The Museum of Flight, and other oddities.

So this past weekend I took the boys to the Museum of Flight. It's something I'd been promising for a while, and it is less than five minutes from my house. We did not even come close to making it through the entire museum. That said...

Highlights:

• Getting to go onboard the 1960/'70's version of an Air Force One plane, specifically SAM 970. Classic Kitsch. I felt like I was on Red Adair/Chance Buckman's "go fight oil well fires" plane in the 1960s flick, Hellfighters. Awesome. They say it was in use until the mid-nineties for more minor dignitaries... gotta be a bit humbling to think yeah, you can ride on a special plane, but you aren't worth what remodeling the decor would cost. :)


• The kit planes in the kids area. There are some one-seater kit planes that are put in the kids area that you climb into and see how the controls work, including two prop planes and a mini helicopter. There's also a hang glider simulator, which is far more fun than it should be.


• Moon Buggy! Er. I'm sorry, lunar rover.


• All kinds of bitchin' old prop planes.


• The models of the first planes, including life-size suspended models of Da Vinci's glider designs.


• Randy's. This is evidently the only restuarant in the area (aside from a small cafe in the MoF that I didn't know about until we'd already had lunch), so half of Boeing/Boeing Field probably eats there for lunch on a given day. It's a late sixties hot-pink/orange/dark brown wood simulation interior, complete with plastic "faux-stained glass" starbursts between the booths. The menu hails from the same era, but the food is pretty good for all that (open 24 hours, breakfast served the entire time). The thing that really sets the place apart, however, is the planes. Oh heavens, are there planes. The entire ceiling is festooned with gorgeous model planes from all eras. The walls are covered with pictures of old planes and pilots. In the back is one of those World Map murals, with a route marked out in pink string and push-pins that circles most of the globe. A ubiquitous ceiling fan has even been replaced by a propeller, painted dark green with the traditional red toothy mouth under the "nose." Old men had coffee in the back while my kids took turns getting up to look at everything. The boys were enthralled.


• The Museum Store. I did not go in, as we had no time left before they closed, but I can tell just from walking by it that I could spend WAY too much money in there. Way too much.

Lowlights:

• The high price of simulators. The museum has three simulator stations. The first one, which is less simulation and more "glorified supermarket ride," is free and for the kids. It's a loosely mocked-up kid-sized Blue Angels jet. You have to use a step-ramp to get up into it, and it goes up and down and back and forth a bit. Neither kid was really into it, though a couple years back they'd have been far more impressed. The next step up in simulators was the D-4X, I think. Basically one of those "moving room" jobs where a small horde of people can ride at once, and you watch a movie and the entire room moves with the film. Naturally, the films/CGI bits were about planes. This one in particular was about flying a float plane for the US during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Problem One: They don't let kids on by themselves if they're less than teenagers, despite that fact that there is no minimum age range for the thing. This is an issue when you (like me) are prone to motion sickness. Problem Two: $5 each, with no discount for members. On the one hand, that isn't too egregious, all things considered. On the other, they tell you at the desk you get $1 off simulator rides. What they don't tell you is that you only get them on Simulator #3: a two seater for pilot and co-pilot, with age restrictions and everything. I didn't go on these, as they're $8 each and I suck at flying, plus I would have to go on with each kid, one at a time. At the same time, these are far more the real deal. They actually have what looked like controls so that you can try to really fly the thing. I could be wrong, mind you, but that's what it looked like.


• The kids area. While there are some cool things, there's nowhere for grownups to sit, they have to have a docent in the area to "answer questions," but really to make sure no kid wrecks anything, and in the great scheme of things, there's just not all that much to do. The boys had fun, but I was pretty quickly bored.


• The hours: They close at 5 PM each day, although I think one Thursday a month they stay open until 9 for a special event. 5 PM on a weekend seems a bit unreasonable to me. Two extra hours would make a huge difference in the amount of time and money I would have happily spent there, not to mention freeing up my window of "Museum Time" vs "Get Stuff Done Time."

Overall, I'd give it just a smidge less than 4 stars. Fun was had and I did buy a membership, so we'll see how it fares on repeat visits. :)