Saturday, March 27^th, was my birthday (29 again) and an excuse to have some fun. Rich planned out the day, starting with breakfast at IHOP (spinach, mushroom omelet with fruit) then as visit to the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field, south of downtown Seattle.

We anticipated spending only a few hours at the museum, however, it proved very interesting and too large to suitably see in a day. We’re definitely going to visit the museum again to both see the exhibits that we missed and spend more time on the ones that we breezed through. Here are some of the highlights from our trip.

We initially walked through the space exhibit, which detailed the development of rockets and space exploration in popular culture. I lingered over as display case that featured Buck Rogers memorabilia and a children’s kit for making and painting lead figurines. It had a little ladle in which to melt the lead then pour into casts. I kept staring at the kit, thinking “Isn’t lead dangerous?”

With today’s neurosis on toy safety, it seemed inconceivable that at one time lead was a common material in children’s toy and that a toy manufacturer thought it was okay for a child to melt lead over a burner!

Rich and I laughed when we looked at the historical pictures of NASA engineers in white shirts and slim ties. At the time, they probably felt that their computer systems were the pinnacle of technological innovations. Today, they look like something for a 1960’s movie.

The space exhibit also featured several space crafts, including the North American Block 1 Apollo Command Module, serial #007, which was very small, considering two men fit inside and were supposed to whirl around the earth for several days. This capsule was once identical to the module in which Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died in a fire in 1967.

You could also walk in a mock-up of the International Space Station Destiny Laboratory. Because you lose muscle density when in an environment with no gravity, the space station has a treadmill that folds down from the ceiling on which astronauts can run on to maintain muscle tone.

The Great Gallery is six stories in height with dozens of small and medium-sized airplanes hung from the ceiling, and larger planes on the ground. One of the first vehicles we encountered was the humorous Taylor Aerocar III (below), a combination car/airplane with a 190-foot wingspan and cruise speed of 135 miles per hour. When in the car mode, the wings and tail can be towed like a trailer or left at the airport. Of course, I was drawn to it because of its shiny red paint and the chic 1960-era mannequins inside.

Everywhere you looked, there are planes in the Great Gallery. One plane, however, dominated the floor; it is the Lockheed M21 Blackbird with a Lockheed M-21B Drone on top. The picture below doesn’t do justice to the size of this futuristic plane that flies at a supersonic Mach 3.2 (New York to London in less than two hours) and can go 2,955 nautical miles without refueling.

Its engines are so powerful that they can drive gigantic ocean liners. To withstand the Mach speeds, 90% of the planes airframe is made of titanium composite. Its tires are filled with nitrogen and impregnated with aluminum. Even though this plane looks very futuristic, it was built in 1963 to do “reconnaissance missions deep into enemy airspace.”

The D-12 drone on top of the M21 was designed to be launched from the “mother ship” then follow a pre-programmed path where it would capture clandestine images using a high-resolution camera. The camera would then be released into the air where it would be retrieved after the drone self-destructed.

Spooky spy stuff.

When I started writing this article, I was going to express my astonishment (and delight) at the two large fighter jets in the gallery: the McDonnell F-4 Phantom II and the Micoyan-Gurevich MiG-21PFM. However, we watched the movie “We Were Soldiers” and the glamour of war machines wore off. The movie was about the Battle of la Drang in November 1965, the first major engagement of the United States military forces in Vietnam. Although, the movie did showcase the maneuverability of UH-1 Heuy helicopters along with the F-100 Super Sabre jets that flew at supersonic speeds and dropped napalm and bombs.

In spite of the horror wrought by these military jets, I was captivated by their size. The MiG looks like a rocket with wings and just enough room for two pilots. The Phantom is larger and can fly at higher altitudes.

The museum had the cockpits from two jets in which you could sit inside and have your picture taken. Here’s me in a SR-71A Blackbird and Rich in a full-scale mock-up of a McDonnell Douglas F/A-18L Hornet fighter jet. Don’t we look thrilled?

My next favorite plane, which I took many pictures of, was the 1940 Alaska Airlines Douglas DC-3 (below). This was one of the largest planes in the gallery with a 95 foot wing span and 65 feet in length. I was intrigued by the underside, below, which had thousands of rivets and pieces of metals that formed the sleek silver underside. It was very beautiful.

