Posts in the category "Museums":

Earlier this week, while waiting for Captain Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger’s presentation at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, I spent some time in the Amelia Earhart exhibit.  And while I don’t think I’ll take up flying my own plane anytime soon, I keep thinking about getting some new luggage.

Amelia Earhart endorsed a long list of products ranging from cars, cigarettes and clothing to what one press release described as nothing less than “the first truly practical and genuine airplane luggage.”

Earhart may have disappeared in 1937, but it appears a line of luggage bearing her name was produced well into the 1990’s.   And while I haven’t come upon anything from that line in the thrift stores near me, I did poke around the Museum of Flight gift shop to see if I could find something under $10 and “Amelia” for today’s Souvenir Sunday feature.

The only items that fit the bill were a few young adults books, including this one from the National Geographic Children’s Books series that includes photos, quotes from Earhart’s writings, theories about how she vanished, and maps of the route she followed on her last flight.

Categories: Air Travel, Aviation history, Baggage, Celebrities, Exhibits, History, Museums, Souvenirs, aviation
No Comments »

I love hanging around airports, of course, but I also find bliss when let loose in small museums filled with odd and unusual artifacts or if there’s a wacky roadside distraction somewhere and I’ve got the keys to the car.

So I’m fortunate to be able to produce radio features and write books about my discoveries. More than two hundred of my favorite offbeat attractions in Oregon are in the newly updated Oregon Curiosities book you see pictured in the craftily-titled Buy My Books section here on this site. There are an equal number of unusual people, places and things in the Washington Curiosities book I’m starting to update right now.

One of the aviation-related places in the Oregon Curiosities book is The Bomber Restaurant complex in Milwaukie, about six miles south of Portland.

From 1947 until 1991 this vintage World War II B-17G four-engine bomber served as shelter for a forty-pump independent gas station that was one of the top performers in the country. When the gas station closed, the bomber fell on hard times and for years the plane was just a sad-looking roadside attraction suffering from bird poop, vandalism, and Oregon’s rainy climate.

Now restoration of the bomber is under way. Her nose is all shiny and new and on display inside the on-site WWII-themed Wings of Freedom Showcase. And while the gas station is long gone, you can fill up your stomach at the memorabilia-packed Bomber Restaurant, where the menu includes Bomblettes (omelettes) and Bombarded Hash Browns for breakfast, and Tokyo Rose BLTs and Bomberburgers for lunch and dinner.

If you want to see The Bomber for yourself, be sure to enter the Oregon Mt. Hood Territory’s Secret Sweet Spots contest. Each week you’ll be asked to answer a (very easy) question about a “hidden gem” in the region. You’ll find the answers in the short videos on the Mt. Hood Territory website.

Of course, one of those Secret Sweet Spots is The Bomber.

Categories: Architecture, Aviation history, Contests, Exhibits, Museums, Restaurants, aviation
No Comments »

Lufthansa pilots have scheduled a four day strike beginning on Monday, February 22, 2010.  Negotiations are currently underway, but if those talks fail to avert the strike, the carrier will be forced to cancel most of its flights. And that will leave passengers stuck at the airport.

The upside? If you do end up spending more time than you planned at a German airport, you’ll be able to find plenty of things to do.

Munich Airport, for example, has an outdoor observation deck and a great indoor/outdoor beer garden with an on-site brewery.

The Hamburg Airport also has observation decks as well as the Airport Model Exhibition – a miniature version of the airport complete with buildings, taxiways, runways, landing strips, and 8,000 light-emitting diodes that light up the tiny airport’s night sky – all on a scale of 1:500.

And at the Dusseldorf, Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin airports you’ll also find Lufthansa WorldShop stores, which offer a promising spot to do some Souvenir Sunday shopping.

The airline recently opened its second WorldShop store at the Frankfurt Airport (Terminal 1, Area B) and, like the others; the store is filled with travel items, backpacks, travel accessories, electronics, model aircraft, toys, and some other fun stuff.  Shoppers can earn Miles & More award miles for items purchased here and – here’s a nice twist – also buy items using accumulated miles.

I’m especially taken with this A380 Cookie Jar

The cool container sells for about $107 – or 22,000 miles, so we can’t make it our pick for Souvenir Sunday, which usually has an upper limit of $10.  But poking around the WorldShop catalog I did find this cute guy, which sells for 9 Euros (about $12) or 7500 miles.

But since this is Souvenir Sunday and do we have that under $10 rule (which may need to be re-adjusted soon for inflation..),  we offer these items sent along by the folks at Virginia’s Richmond International Airport(RIC), where a variety of local museums are represented in the  Hudson News store in the airport’s Atrium area, next to the security screening checkpoint for Concourse B.

These items are from the Edgar Allan Poe Museum

(Beer mugs! )

(Poe action figure – with removable raven! )

Have you found a great souvenir while stuck at the airport? If it’s under $10, “of” the city or region and, ideally, a bit offbeat, please snap a photo and send it along. It may show up as our pick for a future Souvenir Sunday.

Categories: Airport shops, Airports, Bars, Fun Stuff, Layover, Museums, Observation Decks, Shopping, Souvenir Sunday, Souvenirs
No Comments »

A new exhibit at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)  is all about the history of the video game industry and includes some original video-game-related art and artifacts related to the Austin-based development of such video game classics as Wing Commander, The Black Gate and Thief: Deadly Shadows.

(Pen and ink concept art drawing by Denis Loubet for Ultima VI: the False Prophet; via Austin-Bergstrom International Airport)

In addition to sketches, storby boards and illustrations, the exhibit includes the paper punched tape used by Austinite Richard Garriott to record the video game code for one of his first games, Akalabeth..  There’s also a prototype cartridge of M.U.L.E.’s lost sequel, Son of M.U.L.E. and design documents from Warren Spector’s innovative classic Deus Ex.

Behind the Screens is from the collection of the University of Texas, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History and is on display through January 26, 2010. Look for the exhibit in the pylon showcases located on the concourse between Gates 7-12.

Categories: Art, Entertainment, Exhibits, Fun Stuff, Museums, Openings
No Comments »

Showcase G20 is a new exhibition at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) put together to show off the region’s art and culture to the many world leaders, interested attendees, news cameras, and protesters that converged on the city in September for the G-20 Summit, a meeting of leaders from countries around the world that together represent more than 85% of the world’s economy.

The meeting is over, but the art will stick around through the end of 2009.

The Pittsburgh-based Andy Warhol Museum is showing off some of the artist’s wallpapers, Self-Portrait and Cow, photographs of Warhol, and prints that include images of Queen Elizabeth II, Alexander the Great, Jimmy Carter, Italy’s Mt. Vesuvius, Cologne Cathedral in Germany, and more. Displays are in concourses C and D in the airside terminal.

The work of various Pittsburgh area artists, including Randi Snow, Donna Broderick, Keith Garubba, Tom Brunger, Megan Herwig, and others is featured in another exhibit,Urbanic 2: Catalyzing a Regional Economic Renaissance, put together by Mox Box Consulting.   These works are on display on the south end of the ticketing level of the landside terminal.

(Randi Snow’s Flight of Imagination)

Categories: Art, Museums
No Comments »