J_K9 @ Linux

Day 5: The Failed Excursion

March 26, 2007 on 9:16 am | In Seattle 2007 |

The Museum of Flight on the outskirts of Seattle is one of the largest air and space museums in the world (according to its site, in any case), and so it was on our list of attractions to see. We left the hotel in Redmond at 9.30pm and set off for the Museum of Flight.

Museum of Flight

It took between twenty minutes and half an hour to arrive. Once there, we entered, paid for our equivalent of “express tickets” which granted us access to more places and split up. I went around in my usual group of four and I took plenty of pictures. Really, more than enough. If you would like to see them, by all means check out the Seattle Holiday 2007: Day 5 set on my Flickr account.

So, what did we see? Planes used during World War I, World War II, space shuttles, older planes and a great number of others. There was also a two-person flight simulator which was really good fun, if a little dizzying. I seem to remember doing barrel roll after barrel roll, loop de loop after loop de loop, etc. Now THAT was a good way to spend 4 minutes of my day

Airplane Showcase

We met up a few hours after splitting at the same place. From there, we all exited the building and walked over to an open area where the guard let us through due to our “express” wrist-straps. This is where the good planes were: a Concorde, the Air Force One jet which was retired just a few years ago and several other large aircrafts which, unlike the former two, we were unfortunately not allowed to enter.

The Concorde was an interesting plane. From the outside, it looked very sleek and majestic, and its interior mimicked this. It was fairly compact inside which meant that it was difficult for the taller among us to stand up straight, but it was very luxurious (although far from BA’s First Class on a Boeing 747, due to its size) and its seats had been preserved in near-pristine condition.

The retired Air Force One jet, a modified Boeing 707 in which the President of the United States used to fly, appeared fairly unimpressive from the outside. It looked like a standard commercial airliner. However, it was much more luxurious on the inside: there were large chairs and sofas situated around plentiful desks, designated areas for the President and several other nice touches (as expected). If you are interested in seeing more pictures of this retired Air Force One jet, please see the relevant set.

After we’d had a good look around these planes, we went back to the Museum of Flight and loitered there for a short time until we decided when we were going. One of the teachers then decided that we should ascend Mount Rainier, and as we didn’t really have a say in the matter we tagged along.

Journey to Mount Rainier

We left the Museum of Flight at 2.15pm. I was in the car in front which had a PDA-based GPS whereas the card behind had a car GPS. As such, both cars went different ways at a certain point and did not meet each other again for the rest of the day. Oops. First blunder.

Despite having lost the other car, we knew that it would be more difficult to try to find them than to continue on our journey so we did the latter and forgot about them!

The two hours of aimless journeying which ensued were hilarious but too ineffectual to recount. I remember laughing my head off when we ended up at a dead end in a village in the middle of nowhere which was FAR away from Mount Rainier. Funnily enough, not only was Mount Rainier not on the GPS’ map but NEITHER WERE WE: we had gone off the edge of the map!

Anyway, we eventually rediscovered civilisation and asked someone for directions to Mount Rainier. They pointed us in the right (or wrong? We’ll never know) direction and we hurried off accordingly. All I remember happening, apart from the usual chat, screams of “we’re going to die” and responses of “South of Starbucks” to questions such as “Where are we?” is stopping by the bank of a wide river at 4.15, still nowhere near Mount Rainier but somewhere in a national park. Although we had little clue where exactly we were, it was very picturesque and I took a few photos so as not to forget the place.

Foolishly, we decided to keep going in the same direction until we reached a point in the road which was barred off. We got off the mini-van, relieved ourselves in the snow-caked woods and then, finally, decided to return to the hotel, upon the realisation that we were going in completely the wrong direction and were never going to find Mount Rainier. This was at 4.30pm, a full two and a quarter hours after setting out.

We next saw civilisation at 5.10pm, when we were passing through a town called Enumclaw in King County. We stopped for some food at McDonalds before continuing on our journey, and we finally arrived back at the hotel at 6.38pm.

Despite my rant and the waste of four and a half hours of my afternoon, I actually had a pretty good time!