Around the Grounds

CHECK UP: It had been well over two weeks since we checked on the health of our hives, so yesterday afternoon we finally took a peak.

We were happy to see that the bees are business as usual. Both hives have tons of bees of various types, larvae, an abundance of honeycomb and lots and lots of honey. 

We have purchased an extractor, so in the not-too-distant future, we'll be taking a rack out, putting it in the extractor and giving it a spin, literally. Here's an example of what a honey centrifuge extractor looks like.


I SPY: Our garden continues to go gangbusters. Below, can you spy spaghetti squash?

We have some big boys nestled among our new clover lawn. I wonder when we should harvest them. I've not grown spaghetti squash before. ... 

It blows my mind that this enormous plant sprawling all over our yard came from a single seed, sown just a couple months ago.

VOLUNTEERS: This morning, I took the kids to Liberty Park in downtown Renton. It's the city's annual Renton River Days, a festival with music, food, commercial booths, an art show and more. 

CJ and Annabelle had volunteered to man the "Go Fish" booth for Birthday Dreams, an organization to which they often donate cakes for homeless kids' birthday parties. 

ROUTINE: Yesterday, SpaceX successfully launched its 18th resupply mission to the International Space Station. While doing so, they reused a Dragon capsule that had already been to the ISS twice (April 2015 and December 2017). It was the first time a Dragon had been used three times. Also, booster that had been flown once.  Inside the capsule was 2,628 pounds of science investigation-related materials, 514 pounds of crew supplies, 346 pounds of vehicle hardware, 346 pounds of stuff needed for future spacewalks, 37 pounds of computer resources, and an external payload of 3,918 pounds. 

If you'd like to see the launch, here's video from the broadcast. (The actual launch is just after the 14 minute mark of the video, if you want to jump ahead.)

It's pretty astounding when you think about it, how this is the new normal for American spaceflight - a privately-owned company carrying out what not-too-terribly long ago had been government business. 

The Graduates

FLYING COLORS: Monday was a momentous one, as it marked the end of the kids' experience in private pilot ground school.

Unfortunately, Christian and I weren't there for it (we were winging back from Vegas, where we had been dog sitting). However, Kennedy was on hand, and took lots of photos for us, fortunately.

The kids had their final tests in the morning. At noon, they gathered in The Museum of Flight's Aviation Pavilion for a celebratory barbecue lunch.

After lunch, everyone made their way to the theater in the museum for the graduation ceremony.

There were 104 learners at the beginning of class. Not sure how many made it all the way through to the end, but this graphic shows they certainly did come from all over the state of Washington.

There was a short slideshow of ground school highlights. A familiar face showed up at one point.

CJ and Annabelle's 'home room' instructor was pilot Sara Baer. Their class was awarded their certificates first.

The kids worked super hard and learned so much in the three weeks of school. It felt weird not going there the past couple of days, as it had become such a big part of our weekday routine.

Following are a few photos CJ snapped during his ground school adventure. The one below is from The Museum of Flight's "control tower," overlooking the museum's front and Boeing Field to its east.

Below are empty flight simulators. The kids spent a fair amount of time in these machines, practicing principles of flight.

Below is not a simulator. It's the real thing, that "thing" being the controls of one of the jets n the museum's aviation pavilion. 

Some of the tools of the flight planning trade.

Pictured below is "Fat Albert," a short, kind of stocky jet Boeing made for NASA's Langley operation.

All in all, ground school was a ton of work for all involved, but it definitely was a worthwhile endeavor. The kids learned so much about aviation and the airline industry, they met lots of kids from all over, they learned valuable study habits, and they earned college credit, which is terrific.

It's a Wrap

FINA11Y:  Truth be told, Edgar Martinez is there reason Christian and I are in Las Vegas this weekend.

You see, months ago, when the 2019 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inductees were announced, and Seattle Mariners' slugger Edgar Martinez was (finally!) on that list, eldest son Rick and his wife Rachel decided to go to Cooperstown, New York, for the induction ceremony.  That meant their Dobermans would need dog sitting, and I volunteered. 

