GOODBYE RAIN…HELLO SUNSHINE. SPOKANE, WA

Sunday, June 24 – A fitting “good-bye” from the Pacific Coast this morning when we pulled-out of the Bremerton Elks Lodge – It was raining and continued to pour until we topped the Snoqualmie Pass of the Cascade Mountains. Once over the mountains, the sun came out and it was a nice day with puffy white clouds.

Boy is Eastern Washington different than the West Coast. This is agriculture country.

A particular nice farming area had signs all along I-90 telling you what crops were growing in the roadside fields. And they were irrigating the fields. Too bad the coast couldn't share some of that rain with these folks.

We were also surprised when we crossed over the Columbia River. It's dug a pretty impressive gorge here in the East, as well. Can't help of thinking about Lewis & Clark rowing down this river and the amazing sights they saw. It's so beautiful today, what was it like back then?

Our destination today was Spokane, Washington. A longer drive than we like (six hours) but there aren't many stopping points between Seattle and Spokane. Oh, by the way, it's pronounced – Spo-Can, not Spo-cane.

We are staying at another Elks Lodge – The Spokane Lodge on the eastside of the city. It is a very nice stop-over. Easy in and easy out from I-90. The cost is $15 for 50 amp electric and water. There is a dump station here at the campground. We are in site #17. There are 20 sites here at the Lodge. We have good satellite connection with our roof mounted Direct TV dish and good Verizon phone & Internet connections.

Plenty of room.

Rear view.

Looking left.

Looking right.

There is plenty of nearby shopping and being on the eastside of the city makes for an easy getaway when we leave, missing rush hour traffic.

Some places wrestle with chipmunks, some with ground hogs, here….marmots.

Unfortunately, the Lodge is closed on Sunday and Monday so we can't report on the activity at the Elks Lodge. The hosts in the campground are very friendly and met us as we pulled-in. The campground is nearly full tonight with only two or three open sites. Lucky for us, the site next to us is open giving us a nice lawn to relax on and enjoy the beautiful weather here in Eastern Washington. Bella loves that grass!

We had a lovely sky tonight. We hope to catch the sunset tomorrow night.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

A DAY IN SEATTLE

Saturday, June 23 -- We rode the Ferry from Bremerton to Seattle this morning. We parked the car in Bremerton and walked on the ferry. This is no problem, because everything we wanted to see in Seattle was within walking distance of Pier 52. We caught the first ferry of the day…7:05 and had an hour ride. It is free to cross over from  Bremerton but cost $7.40/each to return.

Very different scenery than the ferry we took yesterday to Everett.

Approaching Seattle…wonder what the weather will be today. Can you guess?

We started our Seattle tour at the famous Pier Market Place. To get there we walked up many, many steps.

We wanted to see the famous Pike Place Fish Company. This was much smaller than we expected. It's just a booth in the large Pier Market Place. They are famous for throwing the fish through the air when ordered by a customer for weighing and wrapping. They were not doing much throwing at 8:15 in the morning. We did see a couple sail through the air when we went back in the afternoon but were unable to get a picture.

We then walked down inside and the street enjoying the many vendors and small stores.

We stopped for breakfast at Michou World Class Deli. We ordered on of their Bambaloni, Tunisian Beignets. We should have ordered a dozen. Boy was it delicious!

Our next destination was the first Starbuck store.

We had already had a Starbucks on the ferry, so Marsha settled for getting her picture taken in front of the store. She wanted to make her friend, Pam, very jealous. Pam and John, Oh The Places We Go, LOVE Starbucks.

Can you tell why we didn't get a coffee from the photo below. You should see the line out the door and around the sidewalk. This is at about 9:00 a.m.

After enjoying more of the Market, we walked over to the Space Needle.

This observation tower was originally built for the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. It is 605 feet tall with a revolving restaurant and an observation deck on top. This is Seattle's number one tourist attraction.

There was a marathon race going on in the city this morning. The park at the Space Needle was near the finish line. There were 1000's of runners roaming around the area.

Taken from a bridge.

While visiting the needle we did some people watching. Be aware, these two may be coming to your city VERY soon.

After mingling with the runners at the Space Needle, we walked over to Pioneer Square.

Pioneer Pergola

This is the original downtown, dating back to 1852. It is also the location of the famous Seattle Underground. With only visiting Seattle for one day, we chose not to take the tour and instead roamed around this historical area. We saw the location of the first Seattle area settlement, Pergola Park.

