Sleepless in Seattle

After the museum yesterday, I was thinking about taking the train downtown to explore as well. It was then that I was called to fly to Boise, and it's probably for the best. When I reached the airport, it began to snow pretty heavily. There were also lightning strikes in the area -- thundersnow if you will. After our return from Boise, we had to sit ready reserve for five hours. There was, however, one positive to this. Instead of being on call until 9pm, I was released completely around 2pm. I could venture off without staring at my phone.

It took about 45 minutes to get downtown by the train and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around. I glanced at the fish market, but the entire area around it was saturated with overly touristy shops and things of that nature. I continued by walking toward the Space Needle. It was kind of strange to finally see it up close this late in my life. I've seen the stone heads of Easter Island , the Pyramids of Giza, and the Great Wall of China, but no space needle. I remember always wanting to visit Seattle when I was a kid. I had read about it in a book in second grade or thereabouts and wanted to see the space needle and the Boeing factory (obviously).

It never happened because flights to Seattle from Wisconsin were always absurdly expensive (I recall often finding $500 fares and this was back in the 90s). When I finally got close to it, I found it smaller than I expected. I looked it up later and it is indeed on the short end of quasi-futuristic towers. The CN Tower in Toronto absolutely towers over it. Even the Stratosphere in Las Vegas dwarfs it by a substantial amount. Around the area are a collection of museums. I wanted to take pictures of the tower and buildings at night, but it was only 4:00, so I had some time to kill. There was a Pop Art Museum that looked interesting until I saw the prices. $30! Sorry, that's out of control. The Louvre in Paris is half of that. The nearby science museum was also pretty steep, so I walked to a Thai restaurant to have some panang curry and rice. It was a splendid way to kill some time. It was also good to warm up a bit. While perhaps in the 40s, there was a very strong wind that seemed to chill things down a bit more than that.

After my meal, I embarked on an uphill walk to a place called Kerry Park. I had read that the views from this park were the best for taking pictures of the skyline. It did not disappoint. Again, you will notice there is some weird interlacing because I had to take a picture of the screen since my camera won't import. I sat up there, shivering, as the sun set and day slowly turned to night. As soon as the sun disappeared behind the horizon, it felt like the temperature dropped an instant 15 degrees. I was trying to manipulate my camera with gloves on.

Overall, I think I got some pretty decent pictures for a point-and-shoot camera. Just use your imagination to see them crisp and sharp as if they hadn't been taken with a cellphone of a tiny lcd screen. The viewpoint from Kerry Park was good because it gave a perspective on the Space Needle that made it seem bigger. Since the other buildings of downtown Seattle are further away and somewhat downhill, it gives this illusion that the Space Needle is bigger than it really is. That being said, the actual city of Seattle is smaller than I envisioned. I essentially walked from one end of its downtown to the other and back again. It has a small town kind of feel to it. Maybe this is stemming from the fact that I live in an area of 10+million people and Seattle is 600,000. Outside the downtown area, it has a very "rustic" feel to it. The architecture of the houses to the way people dress makes it seem like Seattle is hoping for a return of the 90s. It's been a while since I've seen people wearing baggy pants. Now to try and get some sleep . . .

I'm in Seattle . . . and yes it is raining

This week I was sent to Seattle to sit reserve. I wasn't keen on the whole idea other than the fact that I had never been outside Seattle's airport. Venturing out wouldn't be entirely relaxing because I could receive a phone call at any time. I waited a couple hours this morning thinking they would be more likely to summon me earlier rather than later. I set out for Boeing's Museum of Flight about 8 miles down the road. I walked from my hotel to the airport, took the LINK (the light rail) a couple stops, then got a rideshare to take me the rest of the way.

It wasn't the cheapest museum I've been to, but it was actually bigger than I first thought. I thought it was going to be just this open exhibit hall you see above, but there was another section across the road and a few other hidden exhibits as well. I spent about an hour walking around the main area, checking out aircraft that ranged from an F-4 Phantom to a B-29 bomber from WW2 to an old 737. There was a control tower exhibit explaining how the Air Traffic Control network is set up. There was a viewpoint overlooking the airport and I watched a 737 land.