Originally, it was going to be a whole family trip, with CJ and Annabelle along, but when those two got the opportunity to attend private pilot ground school, that plan changed. So Christian and I flew down here solo, leaving Kennedy to play Mr. Mom to the kids for a few days. 

Come Sunday morning, Rick and Rachel were in the crowd at Cooperstown, we were on their couch in Vegas, and Kennedy and the kids were at the Mariners' stadium, at a viewing party.

Sad but true fact: The Mariners are so terrible this year, the kids didn't really stick around for the actual game. They watched an inning or so before heading home to get more studying done.

STUDY HALL: Edgar excitement aside, most of the kids' weekend was spent studying for their final ground school exam, to be taken Monday morning. 

They studied upstairs, they studied downstairs. 

They studied at a school while Kennedy ran the track. 

They studied at a stadium and they studied lakeside.

They studied under the watchful eyes of Bexley.

They even studied via speaker phone, as I had ordered their same textbook to be shipped to Vegas so Christian and I could quiz the kids remotely. 

They're taking their test as I type this, and however it turns out, I do believe they studied as much and as well as they could. 

VIVA, LAS VEGAS: I know, I know, when you go to Vegas, you're "supposed" to play the slots, throw some dice, see some shows, all of that. Yeah, well, that's not how Christian and I experienced "Sin City." 

Instead, we did what we enjoy doing any ol' where - hit some thrift shops, hardware stories, and some local brew pubs.

One destination was an indoor "swap meet." We were actually pretty excited to go - neither one of us has been to a real live swap meet in years.

Yeah, well, that record still stands, unfortunately. The place bills itself 'Fantastk," - perhaps too tall an order to live up to. 

My goodness, it was just aisle after aisle of imported crap, much of it bedazzled with rhinestones and the like because we *are* in Vegas, after all. Not an antique treasure to be seen, that's for sure.

At least the building itself was a bit funky and worth checking out for our $1 admission fee.

Actual bargain-hunting wise, we much preferred the Savers (Value Village if you're from the Northwest) we hit a bit later.

Later that afternoon, we wound up at a Wisconsin bar north of town. 

It had decent Packers and Badgers collections, but the food and beer were nothing special, at least to this Seattleite's palate. 

We also hit a total of five hardware or home improvement stores on our trip, I do believe. This Home Depot is in the westward shadow of the famous Vegas Strip.

We're packing up this afternoon. I will miss this view - the one I've had every morning upon waking up.  His (heavy!) head is on my stomach, by the way. Pretzel prefers a human pillow.

It will be weird not having to share my bed with a pair of 100 pound Dobermans tonight!

Notable

GOLDEN MOMENTS:  Every once in awhile, the kids' rigorous classroom learning lectures during private pilot ground school are interrupted with a fun field trip to the neighboring Museum of Flight. 

A couple of days ago, they got to visit the "Destination Moon" exhibit currently at the museum. It's an astounding collection of Apollo-era artifacts.

The cornerstone of the exhibit is the actual capsule that carried astronauts to the Moon during Apollo 11. As you've likely heard (due to extensive media coverage), that mission is celebrating its 50th anniversary right now. Saturday evening will mark the "one small step" moment.

It's super special to have the Apollo 11 command module Columbia here in Seattle. It's the firs time it has left the National Air and Space Museum since the museum opened to the public in 1976.


There are other treasures in the collection, as well.  

Check out some of Buzz Aldrin's lunar equipment! 

 And this is a briefcase like no other. It held moon rocks!

 I really rather love this particular signage from the exhibit. I'd never seen this angle on the iconic flag planting before.

 And this display made note of a Northwest connection. I'd not thought of the Columbia tie-in before. 

 And there was also this cool graphic, giving one an idea of just how enormous a Saturn V rocket, the one that lifted Apollo 11, was.

