Tales to be Told

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL: Sunday morning, we made our way to The Museum of Flight to check out their new exhibit.

The museum is doing a great job of keeping guests safe during the pandemic. Capacity at their (enormous, cavernous) place is 25 percent, and it's a timed entry. Also, we got tickets for just a half hour after opening, so it was still really quiet in the p;ace.

We made a beeline for the WWII wing and the new exhibit there. We were super startled upon entering when the man in the box started speaking to us.

The headless voice was a virtual docent. He was posted up in another part of the museum (presumably a quiet and socially distanced one). He said hello and suggested we look for a few specific things during our tour of the new exhibit. 

One good thing about the sparse crowd is you can get nice shots of planes and stuff without a bunch of people in the photo!

One of the artifacts the virtual docent told us to be on the lookout for was the camera used to take many of the now-famous aerial shots of the attack on Pearl Harbor. 

We read about photographer Lee Embree ... 

and we checked out the Graflex Speed Graphic Camera he used to capture the action at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.1

CJ has this to share about our visit to the museum on Sunday.  

Seventy five years ago this year, World War II came to a conclusion following the signing of a peace treaty between the American and Japanese governments. In commemoration of this, The Museum of Flight just unveiled its Untold Stories: World War II at 75 exhibit, presented for public viewing after months of development. Untold Stories marks the first time in 14 years that there have been any major changes to The Museum of Flight's World War II exhibit.

Despite being advertised as an overhaul of the World War II exhibit, large swathes of the exhibit were identical to its pre-renovation status. However, there were some changes I noticed. The first and most obvious one was more of an emphasis on the personal stories of World War II. It was definitely interesting reading more about the individual accounts of soldiers in the war. There was also more of an emphasis on women's World War II stories, especially in sex-segregated combat units.

One of the most novel additions was the "Virtual Docent" at the entrance to the exhibit. A large screen was set up, where a docent calling in via Zoom could talk to us and perform the functions of a typical museum docent.

There were many items of interest for us to ogle, including these flags used on aircraft carriers.  

We also checked out some noses and tails. 

We read up on helmets and jackets. 
 

Here's what Annabelle had to say about the visit ... 

The Museum of Flight’s World War 2 exhibit in the Personal Courage Wing recently underwent renovations, just reopening this Saturday. They added a number of more personal stories and items from both soldiers and civilians from multiple countries involved in the war. Some of the new items included the Graflex Speed Graphic Camera owned by Lee Embree – the very same camera that took one of the most iconic images of the attack at Pearl Harbor. 

There was also expansions and additions to the section of the wing dedicated to the women that flew in the war, including the American WASPs and ATA (Air Transport Auxiliary, who ferried supplies between factories and bases.) Many of the personal stories of women involved in the war were around the exhibit, many of which I had never heard of before. Examples include Margery Watson, one of the many women who worked on designing and drafting plans for new aircraft with the NAA.

There’s so much information in the exhibit that there’s no way I could digest all of it in one visit. My family and I plan on making many more trips to the museum to get the full experience, and I would highly recommend doing the same if you’re interested in the history of aviation and how it played such a major role in wars.

We appreciated that the museum included lots of information about the important roles women played in World War II.  

Below is as photo of a French curve. Designer Margery Watson used it to draft the under-fuselage of the F-51 Mustang.

One of the things I learned is that many of the women's corps were not official military, and, therefore, they did not qualify for veteran status or benefits after the war.

Fortunately, that wrong was righted by an act of Congress passed in 1977.

Engaging

LATE BLOOMER: The good news is, our pumpkin plant finally has beautiful blossoms. The bad news is, there's no way we're getting a pumpkin out of it this season. Sigh. Another season of pumpkin failure.

ADVENTUROUS: On Thursday afternoon, the kids participated in a three-hour workshop from MoPop (the Museum of Pop Culture). 

Annabelle has taken a couple of homeschool classes at MoPOP before, so we thought we'd give this one a go, and this time CJ participated, as well. He can tell you more about it. 

Even during the pandemic, the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) has found ways to keep visitors engaged. One of these is by hosting digital workshops for students in the Seattle area.