The photos may look funny in this post because my camera USB isn't working with my Surface so I had to resort to taking iPhone pictures of the camera's LCD screen. In any event, my next stop was the theater where I watched a film called Living in the Age of Airplanes. I'd been trying to see this for a while, but was never in the right city at the right time. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Narrated by Harrison Ford, it details the many ways that the airplane has changed our lives without us thinking about it.

It should be required viewing before you are allowed to check-in for a flight. It would put everyone in a better mood and folks might actually appreciate the crazy organized chaos of commercial flight. It spent probably five minutes just showing video or time-lapse of people at (formerly) isolated places like Iguazu Falls, Grand Canyon, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), or Angkor Wat. As it explained, there was a time when entire civilizations rose and fell without other civilizations around the world even knowing of their existence. It really is thought provoking. It went on to talk about things like overnight shipping and the presence of food or objects that can now exist in places where they shouldn't be able to exist -- like fresh tropical flowers in a vase in an Alaskan cabin. Everyone alive now has lived with airplanes so it's no longer all that impressive, but once you think about a world without airplanes, you realize just how much we need them. And they're really cool. As I was finishing up, I got called to fly to Boise in the middle of rain/snow flurries, but after seeing the movie, I couldn't complain.

 

And my Shortest Flight on Record Goes to . . .

I was on my first day of a four day trip and I had hopped on the American Airlines shuttle bus to enjoy a two hour break before my flight to SLC. Then my phone rang. It was the company calling. Now, the rules state that if you are on a trip, you do not have to answer your phone. But, sometimes there is incentive to do so. I was thinking to myself, "Hmm, maybe they're releasing me from the trip." When I answered the phone, I was informed that they were changing my overnight. Ok... and then I did a double-take. Did she just say I'm overnighting in Burbank? . . .and departing from LAX? Yep.

While Qatar Airways can now claim the longest flight in the world, they've got nothing on the lucrative LAX-BUR route. This is not a scheduled flight mind you. Evidently there was an issue with the crew or aircraft that was supposed to go from SFO-BUR and now we took an empty plane for a whole 10 minutes up to Burbank (and this includes taking off to the west, turning around, getting vectored, and aligned with Burbank's runway). Not bad if you compare it to how long it would take to drive the same distance during rush hour.

Upon arrival, I set out to find dinner. I settled on a Hawaiian BBQ place. I ordered my old staple, Loco Moco. It was a good hearty meal after a hectic flight. Tomorrow I go to Denver and deadhead home. It should be an easy day, so I don't plan to answer my phone this time.

COS-Play

Because I was becoming quite tired (literally) of all my standups, I elected to just bid reserve for February. The idea was that I would have more time off and a chance to rest. How did that work out? I was immediately assigned a four day trip. Oh well... Our first stop was Colorado Springs. Previously, I had only arrived to COS at night, so I got to enjoy the scenery on the way--including this C-17 flying below us. We arrived at the hotel around noon, so I had all day. I decided not to sit in the hotel, and took a Lyft to Garden of the Gods.

I was not exactly dressed like a hiker. I took the epaulettes and patches off my leather flying jacket and went out like that. I looked more like someone who had misplaced their Harley, but it did the job. The temperature was in the low 40s and it was a nice clear and sunny day.

I walked from the visitor center to the main gateway trail. There were a small number of folks walking around the area, but nothing that one could call a "crowd." There were also a few ambitious folks climbing some of the rocks with their ropes and gear. I kept hearing rustling behind the brush. Billygoat? Nope. Just small birds. I eventually branched off to different, less traveled trails where I got some nice views of the area.

All in all, I had a nice time exploring the Garden of the Gods. It wasn't super close to the hotel by any means, but it was better than walking across the street to Denny's. I hadn't been to Garden of the Gods since I was doing Cross-Country running at the Air Force Academy which would have been the summer of 2002. Twas a long time ago. It was also warmer during my last visit... and more crowded. While Garden of the Gods is privately owned so that it can remain free for all, I hope similar state and national parks remain accessible and protected under the constant barrage of executive orders stemming from DC. And that is your daily dose of politics courtesy of Flyin' Brian. But this is 2017 and saying things like, "Everyone should be able to fly on my plane" or "I think we should preserve our national parks" is taking a political stance. Siiiiigh. Anyway, enjoy this panorama picture of Siamese Twins and Kissing Camels. (they are the names of the rock formations and I honestly couldn't tell you which one is which... or if they're even in my picture)