Still havin' FUN! -- Catching up

Between my laptop battery only lasting 10 minutes and the lack of internet in the canyon house, the blog has suffered............ Here's a start at catching up:

The Museum of Flight was awesome. I’d been there 10 yrs ago, but they have really enhanced it. They have an SR71 Spy Plane on display, which I have seen at other sites. This one, however, has a remote drone on the top of it. Apparently they were flown close to the USSR, and the drone was launched. It flew around taking pictures of stuff, and then was flown out over the artic circle. Once there, a trap door in the drone was deployed, and the film canisters were jettisoned attached to a parachute. A C130 transport in the area, would do an aerial capture of the parachute, and reel in the films. The drones were then self destructed. I’ve read a lot about the SR71, and this was all news to me.

The first 747 built in on display there. It was built in 1969, if my memory is correct, and served as a test bed for updates for years.

A 707 Air Force One, the earlier sister ship to one at Reagan’s Library we toured last month, was open for touring.


A retired British Air Concord was open for touring. It was not nearly as big as I’d imagined. You could tell it was set up for plushness!

Friday, Sep 7

Chari and I took off early, fighting the I-5 traffic, to travel to Everett by 9AM! We arrived with a few minutes to spare, and were able to take a Boeing factory tour. Our tour (randomly assigned) toured the 777 and 787 assembly line. (The other group toured the 747 and 767 lines. Having worked on both 777 and 787, I enjoyed seeing them, especially the 787. Unfortunately, the 787 was far from us, and of course, no photos could be taken on the tour……………..

Outside, we did see one Dreamlifter, the modified 747s used to haul 787 parts from around the world to Seattle for assembly. The size of the plane is deceiving—you have to recall that this plane STARTED as a 747, which is huge in and of itself. The tail assembly swings out, so cargo can be loaded for flight.

One of the main differences in the 787 is that most of it is constructed of carbon fiber. Here’s a pic of the inside of a mockup, showing the composite structure.

For our last lunch on the waterfront, we ate fish at Ivars in Mukilteo. It was NICE, the fish was excellent, and the view of the ferries coming in and out was great.

Since we had some time, we went to the Ballard Locks to watch the boats traverse the locks. Being Friday on a sunny day, it was BUSY. Lots of pretty boats, all of which we could not afford. We even saw a C-Dory, like the one we checked out at a boat shop. No, we can’t afford it, but it was fun to look at on the water.

I urged Chari to watch what the first mates were doing as part of the locking activities, but I don’t think she’s up for trying it IF we get a bigger boat. It is a tight dance as the boats come in and tie off.

One sailor seemed to be having issues as he approached the locks……………… We had to leave before he finally made it in (if he ever did)………… He was crosswise in the inlet for a long time.

Then we headed to the country and Jack/Tally's "other house", near Cashmere. Will post that tomorrow.

Morale: Excellent!

ron