Movie and More

FLY-IN MOVIE: This evening, we headed to The Museum of Flight for a movie. The show was outdoors, in the museum's huge Aviation Pavilion. 

The screen was huge - nearly as tall as the tail of the 787 it was next to!

We went in and set up our chairs ...

and then we walked around the pavilion a bit.

The kids had fun with the statues on site.

Below they're imitating "the shooter," who helps aircraft launch from ships.

 And here's CJ doing his best D.B. Cooper impersonation. 

They explored the new kids' play area, complete with an Alaska Airlines plane. 

 CJ tried to refuel the aircraft.

 And they learned they're a bit too big for the TSA station.

The time we were there made for some pretty lighting on the planes.

Have I mentioned how much I miss having a real camera? I was stuck with just my cell phone tonight.

But back to the movie. ... 

Spare Parts is a 2015 film directed by Sean McNamara,  based on the Wired Magazine article "La Vida Robot" by Joshua Davis, about the true story of a group of students from a mainly Latino high school, who won the first place over M.I.T. in the 2004 MATE ROV competition.

Here's a trailer for the movie: https://youtu.be/aozTwsSQ_sI

UNEXPECTED ENCOUNTER:  Unsettling encounter this morning. The kids and I were checking out a park near our new house for the very first time - Skyway Park. 

Skyway Park is located in an unincorporated urban area west of Lake Washington that is bordered by Seattle to the north, Tukwila to the west and south, and Renton to the east. 

If you drive through the area, your first impression of the park's immediate surrounding neighborhood might be that it looks a little 'rough.' Litter, run down homes and run down autos were decidedly not few or far between.

The park, itself, however, is inviting. Skyway Park has 23 acres and has three baseball fields, an informal football/soccer field, a nice big playground, a cool looking picnic shelter, basketball and tennis courts, and a restroom. 

The park has wetlands (they were pretty dry at the present, given this summer's drought). The wetlands function as the headwaters of Taylor Creek, a salmon-bearing stream that passes through Seattle’s Deadhorse Canyon and enters Lake Washington, per a King County report. 

Today, the park was a tad eerie when we arrived; There was not a single other soul in the 23-acres. That gave me a bit of a pause ("Why is no one here enjoying the park?"), but we persisted with our visit.

We walked around checking out the ballfields and picnic area, and a nice playground. At one point, I noticed a young African American man in the distance enter the park on foot. He kept to himself, causally ambling through the parking lot. Meanwhile, the kids were playing and I was walking the dogs in circles. It came time for us to leave and as we walked back to our car, we were surprised to see two squad cars,(we hadn't seen or heard them enter the park), and two officers and the young man being questioned/detained. This is where things got weird for me. My first thought - and what I said aloud to the kids - is, "We need to stay here and make sure he's OK."

We stood within eye and earshot - closer than where I took this photo - until the young man was put in the squad car.

True confession: I was taken aback at my own reaction to the situation. I think once upon a time, I might have thought, "Oh good! Glad to see police get a 'bad guy' off the street," or "This is none of our business, we need to go." But today, my overriding though was fear for the young man's safety, given there were two armed Caucasian-appearing officers, one young man of color, and no one (except for us) around as witnesses. These are the times we live in. 

I could see the female officer watching us intently, and got the impression she wished we'd move along. Instead, we stayed and watched and listened as they asked him his name, the male officer mentioned something about a warrant. I told the kids I was so glad the young man was not resisting arrest, and also noted that that, alone, wasn't necessarily enough to ensure one's safety in that situation, based on way too many videos we've all seen.
My reaction really surprised me. I wonder at what point along the way my mind flipped to the thought that the officers were the ones to potentially fear in that situation. The thought was unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and disconcerting.

I know there are LOTS of good cops out there. The vast majority I'd like to think. But thanks to the proliferation of cameras everywhere, we've seen, graphically, that there are a whole lot of ones to fear, as well.

Not our normal trip to a park.

In happier news, following are a few park shots. 

There were some neat metal signs telling about wild- and plant-life one was likely to see in the area. 

And the kids mostly enjoyed the playground ...

Except, when she attempted to go down the slide, Annabelle called out, "This slide has a fatal design flaw." 

I kid you not, at that very moment, I was standing reading this sign.

Annabelle explained that the tightness of the corkscrew and shape of the metal made it hurt when she went down.

IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T HEARD: There's going to be a Really Big Deal Total Solar Eclipse next Monday (8/21). Here's a link to the official NASA Website all about it: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/