Fun Fun Fun at a Beach Boys Concert

On a hot Sunday afternoon we emerged from our Birch Bay cocoon to drive down to Redmond, Washington on a very crowded I-5, and a less crowded I-405, to check in to a very beautiful and obviously nearly new Hilton Garden Inn.

Son David and his fiancée Amy picked us there for the 10-minute drive to Redmond’s Marymoor Park. There, an amphitheater that holds up to 5,000 was open for a Beach Boys concert.

We arrived early to traverse the friendly but rigorous security. In the midst of setting off the metal detector for sunglasses and car keys, Brian managed to unwittingly smuggle in a bottle of water in a travel jacket with hidden pockets, not knowing liquids of any kind were forbidden.

We all got seated on our low slung chairs, happy we’d arrived early enough to snag a prime shady location.

David and Amy had prepared a terrific picnic dinner, complete with appetizers, salad and sandwiches.

We also lined up at one of the beverage tents more than once, making sure we were in compliance with rules reminiscent of experiences in Utah and Kansas.

Examples? Well, bottles were sold only for parties of two more. In other words, we had to go in pairs to buy a bottle of wine. And a line monitor warned David he’d have to finish his glass before buying any more. Okay, chug-a-lug! This discourages overindulgence exactly how?

Still, we readily agree that a wonderful family atmosphere pervaded the entire event on a glorious evening.

Eventually, only about 20 minutes late, the show started. Out came nine (!) Beach Boys to perform, including one original,  82-year-old Mike Love, a cousin of the Wilson boys.

They were terrific, and seemed to hit their stride particularly in the concert’s second half. The moon name out and a green-lit drone flew overhead.

It finally had to end with songs like Barbara Ann and Fun Fun Fun (‘til her daddy takes the T-Bird away).

Our early parking spot enabled David to whisk us quite promptly out of the gargantuan parking lot, and it was back to the hotel with great memories of this Southern California-style evening.

Below is a YouTube video shot in Cleveland a couple of weeks of Mike Love and his current Boys…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3TfG8wnuRA

A New Problem for Boeing's 737 MAX

We emerge briefly from a lovely summer of gardening and enjoying a beautiful summer in the Pacific Northwest to note some not-so-good news for the aircraft manufacturer just down the road (sort of) from us.

Boeing inspectors reportedly found bulkheads with 'hundred' of misaligned and duplicated holes.

We've flown on the 737 MAX a number of times since the early disasters, and found it to be a comfortable plane.

We have no idea whether this story will have "legs," but it's certainly the kind of publicity Boeing doesn't want, and one can't help but wonder what else might have been missed before the MAX was put into service.