Around Seattle: Free First Thursday

One thing I love about Seattle is Free First Thursday. What it means is that every month on the first Thursday of the month, most of the museums and art galleries of the city open their doors for free! Thanks to the Free First Thursday, so far I have been able to visit Seattle Art Museum (SAM), North West African American Museum, Henry Art Gallery and the Museum of Flight.

This first Thursday just past was when I visited the Henry Art Gallery (an interesting multi-media gallery on the University of Washington campus) and the Museum of Flight. 

The Henry art museum was interesting, I loved the architecture and many of the pieces were really beautiful.

this picture has nothing to do with the Art museum, I just thought it was funny

The Museum of Flight was really interesting. I only had 1 hour there because I raced there after work and before their closing time. I raced around and saw pretty much everything, except going into some of the planes and spacecraft they have in a hangar on the other side of the street.
What I found fascinating was seeing all the different planes used in the first and second wars, and the displays were really well-done, with props and backdrops to put the aircraft in the right time period and country landscape. There also were volunteers around to answer questions. In the space section I learned a lot about how they off load cargo into the International Space Station, using tiny hooks that look so flimsy, but in space hold so much weight! I also got to see the sleeping suit that astronauts strap themselves into, and their space treadmill (its on the ceiling!).

Learning about the very beginning of air travel was also so fascinating, imagining the excitement and ingenuity of the men who began piecing planes together so long ago.

I asked the volunteers about B17 planes - a WWII American bomber plane, the 'flying fortress' and darling of the American fleet, dropping 640,000 tonnes of bombs during the war. They were known for their sturdiness and reliability. Below is a picture of one outside the museum. I was interested in learning about it since I have heard of a hike in the Olympic mountains, about 1 1/2 hours west of Seattle, where you can hike to the wreckage of a B17 and still see tires, and parts of wings and fuselage. It sounds like such an interesting hike, it was great to learn more about the actual plane model.

Leaving the Museum of Flight, two things stuck strongly in my mind:
1. I really want to fly in a hot air balloon
2. I really want to do a particular hike in the Olympic mountains to see the wreckage of a WWII B17 bomber plane.