Seattle, Washinton

11 Jul 2013               Seattle, WA

           The drive from Mt. Rainier to Kent was really a pleasure.  We slowly came back into civilization along country roads and made a grocery stop.  Our lodging for 3 nights was the Kent/Seattle K.O.A (Kampsite Of America).  I can’t tell you the last time we stayed in one of these places.  It’s a total different experience from camping in a remote national park.  There is almost always a pool, game room, bathrooms, showers, camp store, and TONS of R.V.’s.  When we got there, I couldn’t believe how closely packed the sites were and how crowded the place was.  Oh well.  We wouldn’t be staying there for long, since all we needed was a place to sleep after traveling into Seattle every day.  The tent site areas were tighter than skinny jeans, but we made do. 
 

           Katherine wanted to try Seattle’s public transit system, especially since it would be a pain driving the H3 into the city for 3 days.  We set out to see how this all worked.  It turned out to be a great way to travel.  The KOA had a bus stop right out on the main road that took us to the Sea/Tac Airport stop.  From there, we could take the light rail into downtown Seattle, or another bus.  We tried both ways, and they worked out great.  The busses had some interesting “bus people” which made for awesome people watching.  Parking in Downtown would have been a mess, and expensive.  On the bus, we could sightsee and not have the extra stress of driving or worrying about sampling too many of the breweries.  The transit maps and schedules take a little getting used to.  The routes might not make sense at first, causing confusion.  We stuck with it and did a 4 “leg” trip to the Boeing factory.

            The Boeing Factory is in Everett, Washington, 40 miles to the north of Seattle.  This was a must on our trip, but I didn’t want to drive, so this is where the public transit came into play.  We got there, but it took just over 2 hours.  We had reservations for a tour at 11am, and since we showed up early, the attendant moved us back to an earlier time so we wouldn’t have to wait around.  The tour started out in the Future of Flight building with a movie telling us how Boeing has changed the world.  After the movie, we piled into the tour busses and headed to the giant factory buildings.  Wow!  These were huge, so huge that the one with the 777 and 787 is ranked as the biggest building in the world by volume.  We entered through underground tunnels and took an elevator to a few overlooking balconies.  Sorry, I don’t have pictures to post of the inside, since all cameras were required to be checked in lockers where we started.  I thought the tour was thorough, and it gave me a good idea of the process used at Boeing.  Some planes are on a moving track as they are built, and the others are put together in sections.  The most interesting thing I saw was the carbon fiber construction used on the 787 Dreamliner.  The body sections for the plane have to be heat treated as they are put together in giant sections.  This requires an oven to be built around the plane and kept in place while the heating is happening.  From the overhanging balcony that we were on, it was quite impressive.   After the tour, we took the bus into downtown and met our friend Gabrielle.

            We got off the bus as close to the Space Needle as possible, walked a block or two, and met up with Gabrielle.  We were in search of the Bastille Day celebrations, but we were a day early.  This worked in our favor since the Polish Folk Festival was happening instead!  We got 3 plates of pirogues and stuffed cabbage, along with some imported Polish hop, yeast, barley, and water mixture.  The folk music was fun and the weather continued to be on good behavior.  We chatted with Gabrielle for a while before she had to leave.  I think the downtown Seattle area is a great place to visit, and with friends and food, it is even better.

            On our way back to the light rail, we sat down in a restaurant to rest for a while and met a woman, Danielle.  She wanted to see if we were interested in taking a cat home, and then the conversation went all over the place.  Somehow, it always turns into funny or gross food you can, or have tried.  Right when the talk was getting crazy, her fiancée, Nathan came to get her.  We chatted for even longer about our travels and had a great time.  On the train back, we met another friendly woman who talked with us for most of the ride.  She was a French woman who moved to Seattle at age 21 after meeting her musician husband on a trip here.  She had her mother with her, who kept telling us stories in French as we just smiled and nodded, and her kids who had just spent the day celebrating one of their birthdays.  Meeting people in these cities is always a surprise, you never know who is out there.  I preferred these fine folks to the Portland drummer at the food trucks. 
 

           Seattle is a fascinating city and I want to plan a trip back really soon.  Getting around is simple and the people we met and talked to were really nice.  The seafood was a treat and the breweries have more to sample than one sitting allows.  Now, we are off to meet Austin in the San Juan Islands.  I have to look this all up on a map.  I have no idea where it is.