Museum Monday

FIELD TRIP: This morning we struck out for a destination not too far from home. It's a place we've been wanting to check out for years now. In December, they moved to their new home, even closer to us than their previous near-University of Washington location.

The Museum of History and Industry is now located in South Lake Union in the beautifully restored Naval Reserve Armory.  It's a gorgeous period building. Dontcha just love the architecture?

It was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1941-1942, and served as an Advanced Naval Training School" during World War II. The big, open gallery area inside used to be a drill hall, where thousands of recruits were trained. 

     Photo: Wikipedia 
Inside, an adventure awaits!

In the photo leading this blog post, you'll see two Seattle icons - the big red Rainier beer R that sat atop its headquarters (now Tully's HQ). I remember it from dozens of trips to the Emerald City as a child. It was on the west side of the freeway, just south of town, and I always associated with a bit of a bummer as it meant we were leaving Seattle.

The pink toes are from the Lincoln Toe (tow) Truck.

JAW DROPPER:This attraction at MOHAI deserves its own subheading. A few months ago, I read a story in the Seattle Times about the amazing piece of art was creating. The 60-plus foot sculpture is made from the hull of the sailing ship Wawona, a schooner built in 1896. It weighs 11,000 pounds and is constructed from over 200 wooden panels by artist John Grade. A "sea to sky" installation, it extends beyond the roof of the museum, and down under its floors. You can appreciate it from its perimeter, inside the museum, but when you walk inside of it, you find there's a clear floor, and you can peer all the way down into the inky waters of Lake Union, where the sculpture ends.

Quite simply, it's marvelous. This photo doesn't do it justice.

SEATTLE CENTRAL: MOHAI is all about Seattle, from its early days to present, and there is an eclectic collection.

Here, the Ivar's clam goes for a spin on a unicycle. It was part of a cool display in the main hall of the museum. You could turn a crank and make the unicyclist pedal.

Likewise, this 'wild' Rainier bottle, below, would run when you'd turn a crank. However, the bottle cap remover would always zero in for the kill.

Upstairs, I loved seeing JP Patches' jacket.

 And, of course, the Triple XXX Root Beer photo caught our attention, since CJ is an aficionado.

There was so much to see and do. We checked out the 'gold rush' themed exhibit. There, we pulled a slot machine handle to see how me might have fared. Apparently I shouldn't quit my day job.

CJ and Annabelle tried their hands at working on the railroad.

Would you believe that CJ walked away from it with a fat lip? He got a little overzealous with his tie-driving.

There were a number of displays that had to do with the economy and industry of old. This 1911 poster could have been printed yesterday, if you asked me. ...

There was a lot to look at regarding immigrants' experiences in Seattle history. It reminded me that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

 Check out this terroristic note former Seattle mayor Henry Yesler received.

My absolute favorite part of our visit was in a tiny theater with less than a dozen seats. There, a full fledged musical about the 'Great' Seattle fire of 1889 fire played out, with inanimate objects doing the singing (notably, the glue pot lamented about being singled out as the source of the fire). The lighting and sound were fantastic, the music was amazing and the lyrics were a hoot.  

What's amazing is that more than 30 city blocks were burned, yet not a single person was killed. Wow.

Above are some dishes that were fused together during the fire. 

There was a nice big exhibit about Seattle in the movies. We watched parts of Elvis, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Maureen O'Hara movies filmed in Seattle, and more.

I so totally want this Mustang couch.

                                  

There was one spot where we could play with a green screen. 

 Annabelle thought it important to have a rubber chicken prop.

There were a few sports-related items in the collection, including this 1979 Supersonics NBA championship trophy.

And there was a small wing dedicated to poetry. The kids thought about penning a poem for a couple minutes, but they bailed, citing being hungry as an excuse

The fourth floor provided a nice view of Lake Union, and was home to a maritime-themed exhibit.

                                          
A floor or two below, we also really liked an interactive display explaining exactly how the Ballard/Hiram Chittenden Locks operate.

SPARKLE PLENTY: This evening we enjoyed a long, lovely flyover of the ISS from our new roofdeck. It appeared exactly as predicted, at 6:26 p.m., per NASA's handy Spot the Station email notification system.

We enjoyed watching it trace across the sky until it finally disappeared about 5 minutes later, way, way beyond Queen Anne hill. (More likely, the ISS, was probably over Texas by the time it slipped from our vision.)

If you're not signed up for Spot the Station, I'd encourage you to do so today. It's just so damn cool watching the ISS streak over your home.