Unlike many museums where you can’t get up close to the displays, the Museum of Flight lets you walk within a foot or two of many of the planes. Being this close puts into perspective the perils of early aviators because their planes were super small and didn’t look overly sturdy. The Granville Brothers Gee Bee Z “City of Springfield” was just seven feet high and fifteen feet long, yet it could fly up to 270 miles per hour!

Also surprisingly small was the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15, which was developed by the Soviet Union and initially flown by Soviet pilots over North Korea in November 1950. At the time, four MiG-15s took part in the world’s first jet-versus-jet dogfight against four Lockheed F-80s. Over 16,000 MiG-15s were produced and flown by pilots in over fifty countries including China, North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, North Vietnam, Vietnam, Albania, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Egypt, Hungary, Finland, Somalia, Sudan, and even the United States (from China).

Just 33 feet long and 12 feet high with a 33-foot wingspan, the MiG-15 that is at the Museum of Flight was purchased from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force and has nine kill markings on it.

A special exhibit at the museum was “In Search of Amelia Earhart.” Most of the exhibits were black-and-white photographs, a few of Amelia’s personal items, and a model of the last airplane she flew, a Lockheed Model 10 Electra.

Below is a picture I took of one of the photographs. I spent several minutes staring at it because it summed up an era. ALL of the women are aviators. Amelia is third from the left, holding the bouquet of flowers. Most of the women wore proper mid-calf skirts, high-heels, hats, and even gloves.

In the exhibit, there’s a nurse dress that Amelia wore during World War I. She was very slender and fine-boned. And before a school girl commented that she didn’t look like an aviator, she had long, wavy blonde hair. Her striking figure and pretty face made her the perfect choice to appear in ads and endorse Lucky Strike cigarettes, malted milk, and luggage. In addition, she designed clothes that were sold exclusively at thirty department stores throughout the United States.

In the photographs on display, the only woman who never appeared in women clothing was Florence Lowe “Pancho” Barnes. She’s the woman on the left, wearing chaps, a leather jacket, white shirt, and slender tie. Amelia was a very colorful and adventures person, but nothing compared to Pancho.

Born into a wealthy family in Pasadena, California, Pancho learned from her father how to hunt, fish, and camp. From her mother, she was encouraged to toe-the-line and be a society lady. To help curb her tomboy tendencies, she was married to a reverend when she was eighteen years old. They had one son, William E. Barnes.

Five years later, after her mother passed away, she reverted to her flamboyant and headstrong way, going so far as to disguise herself as a man and stowing away on a freighter to Mexico. When she returned home, four months later, she became enamored with flying and after six hours of formal instructions, she flew solo. At the time, she was one of only two dozen aviatrixes in the United States.

Her inheritance gave her the freedom to pursue flying, resulting in her breaking Amelia’s world women’s speed record in 1930 with a speed of 196.19 miles per hour. Along with running a barnstorming show and competing in air races, she became a stunt pilot in Hollywood, and built the famed Happy Bottom Riding Club on the current day Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. She rubbed shoulders with test pilots Chuck Yeager and Buzz Alrin, went horseback riding with the young George S. Patton, Jr., and no doubt made her grandfather, Thaddeus S. C. Lowe, proud. For Professor Lowe pioneered American aviation with the establishment of the Union Army Balloon Corps during the American Civil War.

With an hour and a half before my birthday helicopter ride, Rich and I quickly walked through the William E. Boeing Red Barn exhibit, which featured the birth of aviation and start of Boeing. We then scurried across the covered walkway to airpark to walk through two airplanes: The first “Air Force One” and an Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde.

Below, you can see Rich standing in front of the Boeing VC-137B, which was originally built for President Eisenhower and used by Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Presidential airplanes are known as “Special Air Mission.” Once a current president steps aboard, however, it becomes “Air Force One.”

It was a treat to walk aboard the plane and see what was at the time, state-of-the-art electronics and communications equipment. In the door of the “presidential” bathroom was a small doggie door, no doubt for one of President Johnson’s beagles. There was also a special rack for his Stetson.

I never expected to be on a Concorde, especially with only twenty built between 1966 and 1979. Capable of flying at two times the speed of sound, the aircraft could go from London to New York and back in the time it took a conventional plane to go one way.

The plane is equally sleek inside as outside with spacious, two across, sapphire blue upholstered seats and overhead bins that conform to the low, rounded ceiling. It must have felt like sitting in a small tunnel because it’s very long and not particularly wide!