On September 17, MoPOP hosted a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Workshop, led by author Rebecca A. Demarest. Each participant was provided with a PDF, to make a choose-your-own-adventure story with. During the meeting, Demarest gave us all advice (and even some "writing cues") on how to write CYOA stories, and how to go from "Point A to Point B."

I wrote a brief story about a librarian who (literally) gets sucked into the world of a fantasy book. During the three hours I was given to work on the story, I incorporated four endings: One where the librarian starts a farm and lives in the fantasy world, one where the librarian passes out after waiting for help for several hours but doesn't wake up, one where the librarian gets lost in a cave, and, lastly, one where the librarian escapes the fantasy world with the help of a wizard.

While the event was enjoyable and a pleasant use of three hours, it was still a tad underwhelming.

Annabelle was supposed to send me a recap, but it seems to be missing from my inbox. I'll have to hit her up again.

SHOCKING STORY: Last week, we turned in to a live, online presentation sponsored by The Museum of Flight. It was a 90-minute talk by museum docent Peter Metzelaar.

The story we heard him tell was horrific and inspiring, terrifying and enlightening. 

In 1942, Nazis seized Metzelaar's entire family in Amsterdam except for his mother and him. For the next few harrowing years, Metaelaar and his mother struggled to stay hidden throughout the war. It was a fascinating first-person account. Here's what CJ has to say about it. ... 

For the year 2020, The Museum of Flight is hosting a commemoration titled Untold Stories: World War II at 75, dedicated to exploring the history of World War II. On September 16, The Museum hosted a virtual event where visitors were invited to listen to Peter Metzelaar, an 85-year-old Museum docent and Holocaust survivor, share his story of surviving as a Jewish child in Europe during the Holocaust.

After the event started at 6:30 P.M., Metzelaar began talking about his early life, and how, starting at age seven, he had to live in secret in the Netherlands for years on end. To quote the event's page on The Museum's website, "Aided by the Dutch Underground and his mother’s ingenuity, [Metzelaar] managed to stay hidden throughout the war."

Needless to say, Metzelaar's account of surviving a genocide in secret was harrowing. Having to, at age seven, live in secret on your relatives' barn in the rural Netherlands while there are Nazi thugs in jackboots literally looking to kill you, sounds utterly horrific.

After the end of his talk, visitors were invited to ask questions. I do recall that he was asked about his advice for children living in quarantine and isolation right now, but the fear that he had while living in isolation was obviously very different from modern day children quarantining. Unfortunately, I don't quite recall his answer to the question, but I do think the talk was worth listening to.

Here's what Annabelle had to say about the program. ...

Recently, the Museum of Flight held a virtual presentation titled “Hidden Child of the Holocaust,” hosted by Peter Metzelaar. At the beginning of the war, Peter was a 7-year-old Jewish boy in the Netherlands. When his family began disappearing one by one, leaving him with no relatives but his mother, the two of them had to go into hiding to avoid being captured by Nazi forces. They spent years hiding in the farmhouse of a Catholic couple that helped them avoid detection during raids. After spending so much time there, they had another volunteer take them into the city to live in an apartment that was much less susceptible to unannounced raids from Nazi soldiers.

Peter went to public school under the alias “Peter Pelt,” where he pretended to be of Catholic fate so as not to be discovered. He recounted stories of finding shrapnel from air raids on the streets and trading pieces with other children like trading cards. He once even found an explosive that was still live, which he chucked away just in time for it to not explode in his arms. Life in the city was dangerous, but much less so than life at the farm.

One night, he woke before the sun rose and saw his mother sewing a fake Red Cross nurse's uniform. When she finished, she explained to Peter that they were leaving to take a truck to Amsterdam. Since all of the trucks in the area were owned by Nazi soldiers, she had to use that disguise and claim that Peter had been orphaned by friendly fire and she was with the Red Cross, escorting him to an orphanage in Amsterdam. The plan somehow worked, and the two made it to the city of Amsterdam while surrounded by troops that would’ve killed them on site had they known Peter and his mother were Jewish.

