End Of An Era...

 The main entrance road into Moffet Field, with the hanger in the back ground.

Hangar One is one of the largest free standing structures, it covers over 8 acres.

Lee is in Mountain View (California) this week for a class, for work.  He is staying at a Navy Lodge on the old Moffet Field naval base.  This base was a stones throw from where Dad (Lee's dad) and Judy lived...and it was Lee's first time in the Bay Area since his dad passed away almost 7 years ago.  When I spoke to him on Sunday night, he said it was a little weird...he said as soon as he got to the Petaluma area, he felt rushed....like he was gonna miss carport time or bubba burgers in the evening with his dad.  We reminisced about the times we visited there...about how we grew to love caffeine free diet Coke, how much Lee's dad would have loved the Hatfield's and the McCoy's mini series on the history channel, guns on the nightstands (which is funny now because Mason has a nerf gun called "Sam" on his nightstand) and just the general feeling of being there...which was always good.  Lots of fun memories were created there.

Lee also told me about the old blimp hangar being held in limbo....accck!!!  The fact is that the base has been closed forever and essentially there is no budget to save the famous Hangar One. It was built in the 1930's, when we were not so careful about building materials, over the years it has leached some toxic chemicals and the skin of the building was/is removed due to asbestos.  I saw online that Google wanted to help save it, so they can park their private jets in there. These hangers have been there my whole life...they held blimps and were so big, they are a Bay Area landmark.  It is fun to see them occasionally on the show Mythbusters. This small base has a significant history, in World War II, the base base was draped with netting that looked like a residential neighborhood from above, and effectively hid the base from planes above.   The commissary on this base was the creepiest one ever...it used to be the morgue during war time.  The base is a ghost town now....the mini mart where Lee and his dad would go to is closed, even the McDonald's is closed.  A small Navy Exchange remains...Lee is checking that out today.  It would be sad to lose such a historical building.

Let's just hope, Lee does not tell me of the great sandwich he had at Togo's....I may just lock him out of the house when he comes home on Friday.

****UPDATE....Lee got it backwards, the creepy commissary is still open, and the exchange is closed.