Three generations of the Weber family will take the trip of a lifetime next week. Wallace, Steve and Brian Weber will be accompanied by a large group of family members who will fly out of Minnesota on Delta Air Lines to Portland, Ore., then linger maybe an hour or so and head back home.
Life is a journey, after all, not a destination.
For the Weber family, that journey usually begins at age 16. When other kids are eager to get their driver's license and a taste of freedom, the Weber boys were doing their first legal solo flight in grandpa Wallace's Piper J-3 Cub airplane, often taking off from the landing strip on the family farm near Hastings.
On Dec. 28, Steve will pilot his final flight before retirement with his son, Brian, sitting in the jump seat. Brian will begin working as a pilot for Delta in January, the same company where his grandfather finished his career.
Wallace will be on board, along with the rest of the family. Flight attendants, many of them old friends, were hand-picked by Steve for this last trip.
The Weber aviation legacy began in the 1940s, when Wallace, now 93, started as an airline mechanic. He eventually was moved up to flight engineer, accompanying planes around the globe for about 15 years, with three years away in the Navy during WWII.
The airlines eventually mandated that flight engineers had to be able to fly the plane, so Wallace passed the exam and spent the final 20 years of his career as a pilot.
"When I started, it was a pretty small group of people who were flying. It was very exciting," Wallace said. "I got to see a good portion of the world."