River Cruise Day 4: Richland and Pasco WA

 

We’re docked a place that allowed me to get a decent pic of this vessel. American Empress is small but picturesque. She served in Alaska for several years before being permanently moved to the Snake/Columbia Rivers route.

 

I'm still looking for the best spot to photograph her big red paddlewheel.

The ethereal beauty of the common dandelion stands out in an explosion of color.

I find picturesque subjects everywhere I look. I often wonder what people overlook while they have their faces buried in cell phones or newspapers.

We should look around us, not searching for dangers, but to find the unexpected little gems that should brighten our days or focus our thoughts on something different.

Today, our Hop On/Hop Off tour took us the REACH Museum. REACH is the term for an unobstructed stretch of water and this 50+ miles of the Columbia is the only section of that waterway which is open and un-dammed.  

The museum includes a significant section on the Hanford Nuclear Facility, the plant that created the plutonium core of the bomb we dropped on Nagasaki. I was familiar with a lot of what was shared as I read The Girls of Atomic City several years ago about the creation of the nuclear plant at Oakridge. Hanford was on an even larger scale; at its height, employing 55,000 people.

Several aspects intrigued me. After bringing hundreds of Airstream trailers to house the workers, Permanent homes were offered to upper-level employees. 19 floor plans were offered, each floor plan designated by a letter, hence the sobriquet “Alphabet Home.” Each letter home was assigned the same block. The homes that remain from this settlement are now prized possessions.

 The Metabulator jolted me. It offers, again, proof that our precedents were definitely as mechanically ingenious as we 21^st century folk believe we are. True, it took them a complex, slightly massive machine to achieve what we do with a FitBit or Apple watch, but nonetheless, they were there first.

Even the gift shop at the REACH acknowledged the past with its staff refrigerator! (Speaking of the gift shop, I was bummed to discover when I returned to the ship that I’d lost the bag of things I’d purchased. I asked our Purser’s Office to inquire of the two bus drivers I’d had today if it was left on their bus.  I emailed the Guest Services Director of the Center relating my problem and the bag’s contents, saying if it was found I’d gladly pay to have it mailed to me, as I did not have enough time to return to the Center before it closed.  Fingers crossed.)

Our next “tour” was to the Pasco Aviation Museum. Very interesting place as it is housed in the old control tower, but not exactly what I anticipated as the 1936 Stearman was hangered and unavailable for display. The models were astounding and our guide was enthusiastic. NAS (Naval Air Station) Pasco was the location for the first ever WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) served here. Creating a legacy that still exists as one of Pasco’s own is a NASA astronaut I did learn that "Pappy" Boynton was associated with NAS Pasco.

On a walk to the ship’s gift shop Barbara and I found a collection of Faberge works of art donated by Tatiana Faberge. After gawking and exclaiming for minutes, B and I, we retired to 324, napped, chatted, read for a bit. I went down to Paddlewheel Lounge to update this blog.