I hope you enjoy the stories and the photos!
May 13th: Arrival into Washington
My flight to Washington actually began with a connection through Charlotte. Strange that my trip to Washington would actually start out by traveling east! Gotta love these crazy airline routes. So what would have been a long flight from Cincinnati to Seattle to begin with just got even longer with a stop through Charlotte and some extra layover time.
So I finally got into Seattle-Tacoma airport (Sea-Tac to the locals) at around 9:00pm local time on Thursday night, which accounting for the time zone difference, is midnight my time. I grabbed my rental car and headed out for my hotel. What I didn't realize is that Sea-Tac airport is on the far south side of Seattle, while Everett and my hotel are on the far north side. So it took me about 45 minutes just to drive from the airport to my hotel. So by the time I got my car, drove to my hotel, and checked in, it was probably 11:00pm local time and I was running on fumes. But I was able to find the place and got checked in with no problems.The cool part about the hotel I got was that it was right on the waterfront. It was in a small suburb called Mukilteo, just north and west of Everett and the Boeing plant. My hotel was right by a ferry port and was within walking distance of a public beach area. So the first couple of nights, blessed by the unusually nice weather, I ventured down to the beach after work and just watched the ferries come and go and marveled at the beautiful scenery. Check out some of the photos. Absolutely beautiful.
May 15th: Evergreen Museum
Ever since I was a little kid and I watched the movie "Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose," I have been captivated by the famous gargantuan flying boat. The Spruce Goose was built in the mid-1940's, with the intended purpose of transporting troops and cargo during World War II. But the war was over by the time the plane could be finished. But Howard Hughes, the eccentric designer of the plane, completed it anyways, using a large portion of his own money to finance completion of the project. And in 1947, with Hughes himself at the controls, the plane took to the air for the first time. It would turn out to be the plane's only flight as well. Ever since then, it has been kept in storage.
For many years, the plane was kept in Long Beach Harbor, but in the mid-1990's, it was moved to a museum in McMinnville, Oregon, a small town about 30 miles outside of Portland. So when I knew I would be traveling to the Seattle area, I jumped at the chance to drive down and see the Goose for myself. It was about a 4-hour drive (240 miles) one way from my hotel to the museum, but it was worth it!
You can't imagine the sheer size of this airplane until you see it for yourself. The photos I've posted here can't do it justice. As you can see, I couldn't even fit the entire plane into one photo with my camera. The whole museum building is basically built around the airplane. Its wingspan is 320 feet (longer than a football field), its vertical tail fin is 80 feet high (about as tall as a 5-story building), and the span of the rear elevator structure is actually longer than the main wingspan of a WWII-era Boeing B-17 bomber!
The Spruce Goose was declared a mechanical engineering landmark in 2002, and for good reason. It was an aircraft design that was generations ahead of its time. Many people know that, due to the premium on high performance materials such as aluminum needed for the war, the plane was built almost entirely out of wood (hence the name "Spruce Goose"). But aside from that strange fact, the plane actually served to pioneer the design and construction of large aircraft. Due to the extremely large scale of the airplane, Hughes had to invent new ways to control the airplane. Among other innovations, the Spruce Goose was the first airplane to use hydraulic force multipliers for the flight controls. Since the control surfaces were so much larger than anything that had been used on an airplane up to that point and also so far away from the pilot, the hydraulic system was essential to controlling the plane. Without the force multiplication of up to 1000x on the flight control inputs, there would be no way the pilot could ever exert enough force on the control stick to actually fly the plane. Many innovations developed during design and construction of the Spruce Goose were actually carried over to today's large aircraft such as the C-5 Galaxy, the Boeing 747, and the Airbus A380 superjumbo. However, the Spruce Goose came nearly 20 years before any of these planes and is also the only super large aircraft ever to be powered by piston engines instead of today's turbofan jet engines. Truly an engineering marvel.
But the Spruce Goose is not the only attraction at the museum. They actually have a very impressive collection of aircraft and exhibits. They have 2 large buildings (one houses the Spruce Goose and other aircraft, the other houses more of a collection of space artifacts) and are planning a third building soon. They also have a nice IMAX theater, and are planning an ambitious water park to be built soon. The water park has a giant Boeing 747 perched above the roof and the plan is to build water slides that go from the doors of the plane down to the ground! Crazy!
