Tag Archives: washington

Pacific Bonsai Museum

Located in Federal Way, the Pacific Bonsai Museum is not the easiest place to find. It shows up in my GPS but, when you arrive at the turning, the signage is either too small for me to spot or nonexistent. I turned in to the entrance, more as an act of faith. Once on the access road, there were signs but then you drive for a long time before you get to the place. You do start to wonder whether it is a spoof.

Once there, though, it is worth it. Entrance is free which was a surprise, particularly given how good the trees were. Everything is outdoor with the trees displayed in groupings around the space. Backdrops provide some visual separation and information boards explain their individual histories as well as telling a little about the styles of Bonsai and the history of the art form.

Individual plants are intermingled with compositions that involve many plants, sometimes over fifty different plants being incorporated into one display. The sizing of some of these is carefully tailored to give an increased sense of depth. The bases are also chosen to emphasize different elements of the plants. As with any activity, when you find out a little bit more about it, you discover just how much complexity is involved. Old trees are not as important as those that appear to be old apparently.

The place is very impressive and, if you are in Federal Way, definitely give it a look.

Seattle Post Intelligencer

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The Seattle Post Intelligencer was one of Seattle’s newspapers before we moved here. I used to read some of their work on the aviation business but they sadly went out of business a few years ago. We were watching a program about Seattle on TV and they showed this building near the water with a globe on the roof. This was the old building for the paper. When we were up the Space Needle, it was easy to pick the building out. I think it will have to be visited at ground level before too long!

Cruise Ships Being Turned Around

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From the top of the Space Needle, you can survey a lot of what goes on in Seattle. Cruise ships berth along the waterfront near the Alaskan Way Viaduct but they also come in further up the shore. Two ships were in port up there while we were up the Needle. I had got a shot of them at one point shortly after getting to the top but, as I walked around, the sun popped out and bathed them in light while all around them was still in shade. Now they really popped so I figured another shot was in order before the sun vanished – which it did a minute later.

G650 Passenger Watches Me Watching Them

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The G650 was a plane that got off to a good start. The combination of space and range made it a popular choice amongst those that have $60-70m to drop on a plane. Recently, things have been a bit quieter as the competition has ramped up but the deliveries this year have perked up. This one was departing out of Boeing Field and, as I zoomed in to check the sharpness of the shot, I could see the passenger in the cabin who seemed to be looking back at me. She didn’t have a camera, though, so I am the only one with a shot of the encounter!

Air Canada Max8

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Production of the 737s is rapidly transitioning from the NGs to the Max at this point. Still plenty of NGs being built but the Max is no longer a novelty and soon they will be the vast majority of what is coming out of Renton. I have seen a few Air Canada Max 8s and another one was heading out on a test flight while I stopped for lunch at BFI. I like the new Air Canada colors. As with any livery change, there are plenty that don’t appreciate it but I like the combination of retro and new and the fact it isn’t like everything else is good. The bandit eyes are a bit more of an acquired taste but they are fine I guess.

Sounder Locos

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Scanning back through some images looking for something else, I came across these shots of some Sounder commuter rail locomotives. I shot these as part of a shoot that had a previous post. I hadn’t focused on the locos so much but this train had a loco leading but two locos trailing as well. The trailing locos were the old and the new with an F59PHI and an MPX together. No idea why three locos were on a relatively short train but I guess there was a good reason!

Exodus of Southwest Jets

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The failure of an engine on a Southwest 737 that sadly resulted in the death of a passenger caused a major review of the fleet of 737s. Inspections were identified for the engines in the affected range and everyone was scrambling to find facilities in which to carry out the checks. ATS at Paine Field is one of Southwest’s suppliers and they took in a number of the jets. Towards the end of the fly day that Paine Field was having, three Southwest jets emerged from ATS’s facility. They were towed to the north end of the field.

Here they were started up and they took it in turns to taxi down to where we were and then depart. One of the jets was an 800 series and may not have bee affected by the inspection but could have been at ATS for other work. The 700s were quite possibly part of the inspection process. After a day of light traffic and warbirds, the appearance of three Southwest 737s and their subsequent departures made for a change of pace.

USS Enterprise

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The Museum of Popular Culture (or MOPOP) in Seattle has an exhibit on Star Trek. The benefactor of the museum is one Paul Allen. It might not surprise you to know that a tech billionaire has a Sci-Fi interest and, since he has some spare cash, he has been able to acquire a lot of memorabilia. This includes some cool models of the spaceships involved. He has a couple of Enterprise models suspended from the ceiling including the Enterprise D, possibly my favorite of the series.

Lear Fans

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Early efforts at composite business aircraft did not go smoothly. The Beech Starship ended up being a burden on the company and they bought most of the planes back and destroyed them. Prior to the Starship, there was the Lear Fan. A project started by Bill Lear and continued after his death, the idea was a composite aircraft with two engines driving a single pusher propeller. The light airframe and plenty of power was to provide great performance. Sadly, the early approach to composite design did not go smoothly, nor did the gearbox design to combine the two engines to one propeller.

The project folded after three prototypes had been built. All three still remain and I have seen two of the three. One lives in the Museum of Flight here in Seattle while another is in the Frontiers of Flight Museum at Love Field in Dallas. The third one is in Oklahoma City so I am a bit annoyed I never knew that when I traveled there regularly. Still, two out of three isn’t bad. The single prop looks pretty chunky (the idea being that single engine handling was identical to twin engine handling) and I imagine the diameter had to be limited to avoid prop strike issues during rotation. Overall, it is quite a neat looking design. A shame it was a bit ahead of the technology curve when it was designed and built.

Amtrak Approaches Tacoma

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I had a period a while back when I ended up getting a few train pictures. Some of these were intended for work proposals while others were experiments for locations that might be useful in the future. This spot is one that can ideally have a really good background. Sadly, the day I was there was a cloudy one so the background is obscured and dull. It was an Amtrak long distance train rather than one for the potential client but, since it was a test, it didn’t matter this time. I will try again on a nicer day!