Remembering

VETERANS DAY EVE:  Tomorrow is Veterans Day and in conjunction with that, tonight we're watching "Debt of Honor," which PBS describes as "an unflinching look at the reality 

of warfare through interviews with disabled veterans." An apt description based on what we 

saw. It was unflinching, indeed.

Really, as hard as it was to look at at at times, I think the program was the 'perfect' thing to watch as a way to honor veterans and their service.

Trips to The Museum of Flight always make us think about veterans - and active duty military personnel.

Last Friday, while we were listening to Navy veteran John Herrington, the first Native American astronaut and space walker, during his presentation, a military jet screamed into Boeing Field. Herrington, a Navy pilot stopped and smiled and said, "I love that sound."

Turns out the roar was created by an F-18 Super Hornet from NAS Lemoore.

 I thought it odd its emblems were so muted, and wondered if it's undergoing some sort of make over.

The Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet and related twin-seat F/A-18F are twin-engine carrier-capable multirole fighter aircraft variants based on the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet.  The museum posted this video to their Facebook page. 

As I went out to shoot the landed F/A-18E, I noticed that also on the tarmac was this Navy plane. 

Its engines were running, and I hoped we'd get to see it take off. We did!

And while out shooting that, I couldn't help but appreciate the sun's rays illuminating the cockpit of the museum's Boeing WB-47E Stratojet.

EYES ON APPLES:  Today, I spied a really interesting article all about apples in the Seattle Times. I emailed it to the kids and had each of them read it, and then write a paragraph for me about what they learned from the story.

Here's what Annabelle gleaned ...

I recently read an article from the Seattle Times about new apples that are being bred and genetically engineered to be unique, or, as I will call them, designer     apples. According to the article, many of the apples have interesting names,       such as "Junami", "Kanzi", "RubyFrost" "Opal", and "SnapDragon". Apples can  be bred and genetically engineered for certain things, such as being firm or chewy, or being juicy. Many of the apples are being bred and genetically modified in Washington, but there are also people doing it in Europe. It often takes a long     time for apples to get on shelves: For example, a breed known as Cosmic Crisp was apparently hybridized in 1997, but won't be on shelves until 2019.

CJ had this to share ...

The article by the Seattle Times talks about how the apple market is growing. Studies show that although the traditional Red Delicious has fallen 15% in popularity, and Mcintoshes 9% (decline), Ambrosia apples have increased bynearly 50% in popularity. Breeders around the world have been producing newvarieties, such as SweeTango, Opal, and SnapDragon. One of the most promising, however, is the Cosmic Crisp, a breed between the classic Honeycrisp and Enterprise. Experts predict that classic apples may fade out of popularity as new ones come in. I can’t wait to taste one of the ones debuting in 2017!

It's a great article, covering everything from apple DNA to marketing to economics. Apples are kind of a Big Deal in the Evergreen State, as almost two-thirds of apples grown in the United States are a product of Washington. 

Here, CJ gleans an apple from a tree he raised as a seedling

THE LEGEND LIVES ON FROM THE CHIPPEWA ON DOWN: Today marks the somber anniversary of the day the Edmund Fitzgerald went to a watery grave on the bottom of Lake Superior, killing all 29 men aboard.

Anyone my age or older likely is familiar with the wreck from a haunting Gordon Lightfoot hit released. 

https://youtu.be/9vST6hVRj2A

A 729-foot ore-carrier, called the "Queen of the Great Lakes," the ship was carring 26,000 

tons of iron ore when it went down on Nov. 10 in 90 mph winds with waves measuring 25

feet.

The National Transportation Safety Board ruled in May 1978 that the "probable cause of this accident was the sudden massive flooding of the cargo hold due to the collapse of one or more hatch covers."

One of the sources we used today when researching the ship and its demise was a really great Web site http://www.ssedmundfitzgerald.org/.

Impressed with the site's design and content, I checked its "About" link and found that it was the creation of a guy named Timothy McCall. He grew up in Indiana, and as an eighth grader, age 14, in the year 2000, when, in history class, he and fellow students were assigned famous disasters throughout history to report on. McCall's task involved the Edmund Fitzgerald. As part of his report, he started the site and the rest, as they say, is history. Now it's arguably the preeminent source of Edmund Fitzgerald info on the WWW. Over the years, McCall has become friends with many family members of Fitzgerald victims. 

Pretty darn impressive eighth grade social studies project!

This YouTube video has actual footage of the Edmund Fitzgerald, from it being christened to it sitting on the lake bed.
https://youtu.be/hgI8bta-7aw