With just 35 minutes to spare, we hustled to our car and drove a few miles to Classic Helicopters where I enjoyed an amazing 30-minute flight around Bellevue and Seattle. See the article below.

For my birthday, Rich arranged for us to take a 30-minute helicopter ride over Seattle through Classic Helicopters. I didn’t know what to expect, but was surprisingly calm about going up in a small mosquito of a helicopter with a front windshield that provided a greater than 180-degree view from top-to-bottom, and side-to-side.

Because Rich had been in a helicopter before, he wanted me to sit in the front seat with the pilot. With two cameras in hand, we gently lifted off the ground and hovered for a few minutes before getting clearance from Boeing Field air traffic control.

The word that keeps coming to mind when I think about the ride is "floating." Aside from moving across the horizon, which my eyes perceived, there was virtually no movement. It was this glorious floating sensation that allowed me to look down at awe at Seattle and the surrounding landscape and many waterways, including Lake Washington, Lake Union, and the Puget Sound.

I was Peter Pan’s Wendy for 30-minutes drinking in the sites and occasionally snapping a picture. Fortunately, Rich was more composed and snapped most of the nearly 100 pictures that we took. Here are some of my favorites.

This is downtown Bellevue with Interstate 405 to the right. I work in the Bravern I tower, which is the first building, across from the circular cloverleaf with a tree in the middle.

Bellevue is a few miles from the Microsoft main campus in Redmond.

 Mercer Island is in Lake Washington. A bridge connects the "east side" to this island and then continues west to Seattle. Rich and I have sailed on this lake many times.

From a helicopter, you can see how much water surrounds the area.

The Montlake Cut connects Lake Washington to Lake Union and Seattle. To the right is the University of Washington campus. North, through Lake Union, you can see the houseboat where "Sleepless in Seattle" was filmed along with several of the boats from the series "Deadliest Catch."

Seattle is a BIG city with over 600,000 people and over 3,340,000 in the metro area. No wander why traffic is so bad. Between the number of people and constraints imposed by the waterways, traffic is terrible!

The Space Needle was built for the 1962 World’s Fair The quirky blue, burgundy and silver structure to the left is the Experience Music Project, built by Paul Allen.

This area has been attractions and parks that were originally built for the fair. 

Here’s another view of the Space Needle, which is 605 feet tall and 138 feet wide. It can also withstand winds up to 200 miles per hour along with earthquakes up to 9.1 magnitude.

At the top is an observation deck and restaurant; neither one we’ve been too.

Towards the top of the picture, you can see two "bridge-like" structures. This is the roof of Safeco Field, which can be opened during fair weather. Microsoft holds their annual company meeting at Safeco Field. Dozens of buses transport tens of thousands of employees.

The helicopter pilot banked over Safeco Field so we could snap a few pictures.

The grass is very green as is the landscape around the area. Seattle is called the Emerald City because of its lush vegetation… and because it’s truly a magical place to live (or visit).

Seattle’s waterfront host vehicles of all sizes from huge cruise ships coming and going to Canada and Alaska to ferries, tour boats, barges, tug boats, commercial ships (notice the cranes for loading and unloading ships), and of course yachts, sailboats, and motor boats. The tall buildings are downtown.

This is the popular Shilshole Bay Marina, north of downtown Seattle. Most of the marina is comprised of sailboats, which enables direct access to the Puget Sound and smooth sailing to the San Juan Islands up to Canada and Alaska.

There’s a large sailing school at this marina.

Rich snapped a shot of me as we returned to Boeing Field. Below is Interstate 5 along with a railroad corridor. This corridor is also where the helicopter fly to keep out of the way of commercial and private planes going to and from Boeing Field, and the main airport for the area, SeaTac. The latter is halfway between Seattle and Tacoma, hence the name.

While we were in the air for just 30 minutes, the experience and the sites will last a lifetime.

This morning, Rich and I went to Shari’s for breakfast. We rarely go out for breakfast, but Rich had a coupon, burning a hole in his wallet. Equipped with the Sunday paper, we enjoyed a leisurely meal. Rich had his usual Denver omelet with rye toast and hash browns. I opted for a tasty spinach and mushroom omelet with three pancakes.

Heading home, Rich noticed that tucked in the corner of a nondescript strip mall was the Bead Hut and Lakewood Jewelers. These two family-owned businesses used to be in trendy, downtown Kirkland, a block off the main thoroughfare. They’re now in obscure Totem Lake Square next to resale shops, dinky restaurants, car repair companies, and other mom-and-pop establishments. Across from them are car dealerships and in the back are warehouses.

