Wine Tasting

On one of his last weekends before deployment, Lars decided to go to the wine country in the hills around Santa Ynez, CA. The day started at Sunstone Winery...


Continued at Bridlewood Winery....


And ended in the bathroom at Bridlewood. A couple of glasses of wine for a human, not so bad. A couple of glasses of wine for a 6 inch tall gnome who weighs 5 ounces makes for a bad day. Ugh...

Disneyland and California Adventure

Lars took a trip to Disneyland in May. This is him standing outside the main gate to California Adventure...
And getting ready to go on the Tower of Terror...He barely survived a whale attack in Fantasyland at Disneyland...
And he had no luck pulling the sword from the stone. Realizing he wasn't the chosen king of Camelot, he decided he better stick to flying and travelling the world.

More flight time

Lars had a few more flights off the REAGAN before returning to Point Mugu, CA. Here he was flying copilot for Robbie...

And here he is flying over Catalina Island....And here he is flying copliot for Eric on the flight home from the ship.

San Diego and Julian

Here we find Lars making "friends" with two manatees at Sea World San Diego. They seem to be a little preoccupied though...
And here is Lars with one of the statues at Seaport Village. He was heartbroken when he found out she wasn't real...But he quickly got back on the saddle and climbed into a tree with Amanda in the mountains outside Julian, CA. He loves the ladies...Lars took a second to overlook the valley below Julain before heading back to the ship for another underway detachment.

San Diego Zoo

Lars took a couple of days off in San Diego to see the local sites. This is him at the zoo making "friends"...

First Port Call

Lars made his first port call after being on the REAGAN for about a month. The REAGAN pulled back into homeport in San Diego for 4 days between detachments. This is Lars on the flight deck as the ship transitted the channel into San Diego and passing the tower at NAS North Island.

Black Eagle pilots Robbie and Nate rubbing Lars' tummy for luck. I think Robbie was just trying to get lucky enough to make sure his wife Holly, who was at the pier when we pulled in, would kiss him with that underway 'stache on his face. Kind of creepy...

First Boat Flight

This is Lars' first flight off the aircraft carrier. Before you can go flying you have to do a good preflight inspection. This is Lars checking the top of the aircraft.

Then you have to make sure the propeller arcs are clear before starting engines. This is AE2 Hunt standing in front of another Black Eagle aircraft, making sure there is nothing in the way of the propeller before we start engines.

Lars visited the "bubble" where the shooters who launch aircarft off the flight deck sit.

Get ready to launch the alert search and rescue gnome...

Lars' first catapult shot. Weeeee!!!!!!

First trip to the Boat

Lars made his first detachment to the USS RONALD REAGAN in April. This is him helping out in Maintenance control where the Chiefs who control all of the maintenance on the Black Eagle's aircraft work. He is actually about the same size as Senior Chief Solanga, and Lars' moustache looks a little better than that underway 'stache that Senior Solanga is trying to grow, but Senior probably knows a little more about the maintenace and how to fix airplanes.

If you are going to be in the squadron, you've got to work. This is Lars standing Squadron Duty Officer (under instruction) with Kim the Assistant Maintenance Officer, and the squadron duty macot, Lucky the Cat.

This is Lars' second duty day, helping out a not-too-happy Mike (P.K) Smith behind the desk.

Lars even got to help out with one of the Black Eagle's favorite pastimes underway...conducting random urinalysis. Here you see him giving Josh a helping hand with a nice warm bottle of urine.

Flight time

Since Lars is an honorary Black Eagle, he gets some flight time every once in a while. He seems to think he is a pretty good pilot...

This is Lars flying copilot for Skipper Watkins.

When he landed at NAS Fallon, Nevada, he thought he saw his brother Magnus the gnome, but it turned out to just be one of the ground crew.

Squaw Valley

Lars went to Squaw Valley and South Lake Tahoe in February. He hit the slopes at both the Heavenly and Squaw Valley resorts and he stayed at a house right at the base of the ski lift in Heavenly.

Sometimes after a long day of skiing, a nice fire and a dip in the jacuzzi is the perfect thing.

Something famous happened at Squaw Valley a few years ago, but none of us could figure out what it was...

Lars' friend Rick had a long day of snowboarding and had to take a nap on the way home.

Rose Bowl

Lars' first adventure was to view the parade floats for the 2008 Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, CA. After a quick bite to eat, the day began.

















The floats are made completely out of flowers or parts of flowers and plants. It was pretty impressive.


























Lars was lucky enough to get a few kisses from some of the Rose Bowl Princesses.

The travels begin

This is the story of Lars the travel gnome. He is an honorary member of the World Famous VAW 113 Black Eagles and he travels all over the world with them. His travels began in December of 2007 and continue to this day.