A visit to Seattle Pt 2 – The Museum of Flight

On September 27, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn dave, travel1 Comment

After finishing with the zoo we headed for our next stop. Well, first we took a meandering trip through Tacoma, admiring all the vintage houses overlooking the amazingly blue water of Commencement Bay – seriously, the most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen! Did I get a picture? Well of course not! I kept thinking we were going to stop somewhere but got caught up in traffic and swept off course onto a freeway before we had a chance. Maybe next time!

We continued north to the Museum of Flight. Knowing the museum would take most of the rest of the day, and not wanting to have to eat a museum-dog for lunch, we stopped at an amazing little thai restaurant in Sounthcenter, Bai Tong, which was fabulous! We split a Pad Thai and a Crispy Garlic Chicken and it was all amazing! This is our first major trip with a smartphone, and we never would have stumbled into this restaurant tucked away in a strip mall without it’s help!

Full and happy we continued to the museum. Now I love animals and nature, but I also love engineering and machines, and particularly airplanes! I grew up near Portland International, and it was a regular no-money-fun outing to go hang out at the fenceline and watch the planes come and go.

First thing you see as you approach from the parking lot:

Ah, who doesn’t love a B-17?

Followed by something a little more Cold War…

The engines seemed so small for what they had to do.

There was also a restored B-29 Superfortress which would have been a lot more impressive if it hadn’t been shrink-wrapped for protection from the elements.

According to the signs, this plane spent time being used as an artillery target before it was rescued and restored! I would love to see more pictures of it before the restoration started – I can’t imagine something used for target practice would even be a candidate for restoration!

We walked around the front of the building and spotted this Intruder, same type of plane one of our college professors had worked on back in the day.

A Harrier…

And looking into the gaping maw of a MiG

It was getting hot, time to head inside…

Oh…WOW…

Wow…

This may actually BE the definition of OVERLOAD!

So many planes!

And pieces of planes!

Some of our favorites:

The Blackbird

The Electra (same kind of plane as Amelia Earhart disappeared in)

Polished like a mirror!

Once we’d had our fill of eyeballing on the planes in the main display area it was time to head over the skybridge

What’s on the other side?

How about a Concorde?

They have a nice Space museum section, including the Space Shuttle Training mockup from NASA, with a very nice display showing it in use in it’s glory days. Next best thing to an actual space shuttle. Definitely gives you a feel for how big the shuttle really is.

But the good stuff is parked out on the tarmac…

Like Air Force One

Since we love Mid-century design, there was lots to love in this Airstream-like interior of wood paneling and aluminum trim.

Bunks (not for the Prez, he had his own space)

Crowded little conference room.

And the President’s office even had a little doggie door!

Back out in the hot hot sun we got to see the first 737

The Concorde

And my favorite – the first 747! I have a soft spot for 747s for some reason. I think I had a book about it’s design when I was a kid – after all, it was new then. And then it was featured in the Airport movies, and it’s so distinctive when you see one. Anyway, we couldn’t go on that one, had to admire it from the ground.

So we were hot and tired and ready for a break. Time to head to Seattle…

A visit to Seattle Pt 1–Point Defiance Zoo

On September 25, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, dave, outdoors, travel1 Comment

Last weekend we took the Airstream out. Now that the kids are back in school and summer is over, it’s the time for us cranky no-kid types to go traveling! We setup basecamp at Land Yacht Harbor in Lacey WA, a perfect place to leave our trailer behind while we ventured into the urban jungle of Seattle!

First stop: Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It’s not Seattle, but it’s close enough for us. Everything north of Olympia and south of Vancouver BC is ‘Seattle’ as far as I’m concerned.

Point Defiance is big on the Aquarium part of their name. Starting with a beautiful stingray exhibit where you can pet the stingrays and sharks.

This one kept coming up to the edge and sticking his face out of the water. The blue dots on him were incredible!

Dave found a HUGE fish!

In the shark tank this guy kept cruising by, he was probably a couple feet long.

Then there were the sharks

After the sharks, they had a lovely display of smaller aquariums. I LOVE fish, so I was fascinated by all these displays.

Seahorses, so lovely!

This little guy came out and posed for me!

This little guy lives in a hole! Which is pretty amazing for a FISH!

