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Even if you’re staying home, here’s a great way to save some cash and get some culture.

Bank of America’s Museums on US program offers free admission to more than 70 museums around the country on the first full weekend (Saturday and Sunday) of each month. All you need to do is show an ID and a Bank of America check, credit or ATM card. (Or find a friend who has one.)

Some great museums are on the list, including the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Check here for a list of museums participating in the program.

At the Henry Ford Museum: The only remaining prototype of R. Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House.

Categories: Free Stuff, Museums
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On Tuesday Air France officials were in Everett, Washington to take delivery of the company’s 50^th Boeing 777-300ER airplane. The flight home to Paris had room for a few guests.

Highlights of the trip:

• A chance to see – and smell – a brand new airplane. Turns out, like new cars, new airplanes definitely have a very recognizable fresh smell.
• The chance to explore the upgraded entertainment system, with personalized instruction from one of the designers. Passengers can choose from 85 on-demand movies (I squeezed in three fresh French comedies on the flight between Washington state and Paris) and create personalized music play lists from a very extensive and somewhat eclectic list of CDs. The first screen of jazz and blues options, for example, included complete albums from John Coltrane and Ray Charles.
• By far, though, my favorite part of the entertainment system: Seatback Berlitz language classes, which provide lessons in key words and valuable phrases, such as “Somebody call the police!,” in 23 different languages.

Categories: Events
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You’d think snow – even a spring snowstorm – wouldn’t get much attention in Alaska. But last Friday the folks in Anchorage got hit with enough snow to set a record for the day and for the month.

According to the National Weather Service, which has an office near the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, 17.2 inches of snow fell in Anchorage and 22 inches of snow fell in northeast Anchorage on Friday and Saturday.

In any “normal” city, that amount of snow would shut down the airport.

Not in Anchorage.

In fact snow has never shut down the airport.

Ever.

And that’s probably why the airport sent out a press release reminding the world that the airport is a four-time recipient of the Balchen/Post award for excellence in the performance of airport snow and ice control.

Categories: Weather
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It looks like its curtains after all for Berlin’s historic Tempelhof International Airport.

According to news reports, airport supporters failed to get enough people to vote this past weekend to keep the airport open. There wasn’t even enough turn-out to have the vote be considered valid.

Tempelholf Airport played a crucial role in the one of the biggest humanitarian air relief missions in history: the Berlin Airlift during the Cold War. The facility is Germany’s oldest commercial airport and is said to be the world’s third largest building, behind the Pentagon and Ceausescu’s palace in Bucharest.

Tempelhof Airport Interior
Photo credit: Florida Center for Instructional Technology

Categories: Closings
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Next time you travel through O’Hare International Airport, Chicago’s Midway International Airport or the O’Hare Air Transit System (ATS), listen up.

The Department of Aviation just launched a re-vamped overhead music program – Terminal Tunes – that features instrumental versions of songs by blues, jazz, country and classical artists who are either from the Chicago area or record for Chicago-based record labels.

That’s great news. As I wrote in a recent USATODAY.com column, there are just a few airports where local music is front and center.

Chicago’s new overhead music program replaces and old one which dated back to the early 1990’s. The new program includes a high-tech twist: artist and album information, audio samples and play list logs will be posted on the Chicago Airport System’s website, www.flychicago.com.

So if you hear a catchy tune while rushing to catch a plane, you can go on-line and track down the music. Soon, you’ll also be able to purchase Terminal Tunes CDs from shops in the airports as well.

Categories: Music
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