Ship Shape

 

MUY MAGNIFICO!  We had the great fortune this morning of touring the jaw-dropping, tall-masted Mexican navy ship, Cuauhtémoc. 

A teaching vessel, on which navy cadets are trained, it's in Seattle at Pier 66 for a four-day visit. We spied it yesterday by chance, and headed down to the waterfront this morning, determined to get a closer look.

As we approached the ship, this creature (below) greeted us. I'd love to know if it has a name and what its story is.

We were some of the first people to arrive for a tour, and the crew had to get the gangplank ready for us to board.  While we waited, Annabelle asked one of the sailors about the name of the vessel, how to pronounce it, and what it means.  The young man informed us that the Cuauhtémoc was named after Mexico's last emperor. 

CJ asked one of the sailors how long the boat has been in service.  The young man thought about it for a moment and replied "Fifteen days. Yes, days!" We smiled and nodded, suspecting that 'days' wasn't quite the right word.  A plaque on board let us know that it was, indeed, a bit older. It shows a construction year of 1982. It was built in Spain, and has been sailing for over 30 years.

Once on board, we were allowed to roam the top deck at will, well, except for a few signs like this ...

We wondered how high the masts were, and wished we could climb 'em.

The woodwork on the ship is gorgeous, and the benches are built high, so you can see over the ship's railing while seated.

We found two wheels. The kids just had to try them both!

There were lots of pretty brass parts on board, and navigation equipment, of course.

 
 There was gorgeous wood everywhere, including on the lifeboats ... 

and on the stairs ...

 There were dozens of flags hanging from the boat.  

On board, we found this poster, and figured maybe it was a tutorial on how to hang the flags.

We were so happy to have the opportunity to tour such a unique vessel.  I reminded the kids as we were walking away, they are lucky to live in Seattle where rare opportunities seem to pop up on a not-so-rare basis! 

As we strolled back to our parking spot, about a mile away, we paused along the waterfront to admire the Edgewater hotel, where  The Beatles stayed during their 1964 visit. It's Seattle's only hotel built out over the water.

In the distance in the shot below, you can see a couple of cruise ships parked at the bottom of our hilly neighborhood, Magnolia.

Once back at home, we learned Cuāuhtemōc was the Aztec ruler (tlatoani) of Tenochtitlan from 1520 to 1521. According to Wikipedia, the name  means "One That Has Descended Like an Eagle." 

IT'S A PHASE:  "Who wants to eat Oreos, er, I mean learn about the moon!?" I asked this afternoon. 

Not surprisingly, CJ and Annabelle answered in the affirmative.

We used a NASA Space Place tutorial that explained that the moon looks a little different to us each night during its one-month orbit of our planet. 

We were also reminded that the Moon has no light of its own  Rather, the light we see is sunlight bouncing off the Moon's surface. That sunlight lights up whatever side of the Moon is facing it. If you were on the sun, you'd always see a full moon! And, if you were up in space, right over the North Pole, you'd always see a half light/half dark moon. Here on Earth, we see the Moon from the center of its orbit, so we see different portions of the lit side of the Moon.

PDF above available on NASA's Space Place site: http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/oreo-moon/en/moon-phases-activity-sheet.pdf

We used it to model Oreos to look like moon phases.

"Who knew learning about the moon could be so delish?" Annabelle marveled when we were done.

GRILLIN':  I was just a couple of minutes away from firing up our barbecue this evening when I read a Facebook post from NASA Solar System Exploration.  It read, "Did you know that the propane known to be present on Saturn's moon Titan is sufficient enough to fuel 150 billion BBQs?"

Why, no, in fact, I did *not* know that. They even had a cute little graphic.