High Flying

FANTASTIC FLYING MACHINES: On Veteran's Day, we drove north to a place we've been wanting to check out for years - the Flying Heritage Collection museum.

There were a number of knowledgeable, friendly volunteer docents on the floor of the museum. They happily fielded questions and had plenty of personal stories to tell.

We also had a chance to talk to a couple of men who were working on the planes, taking props off to send them to specialists for testing. 

Since all of the museum's planes fly, it's important to make sure their parts are all flight worthy.

Here's a Nazi plane missing its nose, propellers ready to ship off to England for testing. 

Naturally, I had the kids each write a mini report about the visit to FHC.

Here are CJ's thoughts ...

The Flying Heritage Collection is a museum in Mukilteo, Washington, featuring several different planes in two different buildings, mostly from World War II. The museum is one of many collections owned by Paul Allen, including EMP and the Living Computer Museum. One vehicle that particularly intrigued me was the Kettenkraftrad, an odd-looking tank that had the front wheel and handle of a motorcycle, and the rest of the body was like that of a traditional tank.    

Another artifact that got my interest was the V-2 rocket, a German missile that was the first man-made object to go into space. Wernher Von Braun, the man who designed the rocket, worked to build the legendary Saturn V later in life. One of the rules of the museum, much like the Living Computer Museum, is that an artifact will not be displayed there unless it works.

 And here's what Annabelle had to say ...

On November 11, I went to Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Collection in Mukilteo. The museum is composed of two buildings. The first building I went into included most of the planes. They had a plane called the P-51d “Mustang” that they were able to reunite with its pilot, Harrison Tordoff. They even had a video of him sitting in the plane, restored to the way it was when he left it last, many, many, years ago. Another highlight that I was interested in was the very first man-made object in space, the German V2 rocket. It was used as a terror weapon, and it was very very large. It wasn’t manned, though. My favorite part of the collection, though, was probably the SpaceShipOne and its carrier, the White Knight.

The SpaceShipOne was the winner of the X-Prize, an award for a non-government spacecraft that is reusable and can be launched twice in two weeks. It was only a replica, but the White Knight was real. 

The one unique thing about the collection is that nearly all of the planes can fly and are flown around 2 times a year. It’s free to watch, and I’d love to see it someday. I would definitely come back to see new additions to the collection!

Here's a short, introduction video from FHC about their museum.


And here's a link to a video about SpaceShipOne, in case you missed its launch in 2004.


Not quite everything in the museum's collection flies. For instance, this Sherman tank is definitely Earth bound!

Every May, the museum holds an event called TankFest Northwest. Sounds like fun. I hope we can check it out next May!

And a super intriguing piece they have in their collection is a bona fide Enigma machine from World War II. The coding devices were used to send encrypted messages. We've read lots about how the Allies finally cracked Enigma's code, and likely shaved couple of years off the duration of the war, saving countless lives.

 It came with operator's instructions. If only my German weren't so rusty!

And not all of the flying machines on display at FHC are piloted. Check out this sleek, bomb-dropping drone.

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All in all, and amazing collection, to be sure. And it was a great spot to spend some of Veteran's Day, as we got to visit with a number of veterans, and learn about their service.

LABEL MAKER:  We've been churning out the salsa verde over the past couple of weeks, each and every batch a bit different.

Fortunately, Annabelle has made some labels to help us keep track of which batch is what.

This one's for the mild stuff ...

This sinister looking graphic is for the salsa with Trinidad Moruga Scorpion peppers and ghost chilis.

 One batch has Trinidad Moruga Scorpion peppers, ghost chilies, and Carolina Reaper peppers.

And for our 'garden' variety tomatillo salsa, she whipped this up ...

So cute!

DANCE OFF:  This afternoon we were all cold and lethargic. Best cure for that? A little Richard Simmons, of course. 

I cued up an old "Sweatin' to the Oldies" video I found on YouTube , and we danced and pranced along with Simmons for a happy half hour.