Hydroplane & Race Boat Museum — Attraction in Kent

Dropped by here on a Tuesday night expecting to spend about an hour looking at some old Seafair memorabilia. I could not have been more wrong.

We walked in around 6pm to find about a dozen volunteers eating dinner after a full day of dedicating their time and energy to keeping the museum up and running. Nonetheless, two immediately dropped their forks and welcomed us with open arms. They guided us around the museum, explaining the history and technical aspects of racing hydroplanes with visible passion and pride. We were also surprised to learn that many of the volunteers have experience not only in building and maintaining, but also driving these boats. The treatment we received from the moment we walked in can only be described as "VIP."

The museum itself blew me away too - rather than a few dusty pictures and medals, they had at least eight antique and modern hydroplanes inside the building, including several that can (and do) run to this day. We were there a week before Seafair 2016 and sat in one of the two hydroplanes that made an appearance on the water for the "Antique Hydroplanes" segment of the festival.

Overall, the volunteers went above and beyond, and it was damn cool to both see and touch these incredible boats that I've only ever...

Bob was an absolutely outstanding boat host at SeaFair. Got to sit in the driver's seat of Mira Slovak's 1956 Miss Wahoo! The beautiful mahogany Miss Wahoo is an exact replica of the famous original, which wrecked. Imagine skipping across the water, a 150 MPH wind in your face, your white knuckles clamped on the wheel are the only thing to keep you in the bucking boat, your instruments are a blur, the mighty Allison's exhaust blasting a couple feet from your ears, a ton of water thrown sky high in your roostertail, and a tiny skid fin being the only thing keeping you from a flying out of control disaster. ...

It was amazing. I got to see all the race boats and hydroplanes in the small area they had. I got to witness people still making them. Shaving down the wood and stuff. Keeping it maintained. The guy there that will give you a tour mostly because there never really is anybody else visiting the museum. He charged me $5 which is for a student. He did it because he was like "eeehhh". $10 is the general admission fee so I got a free 50% off. Yay!!!! I also bought. Cookie jar that was listed as $5 on the signs. Then his manager said it costs $10, but he charged me $5 anyways!! So I only spent $10...