Museum of Flight

My brother Andy is leaving Packwood and moving back to Flagstaff, Arizona. He received a pretty hefty promotion (he'll be silviculturist on the Coconino NF) and he's psyched to be going back, so I am happy for him, but I am extremely bummed that he's leaving Washington. So he came up to Seattle for his last visit before the move, and we decided we'd have a "boys day out." We asked Liam what he wanted to do, and he chose the Museum of Flight. Liam had been there a few times before with Amy, but neither Andy nor I had, so we decided to go for it.

The curious thing about the Museum of Flight is the intensely strange juxtaposition of amazing technological breakthroughs and the cold-blooded purpose to which they were put. For example, in a single room, one can see an aircraft that was used to deliver mail to remote rural towns, another that could fly faster than any plane ever built that was used to spy on other countries, and yet another that was used to drop napalm on villages in Viet Nam. I was simultaneously impressed by the ingenious engineering and disgusted by the killing technology. After a couple of hours the psychic dissonance was too much for us to bear, so we left. Plus it was nap time.