We woke up to a beautiful day in Charlotte, NC! We are on the University of North Carolina campus and it is so clean and beautiful here! After a nice breakfast in the lounge, we were off to see one of the reasons I wanted to visit Charlotte and that was the Sullenberger Aviation Museum. You can visit their website HERE. It is located next to one of the runways at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). It recently re-opened in June, 2024 in a new, updated hanger, after the Airbus 320 plane from the famous “Miracle on the Hudson” landing on the Hudson River, New York, in 2009; was moved to the building from storage.
For me, the ultimate Aviation Museum is the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. I rate all museums dedicated to Aviation against this standard, which I have had the luxury of visiting three times now and another visit coming up shortly! While the Sully Aviation Museum is partnered with the Smithsonian, itself is one of the best Aviation displays in a museum that I have seen. Partly as it is new and uses newer technology and partly due to just how many planes they had stuffed into the hanger, yet you did not feel claustrophobic. That includes having an almost complete Airbus 320 plane inside!
I have included a selection of what we saw below however, if you want to see all the details, such as my dad and some others, I have a separate page so they can dive in! Those details can be found here (yet to be posted). First, we looked at the outside exhibits while mid-sized planes (737’s, A321’s) were actively taking off just behind the hanger. Then we went inside through the big red door, where it was a cool blue colour (eyes had to adjust from the sun) just like being up in the clouds, with important local Aviation people’s pictures being displayed on the walls of the hanger. We walked in a circle around the hanger and this is what we saw!
As we were leaving the museum, and visiting the gift shop on the way out, I overheard the gift shop attendant telling someone who wanted to visit the museum, that they only had an hour left to visit as they were closing early today at 1:30pm. Boy, was I glad we got there in good time so we (I) could spend the time visiting all the exhibits and their various displays of information! When I had selected my goodies, I was at the cash register and the same attendant told me (she did not know I was from Canada) that it was Trump coming into town and that Interstate 85 was going to be closing. I thanked her for the information, as we needed to take that highway back to the hotel. We had no issues getting back to the hotel though – you would not have known he was coming to town based on our drive along Interstate 85.
I am also here to attend the Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG) 50th Anniversary Conference. When we got back to the hotel, I checked my e-mail just to make sure that I did not receive anything that I needed prior to registering and attending the evening reception and I had received an urgent message about checking into the hotel and how one needed to go to the back parking lot as the front of the hotel was “too busy”. While I thought it strange, some hotels do have small entrances and with a conference arriving, it can be a zoo!
Andrew and relaxed for a couple of hours (I updated my website and had a nap) and then got ready to walk to the Hilton hotel where the GIG conference was being held. It is also on the UNC campus, a 12 minute walk (exactly) for me to get to. However as we had already walked a lot today, I decided to have Andrew drive me, where it probably would have been faster to walk based on the heavy traffic we ran into. Approaching the hotel it was indeed, pretty busy and the parking lots out front were barricaded off with “Special Event” signs. I really did not think the conference was that big, however that is nice for them to reserve parking for people I thought! Well, how wrong I was!
I registered for the conference and went to the reception and found Shelley Case, who is a celiac dietitian from Calgary, AB that I know, and is speaking at the conference. She is one of 3 speakers that I am looking forward to listening to their talks. She was happy to see me and then pulled out her phone and showed me all her pictures of Trump visiting the hotel only a few hours prior to speak at the Police convention that was going on! All the motorcycles, limos, a command centre, etc she took pictures of as her room looks down on the front of the hotel. Now everything makes sense! You take I85 to get to the Hilton, the reason why they wanted GIG conference guests to stay away from the front of the hotel and why all the parking lots were “reserved” for a special event. Apparently Trump was at the Hilton for his talk and then off he went – when I arrived at 6pm he was gone, which was good to hear!
The reception was excellent – they had made some GF mac&cheese, pulled port sliders and a couple of salads (one of which was a watermelon/feta) for the appetizers – all were delicious! I then walked home, where Andrew met me halfway, as it was a very beautiful night!