skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Today we decided to go see Mt. St. Helens, which is north of Portland. To start the day, we were given the wrong directions and ended up at the wrong location. By the time we finally got to the visitors center, we found out we were still 47 miles from the viewing area. We dedided that we'd seen a lot of mountains before and the only way this one was different was that half of it's top blew off back in 1980. We skipped it and drove back to Portland. About a 150 mile round trip without the payoff. Oh well, nice drive!
At least the day finished well! We had dinner with some old friends, Ellen and Marty Graham, in Portland. Marty is in a video related business and has been a friend for over 20 years. He works for a company called Rentrak. If you have ever read or heard on the news that a particular movie opened with a huge box office over the weekend, determining those figures is one of the things Marty's company does. The rest is complicated. We had a wonderful time visiting with old friends we don't see enough.
We started the day at the Evergreen Aviation Museum. This museum has all sorts of aircraft from the beginning of flight to today and they feature the Spruce Goose.
As you can see, Howard Hughe's Spruce Goose is the central point of the museum. We had seen it before when it was in Long Beach, Calif. This is the largest wooden aircraft ever built.
They even have a free wine tasting right in the museum. The wine was quite good. The museum is totally surrounded by grape vines. They have the grapes processed and labled for them by another company.
After the museum, we visited a number of wineries for wine tastings. Most of the wineries in the Willamette valley are small boutique types, rather than large national brands. The valley specializes in Pinot Noir, which is our favorite.
We had a wonderful lunch of fresh bread, cheese, salami and, of course, wine. It was so enjoyable to just sit and sip!
Seaside is probably the most touristy town we found on the coast but it's a lot of fun. They have an aquarium where you can feed some seals and they have arcades that would remind you of the '60s. Lots of tourist shops to spend time in. We had a very casual but fun day.
We've left the big city for the Washington coast. We're in a place called Copalis Beach, which is no more than a wide spot in the road. The beach is beautiful and stretches as far as you can see in both directions. It is virtually empty of people, of course it's only about 65 degrees.
Our campground is about 300 yards from the beach and has an easy walkway access. We'll be here for a few days and then we will head south to the Oregon coast before we head into Portland next week.
Today we took the ferry from Seattle to Bainbridge island. Bainbridge is about a 30 minute ferry ride from the mainland. The ferry is a commuter "cattle car" that runs very frequently. The island is a residential community of about 25,000, including our friends from the video business, Cher and Mark Vrieling.
We had a wonderful visit in Cher and Mark's lovely home and then we all went out for a very nice dinner before we had to head for the ferry back to Seattle. Mark is still working (sorry Mark) and owns his own video production company. If you've ever been to a Blockbuster and seen the movie previews they play in the store, that's one of many products Mark's company produces.
A trip to Seattle wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Space Needle and we made ours. Not much to say. The base of the SN and the entire downtown area is very touristy. We walked around for a while and left.
Chateau St. Michelle Winery is located in a suburb of Seattle but their grapes are grown in eastern Washington, in the Columbia valley. This is one of our favorite wines. Their Chardonnay is especially good for a value priced wine. We were able to view the bottling process and do a tasting. Naturally, we had to buy a few bottles! It was fun because we like their wine so much.
Today we took a drive out into the Wenatchee Valley, which is billed as the apple capital of the world. In particular, we were heading for a town called Levenworth that is a very pretty Bavarian style town. As it turned out, we did a lot of driving for very little site seeing. We wish we hadn't gone but how were we to know without taking the chance. We did have a wonderful lunch and the town was pretty.
The 787 is, according to Boeing, the future of commercial aviation. They call it the Dreamliner. It will be able to fly over 9,000 miles without refilling. It is smaller than the 777 but will be more comfortable for the passenger. It will sell for $145M, instead of $195M for the 777. They have over 900 orders and the 1st plane will not be off the production line until next year. They haven't even tested it yet but will be able to make 3 a week, compared to 7 a month for the 777. This Dream-Lifter is used to bring pieces (not parts) of the plane from all over the world for assembly here.
The largest planes in the world are built in the largest building in the world. It may not look like it but this building is over 9 stories high and has 75 acres UNDER ROOF! You could fit all of Disneyland (California) in it and have 17 acres left for parking. They manufacture 747's, 767's, 777's and the all new 787's here.
If you've never been here and toured Boeing, you're really missing something. To see how they build the large planes we all fly on is really something. Sadly, they do not allow cameras of any kind on the tour so I cannot share any indoor pictures with you. Be assured what you see on the tour is really fantastic!
Today we also took a drive to Bellingham, Wa. and south to Samish Bay where we visited the Taylor Shellfish Farms. They specialize in farming oysters and are one of the largest on the west coast.. Did you know that it takes 3 to 5 years to grow an oyster for harvest? Really surprising, considering that you can get them for $.25 each in any bar in the US.
The Lynden area (just south of the border in Washington) is the nations major supplier of rasberrys. Janie and I took a drive through the growing area and had to stop and pick our own. They sell for $1.50 a pound, if you pick them yourself, and (Janie tells me) that's extremely cheap based on the normal supermarket price. What are we going to do with 10 pounds of rasberrys, when I don't care for them at all?
From Blaine we took a cruise on the shortest ferry in America. The Plover crosses the Semiahmoe bay in Blaine in just 11 minutes. It takes 23 minutes to return but only because it takes a detour to view the seals and birds that live in the area. This ferry only holds 17 passengers and used to be used to ferry workers to the cannery on the other side of the bay back in 1946. Now it's just for us tourist but it's still fun.
We've made it through western Canada and are now back in the US. Today we left Canada and entered Washington. We're staying in Blaine (I've never heard of it either but it's right on the border just south of Vancouver).
While walking along the water in Vancouver we came on these boats sitting in the marina. The one on the left has to be called a houseboat. What else could you call it? We just thought they were funny looking boats and wanted to share them with you.
Stanley Park is a 1000 acre park in downtown Vancouver. It's considered one of the finest natural parks on the continent. Janie liked this picture of me with the totems and wanted to share it. As you can see, our weather has been absolutely wonderful for the whole trip so far. I think we had one partial day of rain and that's it.
Today we decided to go see Mt. St. Helens, which is north of Portland. To start the day, we were given the wrong directions and ended up at the wrong location. By the time we finally got to the visitors center, we found out we were still 47 miles from the viewing area. We dedided that we'd seen a lot of mountains before and the only way this one was different was that half of it's top blew off back in 1980. We skipped it and drove back to Portland. About a 150 mile round trip without the payoff. Oh well, nice drive!
At least the day finished well! We had dinner with some old friends, Ellen and Marty Graham, in Portland. Marty is in a video related business and has been a friend for over 20 years. He works for a company called Rentrak. If you have ever read or heard on the news that a particular movie opened with a huge box office over the weekend, determining those figures is one of the things Marty's company does. The rest is complicated. We had a wonderful time visiting with old friends we don't see enough.
