The Miracle of Flight

Last weekend we crossed off another objective we've been meaning to accomplish. We went to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field, right next to Seattle's "Sea-Tac" International Airport. Every time we have passed it the comment is made, "We have to go and see that one of these days..."

Well, we still have to go back and see more of it because it is huge in space and massive in terms of the amount of information. And they are big enough now that they are offering a changing menu of other things to see and do, including an upcoming photographic exhibit called "Spirit of Flight," which I hope will be around for awhile. And sometime this fall they will show again the various styles of gear worn by airline attendants over the years.

We decided to go aboard the retired Air Force One Boeing aircraft (first picture) that flew President Kennedy to Dallas and to see the inside of a retired Concorde jetliner. (Jey-hu is standing - in the shade - next to the wheel of the Concorde, to give you some idea of how big it is.)

It was a late afternoon choice on a blisteringly hot day and by the time we arrived, it was already 3 p.m. Too late to start to see everything well... when you go, be advised there is enough to keep you busy all day. There is a small restaurant on site. It is wheelchair accessible, all except the outside aircraft displays.

So we saw the outside planes and zoomed through all the exhibits, barely taking time to stop and read about the people and places. There is a wonderful exhibit showing the beginnings of Boeing, another one about how rockets evolved, some very informative stuff about the space station including a mock-up of a portion of it, and perhaps the item I liked best was a "Land the Space Shuttle" game where you sat inside a little space with a joystick and a screen which simulated being able to see the field where you are landing. Oh, and there were plenty of gauges and instrumentation to see whether or not you were right side up or otherwise. (Not the frame shown below... that is in the early years exhibit.)

I could have sat at that all afternoon. Sadly there are only two of them and the little boys around me, standing in line for their turn, were fidgeting because "that Granny is taking too long, Daddy." Guess what? I got the shuttle to the landing strip the first time!! I didn't land it very well because I forgot the flare at 2000 feet, but at least I didn't destroy it completely in the desert like someone else I know, even after he tried it several times....

There are full-size models of the gossamer wings that got man started trying to imitate birds, smaller models of the planes that made history, but plenty of other full-size aircraft that boys and girls of all ages can sit inside to pretend they are flying or for grand-dads to show their grandchildren what they flew or what their fathers were flying in. Women in aviation were not in large numbers back in those days.... and still are limited today, but perhaps more because the little girls weren't drawn to flight the same way little boys were. Perhaps that is changing. In any event, there is a very large area for tots to play around and I peeked in, thinking about small ones I know. There was a very cute miniature Blue Angels jet in there and a little angel with corn rows was smiling from ear to ear looking up at her Daddy as she 'flew' around.

The displays are informative, all of the equipment inside is in great condition and there are planes from various countries as well, not all Boeing. Since I cannot post all the photos here, you can go and see a few more on this site: Flickr (click on the set "Museum of Flight") or click on the link for the museum above - or both.

Some years ago I took my son to Cape Kennedy (formerly Cape Canaveral) to see the Saturn V rocket - a real one - and all the Apollo Project history, including a real spacecraft module, and we went to the IMAX movie there which was impressive. This was all to share with him my experiences as being involved in that effort. The reason I mention it is because at this museum there is a substantial exhibit for this project, including a mock-up of the Lunar Excursion Module and other artifacts. More on that in another post. Hope I haven't worn you out!

Flying to Denver and walking around

I had a beautiful flight to Denver with no major hiccups, and the little baby in the seat ahead of me only cried as we were landing.

It was after 9 p.m. as we were arriving and this was the last shot of the sunset I could get before we touched down.... quite lovely.

We had been warned by the captain that the temperature in Denver was over 90 degrees, but still it was a shock after all the cool days and nights in the NW. I wanted to take off my sweater, but I already had enough baggage to deal with, so I left it on, and panted heavily from both the altitude exertion and the heat.

The Mile High City gets its nickname from being over a mile high in altitude, 5700 feet more or less, I guess. It is always hard for me to sleep - even though I do drink plenty of water ahead of time and once I arrive - because I feel so out-of-breath.

But after a few days I acclimate and can manage to walk several miles without as much breathlessness. So we gathered up all the children and headed off to a local eatery and this was the view on the residential streets as we ambled along.

Cabo is Fab-o!

Day One - We do have a sort of luck... curious at times. We arrived at the airport at 3:00 a.m. for the 5:15 flight to Cabo San Lucas in Baja, Mexico. Jey-hu received a call as we were standing in line waiting for the airline ticket folks to arrive and begin processing us. It was a call from Orbitz advising us that U.S. Airways had cancelled the Phoenix-Cabo portion of the flight due to “scheduled” maintenance on the aircraft.

You'd think they could schedule things a little bit better... But hats off to the airline’s agents who quickly found seats for the six of us who were being displaced out of Seattle. The two of us were put on Alaska, leaving at 6:15 a.m. which would get us to Cabo two hours later than expected.

It was a flight through San Francisco, CA, with enough time to find a place to order up a nice boxed lunch before we started on the next leg. Alaska’s offering on board at $3 a pop was considerably less appealing than the fresh chicken salad sandwich & chips I purchased along with some fresh pineapple I’d brought along from home. In just over two hours we were landing at the Los Cabos airport. The photo below shows what may be a sandy riverbed, inland from the coast. There are more mountains here than I expected, but never having been here before, it was all more than I expected!

But the time we made up in flying was lost as an estimated 450-500 other tourists were also arriving and had to go through customs. Finally we were able to get through customs without issue and found the taxi service we had been pre-advised to find. (Thanks, Keith!!)

And then we had the gauntlet to run - an “S” curve of human intensity I have rarely seen, unless you consider the running of the bulls in Pamploma! Guys were coming right up to Jey-hu trying to touch him, convince him to listen to them, and we kept on walking without talking at all, as instructed. Outside we found “Jose” who was waiting to get us to a taxi... but first we had to speak to Jorge who, it turned out, was a better salesman than the others, and he convinced us to go to Westin timeshare resort for breakfast on Sunday and a tour. (The zoom shot of the ricks rising out of the water is where the famous "arch" is and we have plans to take a day cruise out there while we are here.)

By the time we reached our charming hotel, Pueblo Bonito Blanco, right on the water, we had been up for 34 hours without sleeping... we had made the decision to get some business done on the home computer before leaving for the airport, knowing it was unlikely we would have the bandwidth to send large e-mails easily and that was probably a good decision in spite of our fatigue.

But we slid into the 80-degree pool and simply floated until sunset - dressed for dinner, took a few shots of the fading light but it is Jey-hu's last shot that earned the "Blog" award and is herein posted... and then we crashed.... totally wiped out. There is a lot to learn about this really lovely place - it's warm here almost year 'round and only gets about 5 inches a year in rainfall. Many of the taxi drivers do not speak English, so I am being challenged to remember what little Spanish I do know and learn a whole lot more. Even Jey-hu is getting bolder and using the few words he knows and is building his vocabulary. Tomorrow I think we may try and take the Beginner's Spanish class that the hotel offers. All in all, it's been very interesting and we really like this area a whole lot!

PS: Free WiFi is practically non-productive here... groan!