Seattle – Under and Above Ground and Looking Back

Friday, July 25th was our final full day left in Seattle, which we concluded with a tour underground and a re-visit to aviation for an above ground airplane tour. Unfortunately, Frank somehow tweaked his back getting out of the bath tub the previous evening and so he was not up for the day's activities due to random but painful spasming. John & Sue and Joe & Margaret went off in the morning for the Seattle Underground tour but I elected to stay home with Frank. All was not lost. Frank and I found an entire series of YouTube videos showing various portions of the tour. This link is a pretty complete tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUG-476A5cI.

Per the YouTube video, this scene is showing the glass blocks of the city sidewalk above
 that serve as a skylight for the walkways below.

Seattle used to exist on a lower elevation but a big fire wiped out much of the merchant district. The city government decided to rebuild but with brick and stone instead of wood and at a two story higher elevation to solve back-water pressure issues. The Underground Tour looked at the remnants of this lower city and told some Seattle history. Frank and I also bought a used copy of this book on the subject for $1.50 from Amazon.

This book was authored by Bill Speidel,
co-founder of the Seattle Underground Tour.

All six of us lunched together at home base, determined to empty the refrigerator before our departure the next day. In the afternoon, five of us used our rain checks to go back to the Museum of Flight and go inside the Concorde and Air Force One, which we had been unable to do on Wednesday. Frank was content to stay home alone. Boarding the Concorde we learned some random bits of information germaine to a plane that can fly at twice the speed of sound.

Touring beneath the Concorde.

The sign on the left bemused me that they chose Oklahoma to do their testing.
Did they think Oklahomans would not be bothered?
As for the sign on the right, I guess I do not really understand my science.
If you chase a solar eclipse do you not get the same image all the time?

We also boarded Air Force One, noting the signage giving a litany of famous people and circumstances in which the jet had been pressed into service. We'd learned at Boeing that when Air Force One airplane is manufactured, two people minimum are involved in every detail to avoid mistakes or sabotage. I would bet that this precaution pushes up the the price tag.

Touring beneath Air Force One.

John & Sue are looking at the Presidential Conference Room onboard Air Force One.

The suite mates from McCormick Hall's Fifth River East at their finest? Hardly!

This shiny fuselage made for a multi-million dollar fun house mirror for Sue, me, and Margaret.

It almost seems a bit irreverent...

How far mankind has come! This statue at the Museum of Flight reminds us of the progress from the simplicity of the flight of the bird to the complexity of the orbits of an astronaut.

"Keep the Dream Alive", the statue urges.

John & Sue wave from the bridge at the Museum of Flight while Joe looks on.

That night we ordered in pizza for dinner. We would be parting ways tomorrow to head home. The men sat in the living room and solved the world's problems, one final time. After packing, the women played Fluxx™at the kitchen table. Ironically, we would all soon be returning to the "flux" of our daily routines at home.

Fluxx™ is a card game where the rules are constantly changing.
Keeping track of them is a challenge but a lot of fun.

During our time in Seattle we'd explored transportation

• by car
• by train
• by boat
• by plane
• by monorail. 

We'd exercised our bodies and our minds by

• hiking in nature and in the city
• touring undersea, aviation, and underground museums
• viewing panoramas from observation decks and towers and near waterfalls
• appreciating art in sculptures, both metal and glass
• playing balance, word, number, and logic games
• assembling puzzles and LEGOs™ 

Our collection of tickets indicated just how busy we were in Seattle. Add this to the many conversations and meal times and we had a very happy, very social time together indeed! I have just one more Seattle post to write describing Frank and me, just the two of us, touring the Ballard locks from a land vantage point rather than from a cruise boat, before boarding our flight home to California.

Not shown are tickets for the Museum of Flight and the Seattle Aquarium.
Free activities such as Mt. Rainier National Park, Snoqualmie Falls, and Ballard Locks are not shown.

At the end of every vacation there is the conflict between a sadness that it is over and the desire to be back in the comfort of your own home. Blogging, I realize, blunts this conflict. With each post I am extending and reliving the adventure while sitting in my own familiar surroundings. I hope the same is true for John & Sue and Joe & Margaret as they read this. I thank them for sharing this Seattle journey with Frank and me.