A Must See in Seattle

 

Good morning, all! I finally got my eyes open after the whirlwind trip to Seattle. Yes, I was "Sleepless in Seattle." There. Got the joke in there. I was there for the annual Yuri's Day celebration at the Museum of Flight for the Space Oddities book signing and lecture. I've been to many fascinating museums and this one is at the top of my list now. Here are a few photos from the museum. If you are ever in Seattle, I highly recommend strolling through the acres of exhibits. You won't be disappointed.

In the original Boeing factory building from the early 1900s, the original machinery used to make          aircraft still works.

An early mail plane.

  A stealth SR-71 Blackbird.

 

                                                                          

A flight simulator that does barrel rolls. I did NOT take it for a spin.

An Apollo test capsule # 007.

A good looking mock up of the Apollo lunar module.

     A little perspective on just how big the Apollo Saturn V engines were.     

 

A flight battered Russian Vostok capsule.

Not a bad backdrop: Mount Rainier.

Book Presentation/Signing Alert

I hope you will join me for a discussion of Mobile Alabama history May 16th at 10:30am at the beautiful Bellingrath Gardens in - where else? - Mobile. It all begins with a presentation on my books, Hidden History of Mobile, A History Lover's Guide to Mobile and the Alabama Gulf Coast, and Baseball in Mobile. The lecture is free with admission to gardens and they will be absolutely incredible this time of year. See you there!

 

Biggest Signing Yet

 

I can't thank Ashley Mead and the staff at the Seattle Museum of Flight for the incredible hospitality they showed me during my visit and presentation at Yuri's Day. It was an incredible day with a great and receptive crowd for the presentation. I even got to meet and chat with one of the four crew members who made up the first all civilian crewed flight into space, Chris Sembroski, who gave a very powerful and inspiring presentation about his time in space. Here are a couple photos from the presentation. I'll have more about the amazing museum soon.

And a couple of astronaut Chris Sembroski:

Updates

I have a couple reminders for you today. First, for all of you out on the West Coast, this Saturday I will doing a lecture and book signing for Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind's Exploration of Space at the Seattle Museum of Flight. The schedule is:

3:00pm - Space Oddities Lecture followed by Q&A session

4:00pm - Book signing in the gift shop

6:30pm to 7:00pm - A Meet-and-Greet at the annual Yuri's Night party

Oh, and here is a sample of what the museum is all about after the daytime events with Yuri's Night:

And just in, something a little closer to home. I'll be doing a lecture and signing of my Mobile history books, Baseball in Mobile, A History Lover's Guide to Mobile and the Alabama Gulf Coast, and Hidden History of Mobile Thursday May 16th at Bellingrath Gardens in Mobile. The lecture / signing is free with paid admission to the gardens that you really need to go see especially this time of year. The time of the lecture will be announced shortly.

 

I Should Be Dancin'...Not!

And the clock has started (as they say at NASA.) 10 days until it's "HELLO, SEATTLE!" and the big Yuri's Day celebration at the Seattle Museum of The Museum of Flight. I can't wait to meet all of my west coast friends during the Space Oddities presentation and book signing. The museum is also hosting an incredible music and dance experience that day for the deaf and hard of hearing called DanceABLE. Just don't ask me to dance! I've only danced twice in my life, once at my senior prom (I "think" it was dancing. Could have been just walking around) and during the LitCon event for authors in Mobile a few months ago. We were all asked to "bust a move" for a 360 video and as you can see in the accompanying video, that didn't go well. Tragic. LOL!