Peter’s story was fascinating and terrifying. He endured so much at such a young age, and the fact that he’s still alive to tell the story is a monumental feat considering how easily he could have been killed. It was incredibly brave of him to tell us about all of this when it must have been so scary for him.

You can read more about his story on the Holocaust Center for Humanity's site: https://www.holocaustcenterseattle.org/peter-metzelaar

There's a one hour interview with him on YouTube: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XMDHF--8Oyw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Coincidentally, within an hour of watching the presentation, this headline popped up in my Facebook: Nearly two-thirds of US young adults unaware 6ma(illion) Jews killed in the Holocaust

The first three paragraphs of the article are shocking. 

Almost two-thirds of young American adults do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and more than one in 10 believe Jews caused the Holocaust, a new survey has found, revealing shocking levels of ignorance about the greatest crime of the 20th century.

According to the study of millennial and Gen Z adults aged between 18 and 39, almost half (48%) could not name a single concentration camp or ghetto established during the second world war.

Almost a quarter of respondents (23%) said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, or had been exaggerated, or they weren’t sure. One in eight (12%) said they had definitely not heard, or didn’t think they had heard, about the Holocaust.

What's equally shocking is Sunday morning waking up to headlines that the current President of the United States was at a campaign rally in Minnesota on Saturday, and there, to an almost entirely white audience, he  trumpeted a popular eugenics theory. “You have good genes, you know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn’t it, don't you believe? The racehorse theory," he declared. 

It strikes me that words like that coming from a cult-of-personality figurehead are exactly how the Holocaust was allowed to happen. 

Updates

A satellite image of the Northeast Pacific taken by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Sept. 12.

NOAA

SMOKE STACK: Another day, another smoke 'storm.' I could literally see the cloud rolling in from the southwest this afternoon. Don't get me wrong, it was already *plenty* smoky, but it became even worse. Shortly thereafter, my eyes started (and haven't stopped) working. 

Here's what the Environmental Protection Agency  has to say about what we're breathing:  "The biggest health threat from smoke is from fine particles. These microscopic particles can penetrate deep into your lungs. They can cause a range of health problems, from burning eyes and a runny nose to aggravated chronic heart and lung diseases. Exposure to particle pollution is even linked to premature death."

Forecasters keep promising rain, and we did get a brief (two minute) shower last night, but it's not nearly enough.

You know, 2020, Dumpster fire that it is, has been a real eye opener and a 'great' reminder of how many things we take for granted. Things like being able to go outside without getting sick. Ironically, it's also the year you're supposed to try to do things (socially-distanced) outside, because being inside is so dangerous thanks to COVID.

FINALLY, FAN PHOTOS: For weeks, I've been wondering what happened to the cut outs we ordered of CJ and Annabelle for seats at T-Mobile Park during this COVID-shortened, no-live-fans Mariners' season. 

Back in July I received an email from the Ms with the location of the Rick and Kennedy cutouts I'd ordered. I didn't understand why I didn't get an email about where CJ and Annabelle are located. 

Today, I finally started investigating and realized that Christian's email address was listed on that order. I asked him about it tonight and sure 'nough, he has had that email notification sitting in his inbox for weeks. Sigh. But better late than never.

Can you spot CeeJ and Bee in section 143? 

They're pretty much in the center, in row 2.

I couldn't help but notice that they're seated in the section we were in for the last game that Felix "The King" Hernandez pitched as a Mariners player. 

Yesterday, the Mariners surprised us by inviting us to pick the cut outs up after the season is over. That was a big surprise, because when we bought them, we were told often and emphatically that they would be recycled post-season.

I told Christian I suspect the Mariners' organization realized a marketing opportunity to get their most ardent fans to the team store likely drove the decision. I also predicted they would pitch ticket plans during pick up. By responding to the pick up survey, it sounds like I was right on both counts. 

Short Stuff

SPA STYLE: We're keeping busy, in the pandemic sense of the word. Plus, I'm working long hours, hence the lack of blog posts. Apologies to those who are actually curious regarding what we're up to.

Last week we fit in a Birthday Dreams donation cake. The teenager chose a spa theme. (Name on cake above is obscured.)

We looked online for ideas and more often than not, the cakes included makeup, spa masks and such, so we used those ideas as inspirations.