So even though the trip to McMinnville took the entire day, it was well worth it. I was very impressed by the museum and its collection. But I was pretty exhausted by the time I got back to Mukilteo. All in all, it was about 500 miles round-trip and nearly 7 1/2 hours in the car. But I would gladly do it again!
May 22nd-29th: Trip to Moses Lake
So for the first week of my trip, I supported our GEnx-1B testing on the new 787 Dreamliner. Originally, this was supposed to be where I was going to be for the entire work trip. But after the first week at Everett, I got called to take on support of a different aircraft in the area.
The GEnx team is also working to develop the GEnx-2B engine, for use on the new 747-8 aircraft. So, since I was already in the area (and within driving distance of the test site), I got to travel out to cover testing on that aircraft for about a week.
The test site? A small town called Moses Lake, about 200 miles east of the Seattle area off of I-90. So again, I got in my trusty rental car and took off. About 3 1/2 hours later, I arrived in Moses Lake. But not before a visually-stunning drive through the Cascade Mountains. I had never been through the Rockies, but the Cascades are simply beautiful!
But I was surprised when I got on the other side of the mountains. When everyone thinks of Washington State, they think of the evergreens and the rain (typical Seattle weather). But the east side of the mountains is basically a desert. Brown grass everywhere and lots of open, flat plains. I actually saw tumbleweeds!
So once I was in Moses Lake, I helped with the 747 testing. Early starts every morning, late nights every evening. But I did get a chance to go out for dinner one night with the test team and we had a nice time. The test team is a very nice, but unusual, collection of people. There was a guy from Finland who reminded me of Will Ferrell, a guy from Texas who actually lived in Singapore for many years, a guy from Asia, a guy from Britain, and a guy from Italy. A strange collection of folks to be sure, but they were very nice and helpful to me and just a real hoot to be around. I had a blast.
And of course, I got to see the airplanes close up! I got to sit in the 747 for ground runs and was able to get close enough with my camera to get some good photos of the 747 and even a 787 that had flown in from Everett. Even though the 787 is the Rolls-Royce version (ours hasn't flown yet), it was still pretty cool.
My test obligations were completed late Friday night, so I planned my return drive to Seattle on Saturday. But before heading out, I realized that the Grand Coulee Dam was only about 60 miles away. So I thought, "Why not take a side trip and see that while I'm here?" So I did.
The Grand Coulee Dam is among the largest dams in the US, along with the Hoover Dam. But I didn't realize that it was in central Washington. It spans across the mighty Columbia River and is one of the largest producers of hydroelectric power in the US. I tried to take a photo-mosaic of the dam with my camera, since it was too large to get in one shot. I think it turned out pretty well.
So after checking out the dam, I headed back to Everett on US-2. A different route than how I had come, but even more scenic. Despite a little bit of rain and 3 1/2 more hours of driving, the drive back through the Cascades was just beautiful. I think someday I want to return here for a vacation. There were plenty of places to hike and go white water rafting. Sounds like fun!
May 30th: Downtown Seattle
So on Sunday, I finally got to explore downtown Seattle a little bit. I headed downtown and checked out the Space Needle and a few other attractions in the Seattle City Center. They have a pretty nice area surrounding the Space Needle downtown for tourists and the like.
So first, I went up in the Space Needle. While it's no Sears Tower, it was still a nice view. The day was a little overcast and hazy, but you could still see plenty of the city and Puget Sound area. I spent about an hour up top and then headed back down to see more of the city.They have a museum area called the "Experience Music Project," which is right beside a Science Fiction Museum. Admission to one includes the other, so I checked them both out. I knew Seattle was a rich music center, but I didn't realize just how many groups originated in the area. They had a nice tribute area to Jimi Hendrix. And a neat area where you could try your hand at playing a bunch of different instruments. Just a neat place.
After the museums, I strolled further downtown to check out Pike Place Market. Despite the drizzle, the place was buzzing! I can see why it is one of the more popular attractions in the Seattle area. The Hard Rock Cafe was only about a block away, so I stopped in there as well.
