CalExpeditions

Tag: Museums

  • Air Force Museum at Wright-Pat

    Air Force Museum at Wright-Pat

    Wright-Patterson AFB…wow what a beautiful and enormous base! They have every amenity imaginable: golf course, flying club, tennis club (indoor courts!), a USO club, etc, etc. If I were the type of person to use facilities like these, I’d be tempted to pack up and move!

    We stayed at the FamCamp, which is what the military calls on-base RV parks. The Wright-Pat FamCamp is on the shore of the lake. That’s right, the base has its own lake.

    Morning mist rises from the lake.
    Xena lounges in the Forbidden Zone, heedless of the rules.

    In addition to the huge variety of units on the base (Air Force Materiel Command, National Air and Space Intelligence Center, the Air Force Institute of Technology, etc), the base hosts the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

    The museum is world-class, although with a very heavy emphasis on airplanes. However, they *do* have some very interesting space exhibits, including KH-7 and KH-9 surveillance satellites. When I was in the space business in the 1980s, these were some of the most highly classified items in existence. Ha, now they’re in a museum.

    These are the satellites that took still photos from 80-100 miles up and ejected the film canisters so they would parachute down over the Pacific. Specially equipped C-130s would catch them mid-air and return them to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, where the film canisters were flown immediately to Kodak for processing. During periods of conflict or heightened tension, the Government would sometimes pay for one-hour processing.

    And, of course, airplanes! Many of the most iconic and famous planes in aviation history are in the Museum’s 4 gigantic hangars.

    This is from the interior of the C-141, nicknamed the Hanoi Taxi, that brought many of the POWs back from Hanoi. The returning service members autographed the interior of the plane.

    Outside, the Museum has a Memorial Garden, with many unique and imaginative displays.

    And this is the part of the journey leading to Dayton.

  • Wonderful Washington, Part One

    I write this as I wing my way home from a most excellent adventure in Washington, DC. I stayed with my friends and wonderful hosts, Andrew and Michelle, for 3 days, then moved to a hotel for 3.

    As most of us know, Washington has one weather mode, muggy, with two variants, hot and cool. Lucky for me, this visit was in the muggy and cool variant. It was drizzly rain for most of my visit, which may sound unfortunate at first. However, with an umbrella or light rain jacket, it proved quite comfortable.

    One dangerous result of the rain, though, was the extremely slick sidewalks. All the granite and red bricks seem benign when dry, but turn treacherous when wet. Pedestrians beware.

    Washington’s public transit agency, WMATA, runs superb bus and rail service throughout the city. It was very convenient, clean, safe and usually on time. Using public transit is way better than driving a rental.

    First stop, right off the plane, the National Air & Space Museum at Dulles. Excellent as always, crammed full of planes.

    Head on view of a space shuttle.
    This shuttle is so huge when you get up close. This one spent 365 days in space. I appreciated the way the curators left it looking worn and beat up; it shows that the shuttles were real work horses.

    This P-40 has a scary shark face to frighten the enemies.

    Elegant Concorde! Such a shame she no longer flies.

    Pretty DC-3 all shiny and clean! Even the propellers have a mirror finish. The airline opted for this look to save the weight and cost of paint.

  • Paris – A Day at the Musée D’Orsay

    While in Paris, I visited one of the many art warehouses, the D’Orsay. It is a large storage facility that attracts a sizable crowd during the day. In the olden days, people didn’t simply take a photo of a pretty person or scene. Instead, some pecked away with a hammer at a large rock, sometimes as big as a house, until it resembled a person or whatever. Others smeared colored grease on large bedsheets (the flat ones, not the fitted ones) to get a likeness. Seems like an awful lot of effort.

    When you go, be sure to buy a timed entry ticket well before your desired visit date. Otherwise, you will stand in a very long line and get cranky.

    The D’Orsay. Note the face of the clock is glass. Go inside and you can look a time backward!

    The warehouse has a fine collection of picture frames, many highly ornamented like this one.

    This frame has a central feature…I suppose you could call is a rosette?

    Not all of the frames in the collection are pretentious. This one borders on the austere. Look closely and you will observe a casual approach to joinery, what with gaps, etc, in evidence.

    A final selection, this frame shows the more modern approach, using a textured mat. Note the evenly beveled edge and clean corners. Admirable workmanship!