First, we had to bake the 3-layer cake. It had to be lactose free, so that was an extra consideration. It was also one of the reasons we chose that cake/kid, because we knew they were likely not to get a cake if it came down to Birthday Dreams having to buy them a store bakery one. 

Once the cake was baked and built (filled and iced), it was a matter of decorating. Annabelle crafted nail polish bottles, lipstick, eye shadow, and more as cake toppers. 

I wish I had taken better photos of the cake. The two here don't do it justice.

LETTERED: CJ is pretty much consumed with politics at the moment. I think it will be good for him once school starts Sept. 29, to get his mind back on classes and away from the ugliness that can be current events. In the meantime, we have at-length discussions about all of the many, MANY things so wrong with the world right now. It ranges from forced hysterectomies at the southern border to the founder of cray-cray QAnon being from Mukilteo, a town just to our north. 

I challenged him to do something other than doomscroll, and write a letter to his senators. He is focusing on the disastrous fires and climate change. The letter writing process has been an ongoing edit and re-edit affair over the last couple of days. I have stressed to him that the communication should be constructive, and offer resources and a buy in instead of just a bitch out. Stay tuned for a final missive.

Flighty

BACK WHERE WE BELONG: On Labor Day, we had a glorious time. We actually went to a museum for the first time since March. And not just any museum, but The Museum of Flight, one of our favorite places on Earth.

The museum reopened on Sept. 5, with special COVID precautions. They can only have 25 percent capacity, there's a ticketed entry, and a lot of things are off limits. 

I renewed our membership and signed us up for 10:30 tickets. We were all smiling broadly approaching the front doors (where there were safety checks aplenty). The place is enormous and cavernous and we felt like we were the only ones there most of the time.

We chose to spend most of our time out in the airpark, where an eclectic collection of planes are on display, including a Concorde. My, what a long nose it has. 

We also checked out the flying fortress. There are a number of reasonably realistic statues around the grounds, and I always like cajoling the kids into posing with the statues.

I think my favorite plane in the collection is the second ever Air Force One. It's just *so* mid century modern.

I just love all of the keys and buttons and switches. So high tech for the era!

The obligatory presidential toilet shot.

Every time we go to The Museum of Flight, we see something new. This trip, we spied where President Lyndon B. Johnson used to hang his hat in the plane's meeting room.

The galley is on point - specifically, on Hotpoint.

Surely some important announcements were made over these devices.

Another first-time notice: These signs in the galley. I love the "we the ground crew" repeated references. 

Even the handle on the escape hatch has high style.

We also checked out the space gallery, of course. 

After checking out exhibits, we parked ourselves on the patio and did some plane watching in the sunshine. It was a little slice of heaven. 

It felt *so* good to go to a place we love and enjoy it like "normal" times. 

GOLDEN: We have tapped into the hive for the first time this season. The haul was nearly two gallons of liquid gold! And it's so delicious. It's very different from last year's crop. You can taste that the bees found the the clover field that we planted for them. Yummy!

GOOD ONE: We've had this game kicking around our cupboard for a couple of months. We finally got around to playing it this week. Fun! We'll be playing it again. 

Quick Trip

WINGING IT: Thursday afternoon we headed to Seatac to hop a flight to Las Vegas. A bit of  curious thing to do during a pandemic, we have to admit. 

We had purchased the tickets way back in January or February, before COVID was a thing here in the U.S. Now it's very much a thing, and the airline industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, as people pretty much quit traveling for awhile.

We were definitely in the 'not going' camp until very recently. We researched what flying is like now, made sure the airlines we were flying had strict mask policies, read up about changes at the airport and decided that the chances were we could safely fly.

For the flight we wore N95 masks covered with yet another mask (two layers of tightly woven cotton with a high tech filter in between). We had copious amounts of hand sanitizer, and eye protection during the flight. We also took an immunity booster for days before the flight, and used Nozin pre-flight (I learned about that from my friend who is an RN and works with COVID-+ people every day). We purposely booked the last row, so that no one was sitting behind us, coughing or sneezing on us. 

