Tag Archives: museum

Edmonds Museum

Downtown Edmonds proved to be a great place to wander around.  Having enjoyed the waterfront, we walked into the town itself to check out the shops and with a lunch place in mind.  There is an interchange with a roundabout in it that has interesting streets heading off in each direction.  One of them takes you to the Edmonds Historical Museum.  As we walked up to it, it seemed like a pretty familiar structure and there was a good reason.

The building dates back to 1910 and it is a Carnegie Library.  We have come across a few of these over the years.  While the needs of libraries have outgrown the buildings, they have often found new uses and museums are a popular second life.  We didn’t go inside on this occasion.  We thought it might be worth a visit another time and we have a visitor coming for whom something like this might be right up their alley.

Return to Evergreen

I have made one previous visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville Oregon.  That was probably ten years ago.  I was in Portland for the morning Open House at the ANG unit so, having gone that far, I decided to go to the museum to see what had changed.  I underestimated a couple of things.  One, McMinnville is a bit further from Portland than I thought it was so it took about an hour to get there and that hour was also going to be added to my return journey.  Also, a lot of things have changed so I was going to spend more time there than I thought.  I was not getting home early that evening!

When I last went, one building housed the exhibits and a second was being built.  It was close to completion and they were talking of space exhibits and, hopefully, a Space Shuttle.  That didn’t work out but now there is certainly a lot more to see.  There are two main exhibition buildings – pre-Vietnam and post-Vietnam eras – housing civilian and military exhibits.  There is also a theater building.  None of this includes the water park that is close by.

The amount of space means that the exhibits are not crammed upon each other although some areas are a little more cramped than others.  Some helicopters that I rather liked were jammed together.  There is a shortage of space I guess, though, because lots of exhibits are outside and there are a few still scattered around the parking lot awaiting restoration.  That is not a criticism though.  The museum has plenty of great stuff to see (although the Beech Starship was in the parking lot last time I was there and still is, looking a little more forlorn now than it did then).

If I were to try and pick out highlights, it would be tricky.  The Spruce Goose is the main feature of the original building and it still dominates things there.  Indeed, it is so large that, at times, you actually forget it is there because it either is way above you or it fills the view becoming invisible in the process.  The SR-71 is a delight to see at any time and the way that one engine pod is opened up is a nice touch and gives a good idea of the installation for a unique engine.

The rockets and missiles are well displayed and I shall come back to them in another post.  Some of the aircraft are painted up in unusual schemes although these are not always original to the airframe on display.  Even so, they are a change from what you might normally see.  Having a 747-100 parked outside the front of the museum is a nice touch too – a reminder of Evergreen’s operations before the airline went bust.

I only had a couple of hours so I was in a bit of a hurry working my way around but this is definitely a place that you could spend a lot of time.  The journey there is long enough to make doing so something that you should really plan for.  I saw plenty that I had seen before but plenty that was either not there or was not displayed in the same way.  If you are in the vicinity, make a trip to McMinnville.

Preserved KC-97

A strange airfield means time for a trip around the perimeter to see what is around.  Medford didn’t disappoint.  A small museum included a nicely preserved Boeing KC-97 tanker aircraft.  Sadly, everything was closed up so I couldn’t take a closer look.  Meanwhile, the fencing around it was pretty close in so it was a bit of struggle to get a clean shot but there will still some options.  The boom was no longer fitted but, otherwise, it looked just like you would hope.

Sacramento Roundhouse

One end of the railroad museum in Sacramento is a roundhouse. It is accessible still from the line outside and I was there for a modern locomotive that was being unveiled. Access comes via a turntable which sits right next to the path along the river. I figured I would put together a panorama of the scene. However, I only had my phone (albeit able to shoot raw). I had never tried shooting a pano sequence with it before having only used its internal pano function.

I wasn’t controlling the exposure (although there is a manual function in the app I use) but I had noticed that the Lightroom pano function seemed quite adept at dealing with small exposure variation. I took the sequence and there was not a big difference across them. When I got home, I added them to Lightroom and had a go at the stitching function. It worked better than I had expected. Some small distortions were there but it actually was rather good. I had not been happy about the reduced size of the pano function of the phone so this has provided a better option to use in the future.

Vintage Steam Locomotive

I made a visit to the California Railroad Museum in Sacramento for a press unveiling of a new locomotive for Caltrans. After the event was over, I headed outside to make some calls and walk along the river. The museum doesn’t just have vehicles inside. Outside are a pair of steam locomotives too. They are beefy looking things too. Finished in black, they make for a difficult thing to photograph on a sunny day and the iPhone camera handled it surprisingly well.

I was quite taken with the texture around the boiler area where the outside of the loco includes a large array of rivets. I don’t know whether they were recently restored or just are well looked after but they were an impressive sight and attracted a large number of people having their pictures taken.

Legion of Honor

Perched up on a hill overlooking the entrance to the Golden Gate sits the Legion of Honor.  This is an art gallery that, while including quite a variety of art styles, is synonymous with the sculpture of Rodin.  I first visited in 1990 during my first trip to the west coast.  I hadn’t been back since and Nancy had never been.  She is a fan of some of the impressionist painters so I thought this might be a good day out for her.  What I hadn’t realized was that they had a special exhibit on of Monet’s early years.  Turns out it was a bit more appropriate than I realized.

It was a lovely day to be in the city.  The sun was out and the temperatures were on the low 70s.  We had started out early to try and get there before it got busy.  We hadn’t anticipated the exhibit though.  Consequently, it was already quite busy when we got there.  It only got busier so we still were getting the better side of things.  We went straight to the exhibit and spent a fair bit of time in there.  Afterwards, we strolled through the galleries of the collection.