Beautiful!

So beautiful!

I love this stuff! I’ve never had the guts to have a saltwater aquarium. Better to enjoy it when someone else does the maintenance.

How many eels are in there?!

This guy put on a heck of a show, crawling all over the front glass, and finally hanging out and changing color from pink to brown! Amazing!

We headed out to the Zoo portion of the show.

This big cat had no intention of coming out in the cold morning air.

Lovely.

This flower looked like a flock of flamingos!

This flower I just thought was pretty.

On to the seal/sea lion exhibit:

Dave watching seal acrobatics

zooooom! They sure look like they’re having fun!

The sea lions were enormous. I wanted to get a shot of one with people in front of the window to show how big they are. When I got home and looked at the pictures, every one had people snapping pictures with their phones.

When we went to Disneyland and we were discussing what urban photography could show that would show what it’s really like in the twenty-teens, we decided it would show this. Everybody looking at their phones all the time. So there you go.

Next stop – the Museum of Flight…

Navi the great white hunter

On July 16, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, navi1 Comment

//player.vimeo.com/video/99698228
Navi hunting moles from Stephanie on Vimeo.

Navi doesn’t have as much acreage to cover at the new house, but she still does her best to catch any rodents that wander through it. She has caught a rat, a squirrel (which she ate in it’s entirety), moles, and a number of field mice. In the clip above she is listening to the molehill for sign of a mole. I have seen her sitting perfectly still for many minutes at a time waiting for something to make a noise, or pop out of a hole! when she hears something she pounces, digging to catch it. When she doesn’t, she moves over to check the next hole. She’s quite methodical. Within a week she caught it!

Last week she caught a field mouse, and I offered to trade her a piece of lunchmeat for it, and she came in the house for the lunchmeat, while I went outside and disposed of the mouse carcass. She went back out to find it gone. So later that day we took her for a walk at the watertower park, and as we were walking through the grass suddenly a baby bunny jumped up and zigged and zagged and ran right into Navi – who dispatched it with a snap! Of course, she only mortally wounded it, so we decided it would be best to let her finish it off so it wouldn’t suffer, and once she got her teeth back on it, she not only didn’t want to let it go, but crunch crunch crunch – she ATE THE WHOLE THING. We were appalled! We were going to go home and cook a nice dinner, but nobody felt like eating after that.

Today while on a walk at the watertower park Navi was looking for bunnies again, but didn’t see any. I maneuvered her and Barclay around a dead opossum that had been hit by a car and shoved off the side of the road, but while concentrated on the opossum I didn’t notice Navi quickly peeling a flattened squirrel up off the road! Oh my goodness, that is the most disgusting thing she’s ever picked up! It was like a stiff piece of really stinky leather! There was no way she was giving that up, and I wasn’t going to touch it! I finally pushed her head down enough to step on the other end of the squirrel and she dropped it, and I steered them away from it. Maybe we’ll stay away from the watertower park for a while. Ugh!

Here is a longer clip of her hunting mice in the grass around the base of the fence. I love how she stands so still, then her tail starts wagging when she hears something. Hunting is her favorite thing!

//player.vimeo.com/video/101019508
Navi Hunting Mice from Stephanie on Vimeo.

Mr Miata gets a new top!

On July 14, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn dave, miata1 Comment

My bargain Miata came with a wrecked top when I bought it, so before last winter hit I put a junkyard top on it. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it was cheap and it kept the car dry inside. Still, the more times I put it up and down, the worse the tears on it got, and it was very hard to put up when it was cold at all. I had resigned myself to getting a bargain top for it, and learning to install it on the frame myself, because I couldn’t afford to have it professionally done.

Saturday turned into a Miata day. Dave and I went to the gym, exercised and then hit the pool, and then as we were driving home enjoying the wind in our wet hair, I mentioned that the Miata should get an oil change, and Dave said ‘why not now?’ Since we had nothing else to do we headed up to Tire Factory and had them do an oil change, and then when that was done asked them to give it an inspection to see what needed to be fixed under there. I figure if you buy a Miata as cheap as this one, there’s bound to be something needs fixing, and I thought the ride was a little rough.

