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One of the nice things about a blog is that you can take a break from your subject once in a while. So the subject today is aviation. At least it is technology-related.

Last week, we spent a couple of days in the Seattle area with John's brothers. As always, we stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Mukilteo, which is adjacent to Boeing's test runways on Paine Field. Now, it wouldn't be everyone's idea of a great time, but John and I are always fascinated watching the Dreamliner (passenger) and the Dreamlifter (cargo) taking off and landing. Both are expected to debut early next year.

Because John's brother, Jim Simek, works for Boeing, we previously had the privilege of a private tour, so we skipped the combo Boeing tour/museum ticket and opted to visit just the Future of Flight museum.

They had me hooked from the very beginning with a virtual keyboard and a disply of flight attendant uniforms, dishes and menus from the past. I'm a sucker for staring at first class niceties that those of us in economy never see.

Neat idea for kids: You can design your own plane and take "your" plane home with you on a tee shirt for $20.00. There's also a Flight Simulator, which I knew would ruin the rest of my day, so I wisely avoided it.

New factoid for me: The Boeing 777 was the first commercial aircraft designed entirely by computer. A so-called Gang of Eight (VIP customers) filled out 23 page questionnaires with their requirements/suggestions and the 777 was the result. Mind you, the computer didn't get everything quite right - one of the two engines flamed out on the first flight - but with some human intervention, they finally got things right.

Kids will enjoy the 3D movie of an airplane being assembled. OK, I got pretty excited about it too.

There's also a 727 cockpit you can sit in and play with the controls. John liked that.

The new Dreamliner has all kinds of neat in-flight entertainment options. Fiber optics are everywhere to support the high-bandwidth requirements of on-demand video streaming. Too sunny to see the screen? Forget the shades. Now you can electronically dim the window from your seat. And the window itself is 19X11 inches. Impressive. My oversized laptop case (stuffed full of legal magazines that I always intend to read before falling asleep) will fit nicely in the much larger overhead compartments. There's also a spacious atrium-like area when boarding the plance, complete with skylights.

It was a very cool experience, even for a white-knuckled flyer. As often as I fly, I still often leave John's hand black and blue. I understood Tony Randall completely in the Odd Couple episode in which he insisted he could read the lips of the mechanics and that they were saying "I fear there is much trouble in the fuselage."

The last cool thing? For an extra $10 a night, you can book a room at the Hilton Garden Inn with a two person Jacuzzi. This is a G-rated column, but suffice it to say that we enjoyed our stay. :-)

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