The different galleries are very nicely laid out.  Nothing felt too crowded and the light in the rooms was very nice.  Each gallery had a different style of decoration so you felt the change as you moved from room to room.  Natural light through the roof made it feel a lot less oppressive than some museums.  They did have some sections set up as rooms from old houses and these were a lot more subdued.

The sculpture section was very interesting.  The Spreckels family started the collection and they were avid supporters of Rodin’s work.  The Thinker sits in the forecourt while there are two rooms of his work.  These included bronzes, plaster and marble sculptures.  Rodin liked marble apparently but I find the bronze castings to be the most impressive since they show the texture of the work in a way that is lost a little with marble for me.

When I visit art museums, I find I have a limit of how long I can last.  When we were in Florence, I discovered just how many Madonna and Child pictures I can look at before I am done.  This museum is actually well sized for me.  I was able to check out the whole collection in about the time it takes me to be maxed out.  I didn’t reach the point of either my feet hurting, my back aching or just not wanting to look at another picture.  About the perfect size.  The collection is not as diverse as you will find in some big cities but it works well for a day out.  Check it out if you have the time.

Port Townsend Aero Museum

B11I8252.jpgYou know your wife is special when, while on vacation and discussing what to do, she points out an aviation museum that you could visit.  Not only that, but when you say she can drop you and pick you up later, she says she would be happy to look around with you.  What a star!  During our trip to the northwest, Nancy suggested the Port Townsend Aero Museum.  I wasn’t even aware of it but I was willing to take a look.  To be honest, our schedule did not include a lot of spare time but we had an hour or too to look around.

B11I8188.jpgThe museum is a really nicely laid out establishment.  The hangar in which everything is kept is a really nice building and the exhibits are laid out well with some on the floor and others suspended from the roof.  The way everything is put together is really good.  There is space around each plane and the signs explaining what everything was were well put together.

B11I8171.jpgThe planes are all in excellent condition and some are still airworthy.  (My only minor gripe was that they all had a museum logo sticker on them which was not ideal from a photo point of view but this is hardly something to focus on.)  The aircraft are all vintage types.  Most are piston powered but there are some gliders too.

B11I8157.jpgThis proved to be a great surprise on the trip (including that Nancy enjoyed it so much)!  I’m not sure how many visitors they get (it was quiet when we were there but we were on a day when I wouldn’t have expected many visitors competing for space.  I hope the business is sustainable because it is a great little museum.

Blower Bentley

B11I8568.jpgCars and Coffee at Blackhawk Automotive Museum gets all sorts of interesting cars.  One that was particularly interesting on a recent visit was a Blower Bentley.  This is a great combination of huge power with minimal controllability.  Stick a huge engine into a car in a time when suspension design and steering were in their infancy and you don’t have the opportunity to kill people at all!  This example is beautifully looked after and seems to have a very original appearance.  I am not an expert but I know people who are and they weren’t critical of this car so I assume it is an unusual and well maintained example.

San Luis Obispo

AU0E2405.jpgWe took a short trip to San Luis Obispo while staying in Paso Robles.  I didn’t know what to expect of the town other than that it is rated the happiest town in America (or some similar “statistic”).  We got a map of the town from the visitor center and the first stop off was the mission.  California is not short of mission buildings and I was expecting something similar to most.  I was pretty surprised to discover that it was a pretty large area.  The grounds were nicely landscaped and the buildings were extensive.  It was far bigger than I had expected.  I guess this was an important mission in its day.

AU0E2433.jpgA short distance away was the town museum.  Originally a library funded under the program Andrew Carnegie created for providing libraries across the country, the library moved many years ago to a larger facility.  After some debate, the building was re-purposed as a museum.  It was a pretty interesting little place.  My mum works with a local heritage organization in her town and I couldn’t help but imagine this place experiencing the same things she goes through on a regular basis.  We took a look around, made our donation and headed out.

AU0E2428.jpgThe town center itself is pretty vibrant.  We started out in an area that was mainly populated by individual businesses.  The whole thing felt very interesting and different.  I was impressed.  As we walked on, we came to the area that had all of the familiar chains.  You knew that they couldn’t be far away.  It did seem that the town had managed to avoid the homogeneity of many other towns though.  It also had a river running through the heart of the area.  Much effort had gone into designing nice pathways along the river and encouraging people to use it.  This is a big improvement on so many small rivers in towns which seem like glorified drainage ditches.

It seems like a nice place to visit and something that would have enough to encourage me to return.

Officer Commanding’s House

C59F7805.jpgEx-military installations that I have visited have a feature in common and that is the quarters for the senior officers.  Some grand looking houses are the home for the higher levels of staff and, the older the installation is, the grander the accommodations appear to be.  Putting together this post has reminded me of another place I visited a few years ago and I shall have to write about that too at some point.  However, the location today is Mare Island.  As a naval facility, the officer commanding required a sizeable house.  We got to take a look around the place.

C59F7783.jpgIn actuality, it isn’t the largest home you will see on a military base.  Take a trip to the Presidio in San Francisco and you will see plenty of big houses.  Even so, this one is quite an impressive place.  There is plenty of space for a family to live in this house and it looks very nice from the outside.  It is also a short walk to the main administration block.  Not the worst commute anyone would have.  The staff areas are naturally a little more spartan and there is a buzzer system to allow the occupants to summon those staff when required.  It isn’t hard to imagine officers with cigars around the table after dinner.