    The warehouse also has a world class pedestal collection. Here’s a nicely carved one.

    There are some works in progress; this pedestal is just scrap found in the workshop.

    Management are to be congratulated for providing clear signage in English and other words.

    The steps are a monument to French industrial design. The thin strips not only assist the visually impaired, but also reduce the potential of falls. Brilliant!

    The central access corridor of the D’Orsay.

     

  • London – The British Museum

    London – The British Museum

    Took a trip on the Underground to the British Museum. What an amazing place, packed to the brim with cultural artifacts stolen from every place on Earth! One could visit daily for a week and not get through it all.

    Speaking of amazing, London’s transport systems is an engineering and sociological marvel in its own right. Fast, efficient and cheap. I developed a technique for navigating through the system:

    Before descending into the system, use Google Maps to plan. Take a screen shot so you’ll have the plan when you lose cell coverage. On your way to the station endlessly repeat (to yourself, silently) the name of the line and platform you need to get to. For example, I say “Buckaloo” on the left foot, then “3” on the next left foot. Take the escalator down, down, down. Realize that you’ve forgotten the line & platform, consult the screen shot and follow the signs to the train. Foolproof!

    The impressive central hub of the British Museum. Swarms of visitors mill about here, impeding the efficient flow of others.

    This big head was stolen from Egypt. The stone one, not the one with glasses.

    This is an example of ancient Egyptian writing. It was a student’s work. You can tell by the weak thesis statement and misspellings. Egyptians of the time not only wrote like this; they spoke in the same manner. “Eye chair rabbit zig-zag shovel bowl” Little wonder the civilization didn’t withstand the test of time!

    I had a great time wandering through the clock exhibit. Fascinating!

    Here’s a close-up of a marvelously complex timepiece.

    London grocery stores carry a bewildering array of odd foods. I hadn’t previously given much thought to ox tongues, but I would have thought them too big for these small cans.

    I had a nice snack in the neighborhood near my hotel. I think it may be a gayborhood, but its hard to tell with the Brits.

    Londoners are fond of mis-labeling places. Hammer House is not a house. Piccadilly Circus has no clowns or big tops. Trafalger Square is actually a dodecahedron. I’m on to their cruel hoaxes and cancelled a planned trip to the London “Zoo”

    This absurdly long escalator takes you to the depths of the Underground. An unavoidable consequence of burrowing this far into the Earth is that the nearby magma makes the system into one enormous sauna.

  • Millicent Rogers Museum

    Millicent Rogers Museum

    Millicent Rogers was a fancy, highfalutin socialite and heir to a bunch of the Standard Oil fortune. She made the rounds at galas and parties in New York and graced the society pages. Twice married, then had an affair with Clark Gable. He broke up with her, she turned pouty and moved to Taos, New Mexico. While there, she became a huge patron of Native American artists, bought tons of their work and died.

    Now her house is the Millicent Rogers Museum, where a portion of her collection is on display. Very interesting and beautiful work, some quite old.

    This dainty ornament is an example of the waterfall design and is sprinkled with rainbow moonstones. They aren’t really moonstones, though.

    Imagine all of the work required to select these matched stones and arrange them with such meticulous care.

    Simple and elegant in front, fine filigree on the back.

    A pretty gold Greek Orthodox cross. One wonders how the Catholic imperialists allowed the artist to create such a thing.

    This little mirror has too much frame, not enough mirror.

    This black cross has gold inlays. Except…its not gold! They cleverly prepare wheat straw and corn husks, making it look like gold.

    Millicent was fond of old things. She used this pot, 2,000 years old, for her cosmetics.

     

  • Johnson Space Flight Center Gets a Visit

    Johnson Space Flight Center Gets a Visit

    To the south of Houston, Texas, lies the storied Johnson Space Flight Center (its new name omits the “Flight,” but I prefer the archaic name). From here, NASA directed the training of astronauts and the conduct of mission from Mercury through the International Space Station and now to new missions like Orion and who knows what else.

    The visitor center is aimed at school-age people, mildly interesting, but well-done for that audience. I liked the displays of the costumes astronauts wore.

    Of greater interest to me was the tour of the Apollo Mission Control Center, painstakingly restored its appearance in 1969 for the first moon landing…even down to the color of the carpets and the upholstery on the galley reserved for astronauts’ family members.

    All in all, a good day invested. Especially when I ended the day on my own private beach.