Lars the Gnome

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"...

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.