Entering the park area.

Then is was over to Smith Tower, the tallest building in the world (outside Manhattan) in 1914, when it was built.

The buildings are just lovely.

We visited Occidental Square with its Native American totem poles. A local relief organization was feeding the homeless here, so it was unusually interesting. Nearby was the Fallen Firefighters' Memorial and one of Seattle's old fire stations.

We stopped briefly at the Waterfall Garden Park, the sight of the original United Parcel Service offices. This would be a nice cool place to relax on a hot summer day, but not today – it was cool and rainy.

There are lots of bikers in this city. The city is becoming very creative with their bike stands.

We were pretty tired by this time and headed back to the Pier 52 to catch our ferry home. Interestingly, we got on the wrong ferry boat by mistake. Things just didn't seem right, so Marsha asked the gate attendant…No it wasn't the Bremerton Ferry, but instead the Bainbridge Island Ferry. Opps, that would be a disaster!

There is the ferry we WERE on.

As we leave on the RIGHT ferry.

Thankfully, we got off, just before sailing, and got aboard the correct boat. After our one-hour ferry ride, we were safely back in Bremerton and headed back to the motor home.

Luckily, the rain held off until we were on our way home on the ferry. The Bremerton Elks Lodge campground is a muddy mess due to all the rain. The place is packed too. There isn't an empty site around except an unusable tiny spot right next to us.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!

FUTURE OF FLIGHT AVIATION & BOEING TOUR

Friday, June 22 – We loaded the car on the Kingston Ferry this morning in route to Everett, WA, and the Boeing Factory Tour.

The round-trip fare is $40, not cheap, but that beats driving all the way around Puget Sound. The Ferry ride over to Everett was very smooth.

One of several seating areas.

We hardly knew we were moving. The Washington Ferry fleet is one of the largest fleets in the world with 25 vessels, serving 9 routes and 20 terminals. Jumbo class ferries can carry in excess of 200 vehicles and 2,000 foot passengers.

The Future of Flight Aviation Center (Boeing Factory plant) was a short drive from the ferry terminal.

We saved a little on the tour by purchasing tickets on line. We've been looking forward to this Boeing Tour. As a matter of fact, it's on Paul's “Bucket List.” Today was an ideal day for an indoor tour....it's raining.

Before we get started, just a note to say there were no cell phones, cameras, backpacks or really anything permitted on the tour. All factory photos will be courtesy of the Internet.

The Everett facility was built when Boeing began building the Boeing 747. A huge airplane required a huge facility. The complex is the largest building in the world by volume. It has an enclosed space of 472 million cubic feet and covers 98.3 acres. It currently houses the assembly of the Boeing 747, 767, 777, and the newest aircraft the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

777

Imagine this assemble line with the Boeing 747 (The largest passenger plane in the world.) passing 4-stories below the observation floor. Wings, 13-story tail sections, fuselage, landing gear, engines, and all the interior wiring and pieces and parts coming together in a completed airplane. A pretty amazing scene.

787 assembly line.
 

The 787 Dreamliner is the newest aircraft. They have so many orders for this plane that they are five years BEHIND in manufacturing. Not bad for a plane selling for over $225 million dollars. By the way, the Boeing 747 sells for in excess of $425 million.

787…Dreamliner

Following the tour, we walked through the Future of Flight Museum on the grounds of Boeing. It is a historical view of the Boeing Company and an education center with cockpit modules, 747 tail fin, mock-ups of the new Dreamliner interior, and smaller private planes hanging from the ceiling.

Wing specs.

Look how small Paul looks compared to this tail section.

787 Fuselage…composite one piece barrel (COPB2). This is a very interesting new material. If you read closely, you will see that it REDUCES the number of parts - 40,000-50,000 parts are eliminated just in fasteners.

Your pilot for this flight will be Paul. Co-pilot Marsha.

It was surprising the number of finished airliners parked outside the factory and around the air strip waiting to be delivered to the purchaser. They are painted to the airline specifications and are being test flown or waiting for final delivery.

Planes ready to be picked up.

The blasting area where they test the engines.

We really enjoyed this industrial tour. (Hope Marsha enjoyed it as much as Paul did.) Not sure it's worth the $18/person charge, but Starbucks Coffee shouldn't cost over $4 either. That's tomorrow's adventure....Seattle and the original Starbucks.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!