Seeing the Bead Hut rekindled the troubles I had with Lakewood Jewelers when I first moved to Washington. After being offered a job at Microsoft, I gave two-week’s notice at Dell, packed two huge duffle bags with clothes and essentials, and my laptop, and then flew to Seattle. Because I had no idea when Rich (and 99% of my stuff) was going end up in Seattle, what I placed in the duffle bags was carefully scrutinized to ensure I only took what I absolutely needed and nothing more.

I decided, however, to take a favorite item or two. I chose a small doll from Hungary that was given to me at my father’s funeral when I was nine. I also chose a Native American fetish, a quail made from a large shell with obsidian, jasper, turquoise, and sterling silver details. Even though I have dozens of fetishes, the quail was one of my favorites; unfortunately, one of its legs broke during the trip.

My duffle bags and I arrived in Washington on a Saturday and moved into an amazing furnished apartment in downtown Bellevue that Microsoft secured for me (thank you Microsoft). The next day, I journeyed to downtown Kirkland to decompress for my first day of work on Monday. I spied the Bead Hut during that initial visit and returned a few weeks later to purchase the beads and use their tools to make a set of earrings.

The mother and daughter who run the Bead Hut were very accommodating and made me feel welcome. When I decided to have my quail’s leg soldered back onto the body, the nature choice was Lakewood Jewelers, which was in the back part of the Bead Hut and run by the father of the clan.

I dropped off the quail, paid $30 to have it repaired, and was told that it would be done within the week. I returned the following weekend to find that it hadn’t been repaired. Several weeks lapsed while I flew back to Austin, Texas to help Rich pack up our house (which amazingly sold within eight hours) and drive across country with our six cats and five birds.

When I returned to Lakewood Jewelers to pick up my quail, it was nowhere to be found! I was told to look around both the jewelry and bead shops to see if it had been stuck on a shelf. No luck. They placated my disappointment by saying they’d look for the quail and ask their employees if they’d seen it.

The following week I returned and once again, the quail couldn’t be found. The jeweler insisted that I had picked it up and should look in my car and apartment. I explained that I hadn’t been in downtown Kirkland in weeks, let alone his store. Weeks passed with my calling and asking whether they’d found my quail. The answer was consistently the same. I must have picked it up and misplaced it in my house or car.

Finally, I insisted that they reimburse me for the piece along with the cost to have it repair, $30. The jeweler begrudgingly wrote me a check, ranting that I was negligent and was trying to con him out of money. Three days later, he called and reported that a "customer" had mistakenly taken my piece.

I was thrilled and said that Rich and I would be in on Saturday and would write a check for the amount he’d reimbursed me. When we went to pick up the quail, Rich said he’d like the jeweler to waive the cost of the repairs since I ‘d made numerous trips to his shop and was repeatedly told that I was trying to cheat him.

The jeweler, however, was furious at Rich’s audacity. After all, as he explained, he’d paid the customer $10 for “her troubles to return MY piece of art.” He wasn’t about to lose any more money on the transaction. Moreover, because he felt that he’d been wronged, he refused to give me the quail until Rich handed him a check for the repair plus the amount he’d reimbursed me.

Adding insult to injury, he immediately rushed to the bank and cashed our check as if we had written him a bad check!

Two years later, I’m still upset over the incident. No one deserved to be treated with contempt just because they expected to have their property returned to them, especially after they paid to have it fixed!

By the way, the quail represents holiness and the sacred spirit, which is why I was so desperately wanted it back.

On Thursday night, we were peeking at the raccoons through the french doors when Rich exclaimed that one of the baby raccoons couldn’t climb onto the upper deck. Something was wrong with it foot.

He went outside and lowered the food to the lower deck and about a half hour later, the injured raccoon returned. Both of its legs were facing backwards and it didn’t seem to have any strength in its hindquarter. We surmised that it must have either fallen from the roof or a tree and broke its back, leaving it paralyzed.

The next morning, we contacted a local wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center with the hope that they’d come out and help trap and perhaps rehabilitate the raccoon. They explained that they didn’t have the staff to come out to people’s houses.

Great.We’d have to trap and bring in the raccoon ourselves.

