Side Trip

LONG WAY HOME: Today was our very-boring weekly trip to Winco for foodstuffs. We typically take I-5 home, but an electronic freeway reader board let us know there was a wreck ahead, along with a 4-mile backup. No thank you. 

I took the next exit, which happened to be for Boeing Field. That meant we'd be driving right by The Museum of Flight, and I felt compelled to stop on in. As usual, I'm glad we did.

We see something new and/or do something different every time we go.  The first thing we did today was hit up a craft project in the side gallery. The kids had their choice of three different types of paper flyers to make. They each opted for the whirligig.

At first glance, the instructions looked a bit daunting. 

However, they took it step-by-step, and knocked it out in short order. 

Then, they went up to the control tower to launch their flying machines, which floated down to the gallery floor quite nicely (sorry no photo, I just had my crappy cell phone with me today, and it doesn't 'do' action shots).

From there, the kids wanted to pretend we were winging away to some far off destination, so we boarded a Boeing 737 in the Great Gallery. I had a nice window seat. :)  There was quite a bit of air traffic around me, as you can see.

We enjoyed a complimentary in-flight movie all about the history of commercial aviation. 

I enjoyed sitting in the business class section of this aged airplane. Its aisle was so wide and there was so much leg room compared to every commercial plane I've ever been on board. Heck, you could fit another whole seat in front of Annabelle!

From there, we went in to the Lear Gallery in the main building. Today, we lingered in front of the moon rock for awhile.

This rock is one of three lunar samples The Museum of Flight has on display. All three were brought back on board Apollo 12, which made its trip in November of 1969. This sample was gathered in the Ocean of Storms, near their lunar module's landing site. It's ilmenite basalt. Ilmenite is a titanium ore, and basalt is familiar to we Earthlings as the most common type of rock formed from lava. 

We also watched a short video about the Apollo-Soyuz mission of 1975. Lordy, I remember that so well. It was amazing on two major fronts. First: SPACE!!!! Second, it was smack dab in the middle of the Cold War and here we were working cooperatively with the Soviets. Remarkable.

The mission involved Tom Stafford, Deke Slayton and Vance Brand in their Apollo Command and Service Module connecting with cosmonauts Aleksey Leonov and Valeriy Kubasov in a Soyuz capsule. They used a jointly designed, U.S.-built docking module to demonstrate that two dissimilar craft could dock in orbit. Of course, the bigger 'lesson' was the human factor.  As astronaut Brand observed, "We were a little of a spark or a foot in the door that started better communications."

You can relive the magic of Apollo-Soyuz docking in this 30-second video:

How lucky we were to meet Apollo-Soyuz Cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov last year at The Museum of Flight!

Today, we checked out Brand's flight training jacket. 

It reminds me how (relatively) small astronauts are. I think it would have fit CJ pretty well.

TOONY: Once again, today we used cartoons to help educate us. In fact, we killed two birds with one stone, using educational Animaniacs' songs while we exercised.  

I have a soft spot for Animaniacs. It was one of my favorite cartoons when Rick and Kennedy were kids. I'm so glad The Hub has started rebroadcasting the shows. They were great on the first run, and they're every bit as entertaining and witty today. 

This one compilation features five of my favorite Animaniacs' songs: "Yakko's World," which lists all of the Earth's nations; "The Presidents" which (duh) lists all of the U.S.  presidents (up through Clinton, when the show originally aired); "When You're Traveling" (about time zones); "Wakko's America" (the names of all 50 states and their capitols); and "Yakko's Universe."
Good stuff, and the '90s equivalent of "Schoolhouse Rock."