Well they came back and said not only did everything look fine, but it looks like a nice aftermarket suspension under there, so the rough ride is actually normal! Well, that’s a relief! Also the brakes were practically new so nothing to fix there. Basically we got away with nothing but an oil change and good news. And that’s part of why I trust the guys at Dick’s Tire Factory in Battle Ground, WA – they could have told me I needed new struts, that’s what I came in suggesting, and instead they sent me home happy!

Saturday night I decided to check Craigslist one more time before bed and in the auto parts section under Miata someone had just posted a cloth soft top off a wrecked 2005 miata with a glass rear window – for less than I would have to pay for a bargain vinyl and plastic top new! I emailed them immediately and went to bed too excited to sleep! The next day he emailed back and lucky me, I was first in line. We picked it up that afternoon, brought it home, and Dave helped me swap it onto Mr Miata. It only took us about 4 hours, even taking breaks because it was so hot! And the result…

..is FABULOUS!!! I did not think I would get a top this nice! It looks like new, and the glass rear window is so much nicer than the old plastic window. I’ll have to run new wires for the defrost if I want to hook that up sometime, because ’90 Miatas don’t have that wiring. This is just a super find, I’m so happy I was lucky enough to get it, and that Dave helped me get it all installed.

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Gone Campin’ for July 4th!

On July 7, 2014May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, barclay, dave, navi, outdoors, pets1 Comment

Time to pull out the Airstream again and go camping. This time our friends Scott and Sherry (and their pups Sake and Sitka, who we frequently doggie-sit) invited us to join them at one of the RV Resorts they camp at – KM Resorts Ocean Breeze at Ocean City, WA.

Navi and Barclay are buckled up and ready to go!

We stopped along the way to get a pic of our handsome new rig. I’m still delighted with how the Flex tows, how maneuverable it is with the trailer (Dave has a much easier time getting the Airstream in and out of it’s home behind the house than he did with the van) and of course, how it looks. I think they make a sharp-looking pair!

We got there and they had saved us a cozy little spot in the trees. The campground is heavily wooded, and felt very private where we were. Other rows were much busier though, so this was a great spot. There were a lot of mosquitoes too, because you can’t have everything perfect!

In no time we had the dog yard set up and the dogs were barking at everyone going by – business as usual! Our friends were camped with their giant 5th wheel right next door, on the other side of the trees. Unfortunately I didn’t take many pictures because it rained so much I ended up leaving my camera safe and dry inside for most of the weekend.

They had us come join them for 4th of July, because the beach at Ocean City, and for quite a distance up and down the shore, turns into a giant party. I’ve really never seen anything like it, and I’ve lived in the NW my whole life. I’ve never even HEARD of such a thing. Of course I grew up in Oregon, where the beaches are treated like they are kind of sacred. They are preserved and kept natural for the enjoyment of all. It was kind of appalling to see people driving up and down the beach in WA, camped out, with big bonfires, car camping with windbreaks built up all around them, firing off fireworks. It was probably the closest I’ll ever get to Burning Man, I’ve just never seen anything like it.

Here in this video I took before dark to see the cars as far as you can see in both directions, several camps deep between the dunes and the driving area, and then more people parked between the driving area and the water.

//player.vimeo.com/video/100067592
beach party from Stephanie on Vimeo.

In this video after dark you can just make out fireworks off in the distance. These were BIG fireworks, being shot off probably a few miles down the beach, and then I panned over the same view as in the video before dark. Now you can see fireworks all the way up the beach to the North, as far as you can see. It was really an amazing sight!

//player.vimeo.com/video/100067593
fireworks after dark from Stephanie on Vimeo.

The next day we explored Aberdeen, WA, had some very good clam chowder, and then lazed around and rested. I love napping in the Caravel on rainy days. I just get warm fuzzy tingly all over, it makes me so happy. The Caravel is just a warm and cozy place to listen to the rain falling.

We spent a bit of time around the campfire (in and out of the rain), and had a nice dinner with our friends, and then Dave and I went to hit the nearby indian casino and dropped $40 in less than 40 minutes! Not as much fun as I’d been led to believe!

The next morning we woke up early and decided to head out early. There was something interesting we’d seen on our way to the beach that we wanted to check out on the way home.

