Boats, Planes and Automobiles

I am very fortunate to work in Gig Harbor, a small harbor town on the Puget Sound. According to Wikipedia (and therefore irrefutably true) Gig Harbor, based on per capita income, ranks 49th of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked. As such, things tend to happen here, what with the marinas, private airport and all.

Last week was a veritable lunch time feast with tall ships and vintage airplanes visiting the area.

The Lady Washington and the Hawaiian Chieftain are two working tall ships that sail around the area, stopping in marinas for visits and allowing young people to travel and work on them. The boats are only 20 years old, so as a Brit used to the SS Great Britain etc, it was strange to be aboard such young wood.

The Lady Washington (pictured below) was featured in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Apparently there's a documentary on the boat at the end of one of the DVDs. It was a most handsome vessel.


The next day, I went to the Narrows airport to see three WWII planes that were visiting and taking off that day. I went with Dean, who since childhood has been into planes. At the airport they also had several guides who had flown or worked on the planes in their hey-day. It was fascinating to learn about the planes we were looking at from an historical and a personal perspective. I won't even pretend to know anything about them. I've linked to Wikipedia for each of them if you're interested.

The B17. Someone in our office told us that him mom worked on the riveting of these planes at Boeing, near Seattle. Up close you can see every single one of them, hand punched.


The B24 - Standing heavy and stationary on the tarmac, it was fascinating to see this leaden behemoth turn into a wobbling fish as it started to roll down the runway for take off. A bomber with no bombs in it has little to fill its belly.


An ex-serviceman who flew on these talked with us for quite some time about his experiences on board. He told us how a great deal of learning had to take place on the job with regard to the design of the plane and the crew's conduct onboard. He said that a lot of men died finding faults in the designs. He saw people jump out the back in a certain way and had their heads cut clean off by the air force.


The P51 Mustang - This plane had been grounded in California with work to do on it. It flew in just in time towards the one. One lucky chap got to ride in it for an hour for the princely sum of $3000.



At the weekend Tony and I went to the Fremont Fair. It's locally and nationally known for its bike parade and er...nakedness.

There was also an Art Car show. All kinds of craziness in car form. There were working fountains, extending arms, a cor covered in shoes and handbags...


And then driving down I5 this beauty was spotted!


What a joy it is to live in such a creative environment, to be visited by pieces of our history, and to have the privilege of talking with living heroes.

Tacoma Twilight Criterium

This weekend was crazy, and I'd love to write a whole blog, but I'm still going on tidying stuff up so I'm just posting the press release here. My pictures are here. Tony's in a great one here.

Wish you all could have been there!

...

We did it! What a great night. Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered, rode, watched, supported in any way.

Here’s the report….

Tacoma, WA. has been waiting for a cycling event for almost as many years as it has been a city. On June 12^th it happened – The inaugural Tacoma Twilight Criterium.

The TTC was the 6^th and final stop of the newly founded Cascadia Crit Series, also supported by Michelob. Stops along the tour began on May 29th in Woodinville, WA. and followed in Fremont, Seward Park, Ballard and the Brad Lewis Memorial before concluding in Tacoma.

The Tacoma course featured a basic 4-corner rectangle measuring about .8 of a mile with an uphill on the back side and a slight downhill finish. Lap times were averaging apppx. 1:35 which gave the crowd plenty of chances to see the race unfold.

US Olympic Short Track Speedskating medalist JR Celski attended to sign autographs and cheer on racers while a sparkling new 2010 Lamborghini SV served as the pace car for the night’s category 1 main event. Over 350 racers attended to put on a show of hard work for more than 3,000 spectators. An art-bike parade featured Tacoma’s best in retro and custom fabricated rolling works of art. More than 60 kids lined up for a shot at racing downtowns Pacific Ave. Local merchants opened the doors to serve the fans while the strips two hottest restaurant bars, Paddy Coynes and The Matador, hosted beer gardens with live music to keep the party going. The bike racks at The Hub’s after party were stacked 3 deep with bikes.

Local Cat 1 racer and staple fixture of the Pacific NW race scene, Russell Stevenson commented on the race in which he took 2^nd: “What a great race. Definitely one of the best events we’ve seen here in the entire NW. We’ll be back for sure.”

The goal for this event was two fold: create a great race for the cyclist and create a festival atmosphere for the city. Great racing, fortunately in the Pacific NW, is not all that hard to do. The WSBA members and officials who help with race logistics are a great team of people. They can pretty much show up anywhere and be ready to hold a race on almost a moments notice.

The bigger goal however was to create the festival atmosphere for the city. After all, what is a cycling race if there is no one to come and watch? As a first time event for a city, making sure that spectators show up and feed the economy is critical.

All goals were achieved. Racers were smiling all night long. Tacoma citizens were glowing. And the taverns and restaurants were seeing their tills overflow as their kegs ran empty.

Look for the Tacoma Twilight Criterium to be back again in 2011.