally head to Stanford. I’ll show those photos in another post. My “happy place” cannot share a post with this museum. no way. not allowed.