It is an abandoned unfinished nuclear power plant near Elma, WA. Wow, seeing those cooling towers peeking over the tree-covered hills really got my attention – we had to take a detour to visit it.

This nuclear plant has been reclaimed by turning it in to a business park. It was unfinished and never had nuclear material in it, so the power plant parts of the structure just sit abandoned and taking up space. Look at the top of the unfinished containment building, the rebar is just sticking up out of the top!

Looks like they at least put a top on the other containment building before they abandoned the whole project.

There are two cooling towers. Far enough apart I couldn’t get both in one picture.

And now they sit surrounded by weeds and wildflowers.

They are really really really BIG! They sit there hollow and empty.

Well, that was pretty fun, and totally worth the side trip. We hung out there for a bit and ate breakfast before continuing the journey home.

When we got home we decontaminated the trailer – just kidding! It was time for it’s annual bath, and the weather was too lousy last time we took it out. This was a nice day, so we gave it a good scrub before putting it away under it’s carport. I can’t wait to see where we take it out to next.

Adorable-ness

On July 4, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn barclay1 Comment

Barclay is not a morning person. In fact, when I have to get up and go to work, he sneaks up and lays on my still warm pillow and goes back to sleep. I am also not a morning person, so it is hard not to just cuddle up to him and go back to sleep myself!

–

Trout Lake, 2014

On July 2, 2014May 29, 2018 By stefrobrtsIn airstream, barclay, dave, Me, navi, travel1 Comment

This is a late post because I have fallen horribly behind on my blogging.

As usual, we spent Memorial Weekend in Trout Lake. Actually, I guess it wasn’t usual, because the last couple years our attendance has been spotty, but this time we were there for the whole weekend, and it was great, as always.

This was our first trip with the new rig – our ’09 Ford Flex was finally all prepped, the new hitch was installed and setup, and it was all ready to pull our wee little trailer.

Pulled like a champ!

The dogs had to put up with the new travel rules in the Flex, namely that they have to be buckled in (since they are surrounded by airbags, and if there was an accident I want them to be safe). They both have new Sleepypod Click-It harnesses that fasten into the safety anchors in the back seat and keep them securely in place.

They did great, with only minor tantrums from Barclay. Navi handled it fine, considering she doesn’t care for car rides at all!

Before we knew it we were among our people again 🙂 Surrounded by Airstreams!

And there is NOTHING like the jaw-dropping view of the mountain. We come back year after year, and every year I want to just sit and soak it up, it’s so beautiful!

The dogs, and Dave, found the trailer the perfect place to unwind.That’s exactly where Dave spent most of the weekend!

Our old camera phone pictures came out looking pretty surreal.

We got to spend lots of time hanging out with friends, like Gary & Janet, and Jim & Cheryl with Ziggy the insane Boston

Ranger Jon and Stephanie and the kids, Loren and Carolyn and Cosmo the shepherd, and Theresa and Glenn and a small pack of yorkies and her sister Leah who we welcomed even though she drove a Mini-Winnie (it was actually really cool inside), Pat and Janice and their sweet yellow lab, and plenty more folks than that. It was a nice sized group this year!

My crazy dogs. Barclay was totally mellow, but Navi just wanted me to get her out of there!

Don & Claudia from Yreka, who we haven’t had a chance to visit with for way too long!

Beautiful scenery, as always

Fun times in our cozy little trailer.

This was the dogs’ favorite place to watch the activities from (when they weren’t in the dog-yard)! They didn’t want to miss anyone coming or going!

And after three days of potlucks and singing and talking around the campfire it was all over and we had to pack up and head back home and to our daily grind. Whenever we do this it reminds me why we have the Airstream, and we wonder why we don’t do it more often. Maybe this year we will!

Timber!!!

On June 28, 2014November 25, 2020 By stefrobrtsIn TheRancho1 Comment

We woke up to a crash this morning! I was still lazing around in bed, trying to deny that I had to get up and go to work, when a crashing noise on the roof convinced me to jump out of bed and at least look out the window. What I saw…

The neighbors huge tree had shed a giant limb from about twenty feet up, and it came crashing down on the corner of the house and our fence.

We could see the broken branch it had come from way up high in the tree!