We weren't too happy to see that Spirit Airlines did not have social distancing on their plane what so ever. The flight was full, with strangers sitting shoulder to shoulder.  I would not fly them again during the pandemic, that's for sure. They did announce that their cabin air is filtered and 99.999 percent of bad stuff is filtered out and that the cabin air is refreshed every 2-3 minutes. We hoped that was true

The flight was uneventful, and we were on the ground in Vegas by 4:30. We went straight to R&R's house, where an inviting pool and two adorable Doberman dogs were waiting. 

Strudel likes wearing a damp towel around to help him cool down.

We spent a lot of time outside, and practiced social distancing inside and out. We stayed at a hotel not far from their place to help with distancing and limiting exposure. 

I had to work on Friday, so Christian and the kids went swimming and hit a couple of stores. 

Rather than going to a risky restaurant, we had dinner at R&R's on Thursday and Friday - take out. 

CJ didn't sleep well on Thursday night, so he was pretty tired on Friday. He and Pretzel hung out on the couch, not socially distancing. 

By Friday evening, CJ was struggling to stay awake. Rachel suggested he go upstairs and lay down 'in the pink room' for awhile. CJ headed upstairs ... and took a wrong turn at the top.

Imagine our surprise when it was discovered that he had gone into R&R's bedroom and climbed in their bed and napped with Pretzel. OMG. Worst COVID guest ever. 

Later, I asked CJ why he did such a thing. He replied, "I was really tired, the walls looked pink, and, most importantly, Pretzel was there."

I can agree with the first and last part of that explanation, but not the middle. The walls did not look pink whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Annabelle spent time with Strudel, without violating any COVID precautions.

DERBY DOINGS: On Friday evening, while watching the Vegas Golden Knights win the final match in a best of seven series against the Vancouver Canucks, out sports talk turned to Saturday, and the Kentucky Derby. We wondered what coverage would be like without all of the rich people in fancy hats in the stands. 

I suggested it would be fun if we had a very minor Derby celebration, with some kind of Kentucky food (no, not Kentucky Fried Chicken) and mint juleps.

I started Googling Kentucky recipes, and the first and foremost finding was something called a Kentucky Hot Brown. Not a very appetizing name, but it's a (usually) open-faced sandwich, with turkey, roasted tomatoes, a cheesy sauce, bacon, and more cheese. I followed a Bobby Flay recipe, it was pretty decent.

I also made a metric ton of potato salad (which had nothing to do with Kentucky). And Christian was the only one made a mint julep.

LEAVING LAS VEGAS: Turns out Saturday evening is a good time to get out of Sin City. We walked right up to TSA and scanned through no troubles ... well, except for two bottles of water and two beers Christian had stashed in my suitcase without telling me. That was an unpleasant surprise. When the TSA agents asked me about the liquids in my carry on, I had no idea what they were talking about. Word to the wise: Don't stick things into someone else's suitcase without telling them. Oh, and for 19 years now, since the 9/11 attacks, you have not been able to take liquids like that on a plane. Guess it's been long enough that some people had forgotten that.

As always, our gate was as far as possible away. We had to take a tram and walk and walk, but eventually made it there. 

We had about 10 minutes to kill, so I told Christian to take $20 and go hit the big one.

Shockingly, he came back $20 poorer. Go figure.

Soon, it was time to board. By choice, we were in the back row again. Delta does things differently, and the last rows load first. (That makes sense, really.) So on we went. There was just one person in the row ahead of us, and no one for a few more rows forward. The stewardess said there were a total of 29 people on the flight. It was boarded quickly and we were on our way.

The Boeing 737 we flew was a much newer, prettier and more well-appointed plane than the Spirit shuttle we were packed into on the way down.

Each seat had its own screen. I like being able to monitor the flight's progress. 

We waved at Nonnie and Bops as we flew over Bend.

Below, you see the snow-capped Cascades near Bend.

Annabelle had a view of a sunset, with spectacular colors courtesy of smoke-tinged skies due to wildfires.

This is what flying during a pandemic looks like. Doubled up masks and goofy goggles.

We appreciated the safety reminders on the seat screens.

This notice was also somewhat reassuring. Hopefully it's true.