May 31st: Museum of Flight
Memorial Day Monday was another busy day of sight-seeing for me. I started out the day by going to the Boeing Museum of Flight. The guys at work had strongly suggested checking it out. And I'm glad I did! They also have a very impressive collection of airplanes and artifacts.
The grand hall is pretty impressive by itself. The centerpiece is an old SR-71, surrounded by other smaller jets and airplanes. I was able to get a fellow tourist to snap my photo in a mock SR-71 cockpit. I can't imagine what it must have been like to fly one of those planes at the edge of space at Mach 3!
Another unique attraction at this museum is the "airpark" outdoors. Here, they have the original Boeing 747 prototype first flown in the 1960's. They also have an Air Force One plane from the 1960's. And, the coolest attraction, a Concorde.
The Concorde is the only supersonic airliner ever to go into commercial service, carrying passengers in excess of Mach 2. Beginning in the late 1970's, it flew routes for British Airways and Air France, mainly covering the trans-Atlantic routes from Europe to New York City. The Concorde was a true engineering marvel, cutting the trans-Atlantic travel time to nearly half that of other modern jet airliners. It revolutionized the way that commercial aircraft are designed, tested, and certified. However, it was so expensive to operate that tickets were beyond the means of average folks. Finally, after one of them crashed during takeoff in the early 2000's, the airplane was retired from service.
I had seen a real Concorde only one other time, during my trip to Toulouse. Airbus had an old Concorde parked at their headquarters, but I wasn't allowed to get close to it or take any photos. The Concorde at this museum was open to the public. You could walk right up under it and even walk through it! It was really exciting for me. Again, I tried to make a photo-mosaic of the plane below. I think it turned out pretty well. The cockpit photo is from inside the Concorde.
May 31st: Overlooking Seattle
So after checking out the Museum of Flight, I ventured uptown a little bit to see if I could get a nice skyline photo of the city. I had looked up on Google the best places to take photos in the city and the overwhelming answer was "Kerry Park." It didn't disappoint!
The only downside was that you could not see Mount Rainier in the background that day with all the clouds and haze. But otherwise, a great photo site! On clear days, Mount Rainier is easily visible. It's so large that it literally looks like it's the only mountain in the area at times. In fact, I could see it from Portland when I drove into Oregon earlier on my trip. Pretty cool.
May 31st: Mariners Game
So by staying an extra few days, I was able to get in one last perk before I left Seattle. A Mariners game!
They had been out of town for most of the previous week, but I got a chance to catch a game when they hosted the Minnesota Twins on Monday night. And even better, by evening, the drizzle and clouds had cleared up! It was actually a very nice evening, so much so that they had the retractable roof on the stadium opened up.
I thought that Safeco Field was a really nice ballpark. It was easy to find, easy to park, and the game experience was just very pleasant. So what if the Mariners are in last place? I still enjoyed getting to see a game there.
In this game, it was Francisco Liriano pitching for the Twins against Doug Fister. A decent matchup to be sure. Delmon Young, Michael Cuddyer, and Jason Kubel hit homers for the Twins and they came away with a close 5-4 victory. And of course, I got to see Ichiro Suzuki's unique batting routines.
Trailing 5-3 going into the bottom of the ninth, the Mariners had a chance to come back, but just weren't able to do it.
One item of note: Ken Griffey Jr pinch-hit in the bottom of the ninth and grounded into a fielder's choice to second. Then he was pinch-run for and came out of the game. And two days later, Griffey announced his retirement. So I can say that I got to witness Griffey's last game. The photo to the right of Griffey is from his last career at-bat. This is a sure-fire Hall-of-Famer. So one day I'll get to tell my grandkids that I saw Junior's last at-bat.Trip Summary
All in all, going to Seattle was a pretty cool experience. I got to see and experience some neat things (most of it on the company's dime). I racked up over 1700 miles on my rental car in only 18 days. And I took nearly 700 pictures! Amazing!
I think it would be fun to return, but I think next time I would want to travel with some company instead of by myself.
1 comment:
I've always wanted to see Seattle. how about next time Paul and i and the 3 kids tag along for the ride. i can bet that would be a totally different experience! :) thanks for sharing, it looks like a lot of fun!
Nichole
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