The neighbor is an elderly lady and her adult son was in the backyard when we went out to inspect the damage, and he made it clear he would have nothing to do with it and that she wasn’t around. His reaction could have been a little more helpful, but it was clear no help would be coming from there.

After work a friend brought a lightweight chainsaw over and we cut it up into handle able size pieces and chucked it back over the fence. Luckily the bent fence boards went back into place once the weight was off of them. No damage done. But I am a little worried about the rest of that giant tree and what might peel off of it next. The old lady’s son said she can’t afford to have professionals come out and prune the tree. I certainly am not paying to prune her tree, but I’d rather not find myself paying for roof repairs next time. I guess we will just have to figure out what to do.

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Snow Day, 2014

On February 9, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn barclay, dave, navi, snow, TheRancho1 Comment

Barclay wants us to go outside and play!

Pretty Please?

Dave threw him some snowballs.

He didn’t always catch them…

Dave threw some to Navi, but she had her head in a hole!

Did someone throw something at me?

Barclay wants to play stickball

Too cold for this!

The snow just keeps coming down.

We took the Flex out to Fred Meyers to pick up some groceries. It did great! I think the van would have gotten stuck in the driveway!

Our first big snow at The Rancho!

Barclay is glad we went outside to play!

Spending time in another world

On February 7, 2014 By stefrobrtsIn xbox1 Comment

Sometimes I feel a bit of guilt that I enjoy videogames so much. After all, there is a big wide world out there to explore, why waste time on the couch exploring a virtual world? To me, there is hardly a better way to spend the little bits of time left at the end of a day. I would so much prefer playing in a world I can interact with, compared to watching TV. In fact I can hardly sit still to watch a TV show or a movie. Sometimes younger people act surprised that I play videogames, but I’ve been playing them my whole life! OUR generation started out with Atari 2600s, why should we quit playing when games just keep getting better every year?!

At the end of September, Dave gave me a present for HIS birthday! To keep me entertained while he was away working on a play.

The ‘world’ is huge, and finely detailed. I could forget it’s a game. Sometimes it looks like a movie.(There is an ‘in-game’ cell phone that lets you snap pictures of your adventures. That’s where all these pics come from.) Sometimes I just sit and enjoy the view, listening to the waves lapping at the beach.

So you start out the game as a small time criminal, running around doing jobs for various mobsters. I created a woman character, and named her ‘Amanda Hugnkiss’. After a couple weeks I saved enough for a crappy apartment and a garage.

For the first month or so I did every mission on that pink sport bike, I loved that thing!

Though I frequently found myself ‘borrowing’ other vehicles, like this Patriot that I accidentally high-centered. It was totally stuck, wheels spinning in the air, I laughed my butt off!

I really enjoy flying, and trying stunts, landing in strange places. Like in front of my apartment, and causing a traffic jam…

Though many landings don’t go that well…

Eventually I worked my way up to a fancy apartment, and a BIG garage! I wish it was that easy in real life. Oh wait, I did have to kill a lot of people to get that, I guess I probably wouldn’t do that in real life.

Sometimes there are ‘glitches’ to enjoy – little things that shouldn’t happen. Like when I found myself able to walk around underwater.

Or when I followed directions from a YouTube video to sneak off to the secret, snowy land of Ludendorff.

And the time she inexplicably started sporting a beard!

And some joker gave us $2 Billion dollars to play with, which changed the game drastically. Eventually they cleaned it up and removed all the ‘glitched’ money, but it still changed the game. Instead of grinding away to make money, suddenly everyone had money for all the ammo and cars and planes they could want.

For Christmas the game designers gave us all a present – a snowstorm in Los Santos (it’s supposed to be Los Angeles)

Along the way I picked out a few favorite vehicles – like a pink Mustang

And my ‘Bifta’ Dune Buggy

And our Rhino Tank (posed on top of the tallest building in the city)!

So once Dave had time he started playing it too. We play it differently – I like missions, he likes running around randomly causing havoc. You share this world with other real players, and you can fight each other, or team up to make amazing things happen. It’s a sandbox, you don’t have to have any particular purpose, and that’s ok. This game has been loads of fun, probably the most I have enjoyed a game since Red Dead Redemption (an open-sandbox cowboy-themed game from the same people) and I’m hoping they’ll keep adding new surprises to it to keep people playing for quite a while longer.