Vancouver, Washington

Last night I was hoping to see the crescent moon next to Venus.  The smoke from various fires -- I'm not sure if the haze was from British Columbia or California -- obscured Venus completely and turned the moon into a ribbon of orange rind. 


Over the weekend we visited some friends in Vancouver, Washington.  I had some time, so I wandered around the old downtown.  I didn't visit the old Bell Exchange Building, mostly because I can never quite remember where it is.  I managed to get a close-up of a stone lion's face (see Aug 11's photos), which when I showed a local resident expressed surprise that it was there (just two blocks away from her shop).

I strolled by the city's fish bell tower, and took some obligatory bronze salmon statue photos.  The downtown park features a house from the 1880's, similar to Eugene's Shelton McMurphy house, and I took a few pictures, but the lighting wasn't the best and there was a huge beer-garden party going on in the park with unaesthetic cyclone fencing all around everything and lending an air of internment camp to the day.  Only with 80's rock.

What I like best about old houses like this is the detail work around the locks and door nobs and nooks.

Early French Bomber Plane

 This is a French plane from (I think) World War One.  It last flew a few years ago at the airfield near Fort Vancouver.  It is a bomber of some sort; I forget how many bombs it could carry (I'm not sure how big the bombs were, or if they were grenades.)

What struck me about it was how much it looked like something out of "Girl Genius."  The wheels were especially interesting with all of their struts and wires.

The propeller was a push-propeller mounted in the back.  I think the engine's radiator is right behind the gunner, and I wondered how hot it got and how someone in the plane would avoid being tossed against it during a bumpy flight.

I'm not sure if it's the black stork on the side, or the general shape of the plane, but it also reminds me of the Nazgul from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Building Airplanes

Over the Forth of July weekend we went to an aviation museum next to Fort Vancouver.  The coolest fact I learned was that a dirigible flew between Portland and Vancouver in 1905.  It was steered up or down by the pilot leaning backward or forward.  (In contrast, Santos Dumont used a weight and pulley system to change his craft's trim.)

 There was an airplane kit on display.  I remember one of our neighbors back in the 1970's was working on one of these.  I think his was fiberglass; I remember it being much whiter.

The most interesting part was the jig used to make the wing shape.  I'm guessing that the wood was soaked in water before hand to make the curving part.  It occurs to me that one could 3D print this as one solid piece.

Vancouver Bell Phone Exchange Building

 Last weekend we went to Vancouver and saw the historic 1935 Vancouver Bell Phone Exchange building.

 I was particularly drawn to the tile work, which reminded me of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

 I liked the way the tiles stacked together and the brick patterns.  There were some specialty bricks which made vertical channels in the building.

 Over the doorway, they placed a Bell Telephone Logo.

I think Eugene used to have buildings with character like this before urban renewal efforts replaced them with American Brutalism concrete and glass cubes.