Aviation Day

Friday was another beautiful sunny day all day long. The plan was to first visit the Boeing Museum of Flight for a couple of hours and then move on to other things. We got to the Museum right at 10:00 when it opened. When we left, it was after 4:00 in the afternoon. What a place! So, if your not interested in looking at planes, you can sign off and wait for tomorrow’s post.

We started off by watching two 25-minute movies: one on the operation of an aircraft carrier and the other on the rings of Saturn. Both were entertaining, informative, and enjoyable. Then we went and had bowls of chili in the Wings Café. At that point the idea was this would still be just a ½ day visit at most and then we would head for Alki Beach for a walk, pictures, and an early dinner. After lunch, eaten at an outside table, we engrossed ourselves in the museum and next thing you know, it was 4:00 pm.

The Museum of Flight covers everything about aviation. It’s a museum of airplanes, of airplane manufacturers, of Boeing itself, of space exploration, of airplanes in WWI, of airplanes in WWII, of airplane art, of airplane pilots and crew, and of aces of fighter planes. Prepare now for a plethora of aviation pictures.

Click on the galleries below to bring up scrollable windows with full size pictures – the gallery previews show just thumbnails of the pictures. Click on individual pictures to see enlarged versions.

As we leaving the house, I took a picture of a couple of spider webs on the way to Blue’s reserved parking spot.

Boeing’s Museum of Flight is outside downtown Seattle near I-5. It is a large part of Boeing Field, a working airport.

Arriving at the Museum of Flight

Watching the Movie

The Charles Simonyi Space Gallery

Charles Simonyi was a Hungarian who emigrated to America and became the head of Microsoft’s Application Software Group and oversaw the development of Microsoft Office (including Word and Excel). He later became the fifth space tourist (i.e., he paid his way to ride the shuttle – twice). His estimated net worth is $3.1 billion.