For the past hour or so, Rich and I have been rigging up an elaborate system to hoist up the raccoon the next time it comes to visit. We spread a tarp on the ground, tied ropes to the grommets, threaded them through a pulley, which is tied to a ladder that is balanced on another ladder. The other end of the rope is snaked along the deck and into the house.

When it gets dark outside, we’ll put a bowl of food in the middle of the tarp and periodically check to see if the raccoons are eating. If the injured raccoon shows up, we’re hoping to hoist up the tarp then lower the raccoon into a tall box.

We’ll then take the raccoon to the rehabilitation center where they’ll most likely euthanized it. If a miracle occurs. the raccoon will simply have broken legs and could be rehabilitated. We’re both heartbroken, but feel the most humane thing to do is to capture the raccoon and put it out of its misery.

Wish us luck tonight.

Two Thursdays ago, I brought my FIT to Kirkland Honda to have routine maintenance done on the car. Rich met me there to take me home.

He also decided to check out the cars. Wanting to trade in my old Honda CRV for a more fuel efficient car (and one that hadn’t weathered in the Texas sun for 4.5 years), he was intrigued by the Insight. His interest turned into a desire when he learned that the sales tax was waved on all cars sold in Washington through August 1st. The problem was finding a car in light blue, dark blue or red.

His quest turned into a Henry Ford moment in that the Insight was available in "any color – so long as it’s black." 

Anxious to not pay the sales tax, Rich ended up calling every Honda dealership from Seattle to Bellingham. All were willing to sell him a car, but none had Insights  except in black, white, silver or black!

A few days later, Kirkland Honda called and said they found a red Insight. Rich gave them a deposit and waited to see if the car manifested.

Less than a week later, Friday afternoon, the car was ready to pick up. It had been shipped from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

That evening, we took the car on its virgin drive to Mount Vernon… and along the way, it started to hail! Happily it was Washington and not golf-ball sized Texas hail. Rich is thrilled with the car. And I’m thrilled because it gets 49 mpg… and is RED like my FIT!

It’s been weeks… months… of perfect weather in Seattle. Instead of warm days interspersed with rain, we’ve had nothing but sun. Happily, the hottest it got was in the low 90’s. Most days, it’s in the 70’s and 80’s.

Last weekend, we attended a picnic for residents and property owners of Fidalgo Bay Estates in Anacortes. We fit in the latter group, having purchased a 1.5 acre lot in 2003 with the hope of eventually building a house on it. At this point, we’ve carved out some crude paths, planted a few trees and lilacs, and installed the septic system. Plus, Rich serves on one of the homeowner boards… and he coordinates the twice-yearly clean-up event.

Rich asked that I make something to “impress,” yet be easy to prepare. Friday evening, I boiled a dozen eggs, cut in half, and mashed up the yolks with sweet mustard, chopped chive, mayonnaise, and Cajun seasoning. On Saturday, I piped in the yolks and garnished the eggs with herbs from our garden.

Also on Friday night, I pounded four chicken breasts then layered on wilted spinach, basil leaves, thinly sliced carrots, and red peppers. I rolled each breast into a roll, wrapped in foil, and boiled them for around 30 minutes. After being refrigerated overnight, I sliced the rolls in half-inch thick.

I put spring lettuce mix on a large platter, plunked the deviled eggs in the middle, surrounded by the sliced chicken rolls, and then garnished with multi-colored miniature tomatoes, and slices of carrots, cut to resemble flowers. The food definitely impressed and probably took around two hours to make!

On Sunday, we had thoroughly enjoyed sailing on Lake Washington with strong winds and clear skies.

For the past few weeks, Rich has been working on installing bucket lights in the kitchen of our Kirkland house. The large space in the ceiling where we had florescent tubes, it going to house two large skylights! This weekend, Rich is planning to cut the holes in the ceiling and install the skylights. It’s going to look amazing!

Next, we’re going to order a small peninsula for the kitchen, which will increase the work and storage space. My first project on the peninsula will be to make fresh pasta.

In early fall, Rich will start to remodel the middle bathroom. He already installed a new fan and light. Even though a bath is quite small, it’s going to be a major undertaking because we need to remove the wallpaper and either texture the walls (lots of work) or put a textured wallpaper on the wall and paint over it.

We also need to replace the vanity, toilet, lights, mirror, remove the ghastly oak trim… replace the glass doors over the bathtub, and redo the flooring. While a lot of work (and expense) a remodeled bathroom significantly enhances the value of a house.