With the Apollo 11 anniversary, there have been so many stories from so many sources about people involved in the project. It took so many individuals to make that moon landing happen! 

Today, NPR posted a story about how a 10-year-old boy literally had a hand in the mission's success. Back in 1969, young Greg Force lived in Guam with his family, including his NASA-employed dad, Charles Force. The moonwalkers had made their triumphant trek, but on their way back, a problem arose: A bearing broke in the dish antenna that was used to track the capsule. That meant that NASA risked losing the ability to communicate with the capsule as it approached Earth.

Charles Force called home, and asked his son Greg to come to work, hoping the young boy's nimble arm would be able to squeeze down through the antenna's access hole and pack grease around the bearing. An announcement from NASA public affairs officer at the time noted his contribution, saying, "The bearing was replaced with the assistance of a 10-year-old boy named Greg Force who had arms small enough that he could work through a 2½ inch diameter hole to pack [the bearing]."

Pretty cool memory for a then 10-year-old, called into service to help the moon mission!

GOOD BOYS: My view at 6 this morning. 

Look closely. There are actually two Dobermans in this photo.

We got up with the big boys and sat out on the patio for nearly three hours, letting them party down while the temperature was still below 95 or so. 

Here and There

NORTH AND SOUTH: A bit of a departure in our normal routines this week. ... While CJ and Annabelle were  grinding through ground school in Seattle Wednesday morning, Christian and I were winging our way down to Las Vegas. 

While a trip to "Sin City" might be expected to be chock full o' gambling and glitz, our mission was to babysit a pair of delightful Dobermans, while their people (Rick and Rachel) head to Cooperstown to watch Edgar Martinez inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

While we're down south doing doggy duty, Kennedy is up north with the kids, making sure they're fed, getting them to school and staying on top of their study schedule. In addition, I had a copy of the ground school textbook sent to Vegas so that we could help the kids study via phone between now and Monday, when their final exam will be given.

Christian and I flew out on Wednesday morning, after dropping the kids off at school. We breezed through the TSA lines in no time, only to learn our flight had been delayed - twice. We'd have 3.5 hours plus to wait at the airport. Sigh. At one point during the wait, I texted Annabelle and told her she needed to hurry up and get her pilot's license because we were tired of waiting for our commercial flight.

We finally got on board our plane at about 12:30.  For the first time ever, we flew on Spirit Airlines, a budget carrier. Our bird was an Airbus A320.

The flight was fine, with only a minor bit of turbulence in spots. 

Stepping out into the 105-degree heat was a bit of a shake up after leaving showery Seattle with temperatures in the 60s. 

About the time we reached the Dobermans, CJ and Annabelle were getting out of school, and, for the first time ever, they had to take a taxi, just the two of them, home. The night before we'd arranged for the ride by calling the Seattle Yellow Cab service (unfortunately Uber and Lyft don't transport minors). A little nervous about the kids climbing into a car with a stranger, as a safety measure, we'd used a Google Maps feature that lets you track other Google users, so that we could watch (on a map) their trip home.

The taxi arrived at 3:30 sharp to pick them up, which was great. We watched their progress via Google Maps, and what wasn't as great was the route the taxi driver took to get them home. Talk about circuitous. It was pretty darn obvious that the driver was trying to stretch it out to jack the fare. 

That said, they did arrive home in one (well, two) pieces, so that's $20 well spent. 

AROUND THE GROUNDS:  The summer months continue to produce some stunners around the MPA grounds. We just love this (thistle, I think) plant that pops up every July. It comes up from seemingly nothing, and grows to a height of 6-feet plus. 

There are definitely more blossoms this summer than there have been the past two Julys we've spent in our current location. 

Meanwhile, inside, we continue to enjoy the company of a couple of extra critters this summer: Stevie the gecko and Bexley the friendly feline.

And now for Mr. Meow Meow. ... 

I suppose it's only fair to give at least one of the long-term resident pets a shout out. Here's Laika, eagerly awaiting the kids' emergence from Aviation High School.