We just got back from Fredericksburg & the Hangar Hotel about 20 minutes ago. We had a terrific time window shopping in Fredericksburg, watching planes takeoff and land from the balcony at the Hanger Hotel, and touring the Admiral Nimitz Museum (a Texas State Historical Park).
We will share photos soon. The Hanger Hotel has been open 6 months and may look like a customized large airplane hangar on the outside, but it's nearly a 5 star hotel on the inside... but still only $125/night ($150 is the nightly rate when not in the off-season, I believe). Justin "discovered" the hotel in a pilot enthusiast newspaper (General Aviation News), and we checked out the facility a month or two ago on one of Justin's training flights with his instructor. We were all quite impressed with the rooms and airport diner, making it a natural choice for our 5th anniversary.
On Friday and Saturday, we toured Admiral Nimitz State Historic Site in Fredericksburg and were very impressed with the amount of information and the presentations -- the size of the Nimitz Hotel on Main Street belies how much more there is to the museum and museum grounds. The George W. Bush Museum of the Pacific War is within short walking distance from the Nimitiz, and it's so large we actually didn't get to see all of the exhibits despite one long midafternoon/evening visit (they closed at 5 PM). Very informative. There are hundreds of plaques memorializing entire boat, nurse, medic, etc. crews and retelling various events. For those of us who weren't even alive for these events, it brings the enormity of the sacrifices and obstacles faced in war more to life.
On Saturaday morning, we were one of two couples that braved the cold (35 degrees or so) to visit the morning's first "Pacific Combat Zone" tour offered by the Nimitz Museum, featuring impressive static displays -- entrenched military positions, tanks, a simulated aircraft carrier hangar deck with a TBM Avenger aircraft, an American PT boat and a Quonset hut hospital, among other things. Very well done, and again, you don't expect much from the outside of the "tour grounds", but once inside it's clear they've spent a lot of time and money to make it an accurate and informative history-based tour.
Neat links related to our visit:
That's all for now... will post a complete park profile of Nimitz SHP and accompanying photos soon.