Alaska Cruise: Alaska Aviation Museum (8/7/2019)

Wednesday, August 7, 2019
Kent was able to extend our checkout time until 13:00.
The Home2 Suites must have added a swimming pool since we booked, since my information was that there was not one! But lucky for Dylan and Pete, there was a pool and this morning they took advantage of it.

Dylan and Pete in the Home2 Suites pool (KSS)

Are we having fun? (KSS)

We had a lunch of leftover pizza, checked out of the hotel, and piled all the luggage in the spacious (really!) trunk of the Ford Focus.
We drove towards the airport, then veered over to the Alaska Aviation Museum.

Insignia of the US 93rd Aero Squadron on fabric from the fuselage
of a French-made Nieuport biplane used in WWI

It was said that European cultures feared the alleged fierce reputation of American Indians, so that US pilots used the image to create their own fierce reputation.

Waco YKC N14066 (1934) with EDO floats to make it a seaplane

This basket was part of the first hot-air balloon,
The Denali, to cross the Alaska Mountain Range in 1982

Interior of the hot-air balloon basket; there was a notation that
the top speed was "as fast as the wind will blow you"

Skis for landing on snow or ice

The Battle of Attu exhibit had these exquisite
baskets of rye or beach grass

We need to remember that the United States was invaded during World War II, when the Japanese occupied the Aleutian islands of Attu and Kiska.

Erich taps out a message on a Morse code key

Alaska Airlines N740AS Boeing 737-200QC #22578 aka "Mud Hen"
(1981) was a combination passenger and cargo aircraft

Alaska Airlines N740AS Cockpit

Alaska Airlines N740AS with removable seating pods so that the
interior could be reconfigured depending on how much cargo was carried

Alaska Airlines tail logo (1972) of a face of an Eskimo
in a hood of a traditional qulittaq/parka with ruff

Eroded wooden propeller of a Douglas World Cruiser,
The Seattle (1923)

In 1924 the United States Army sent off four modified torpedo bombers, renamed Douglas World Cruisers, in a quest to be the first to circumnavigate the earth  by aircraft. About three weeks after taking off from near Seattle, WA, The Seattle crashed near Chignik Lake, Alaska. It took 10 days for the pilot and his mechanic to hike out from the crash site. Meanwhile the other three World Cruisers continued. Another fell out of the quest in the Atlantic Ocean near the Faroe Islands. However, two made the complete around-the-world trip in about five months and three weeks.

PBY-5A Catalina Canso (1943) was used during World War II
in anti-submarine patrol, observation, and search and rescue;
many were used in the Aleutian Islands campaign

Many aircraft at the museum were in varied states of restoration.

Merrill Field Control Tower Cab was used at Merrill Field 1962-2002;
now it has live real-time feed of Lake Hood air traffic control communications

You could observe seaplanes landing on Lake Hood,
the world's largest seaplane base

However, you could not see them take off from the east end of the lake ...

... until they were already airborne

Actually Lake Hood is the eastern lake, connected by a pair of "airstrip" canals to Lake Spenard. There is also a gravel airstrip for bush planes, and all this next to Ted Stevens International Airport, to which we headed next.
After returning the rental car, we dragged the luggage to the terminal and checked in for our boarding passes. After a time we had dinner at Humpy's Great Alaska Alehouse. Again we had to wait for an agent to arrive at the gate to get our varied middle seats changed to being seated together. Which meant we were in the very back of the plane!
We stepped onto the plane when we should have been taking off at 19:46. It was the slowest boarding process ever, claimed the gate agent, and we suspect that our seatmate was the cause. Kent volunteered to take the middle seat, and I am sure he regretted that decision! During the red-eye flight when most passengers just want to sleep, this guy kept his light on and fidgeted the whole time. We won't go into details, but as we disembarked the next morning in Atlanta, the flight crew told Kent he deserved a medal!

Thursday, August 8, 2019
Arrived in Atlanta at 6:40, exhausted and needing to use the restroom. We could not get past our seatmate in the aisle seat because his tray was so full of stuff, it would have taken hours to figure out what to do with it all. As it was, the plane had almost landed before it was cleared!
We had breakfast at the Sweet Georgia Juke Joint. Our first bill had charged us for three instead of two coffees. Our next bill charged us for one coffee! Our third bill was correct!
Finally on the last leg at 10:37 from Atlanta to Washington Dulles International Airport, arriving at 12:20. No passport control or customs. Just straight to baggage claim to find ALL the suitcases. Out to catch the shuttle bus to the Green parking lot and ours was the first stop. Piled into the car and drove Dylan and Pete to their mother's house. Next we drove Erich to his condo, but he was going into work for a couple hours. We picked up our things, and decided to go ahead and drive home to PA. The trip should have been only two-and-a-half hours, but took four because of traffic back-ups due to accidents. Nevertheless we were home by dinnertime.

We actually received the
Thank-you card before the trip!

Thus ends another wonderful trip!