Washington continued...

6^th June

We left Westport and started our tour of the Olympic National Park. This involves a 270 degree trip around the Mt Olympia area which will take several days. We stopped at the major city in this area, Aberdeen, to shop. This included a white shirt and tie and a pair of black pants for me. Required formal duds for the Alaskan Cruise!! Our stop for the night was at the beautiful Lake Quinault which reminded us of a South

Island lake with trees down to the shore. There was a short walk along the waterfront, passed some baches overlooking the lake, to a lovely historic lodge.

7^th June.
We headed back to the coast and stopped at Ruby Beach. Unfortunately there was a sea mist but the rock formations were still pretty spectacular. We left the ‘101’ and headed inland following the Hoh River.

After finding a great sunny camping spot on the banks of the river we walked to the visitors centre and then a short walk around an area called the “Hall of Mosses.” This area gets a huge rain fall. The club moss and liquorice ferns hang from the trees giving the walk a very eerie feel. Back at “Ernie” we collected some fire wood and had a great evening enjoying our camp fire.

8^th June

I am now a pensioner! Pancakes for breakfast before heading out to the ‘101’ and up another valley following the Sol Duc River to a thermal springs area where we camped. After lunch we biked to a car park and then a short walk to the Sol Duc Falls.

There were lots of families on the track and the waterfalls were very nice. Back to “Ernie” to pick up our togs and a short walk down to the Sol Duc Hot Springs resort. The pools were very much like a small version of Hanmer. The main hot pool was 102F and quite hot. The other hot pool was 107F! Very uncomfortable.
 There was also a fresh water swimming pool at 74F. We decided to return tonight and have dinner at the resort. After drinks and nibbles at “Ernie” we walked back to the resort and had a great Cod and Chips meal and a free dessert. (on the house birthday treat) All very nice with a great atmosphere overlooking the hot pools.

9^th June.

Back on the ‘101’ to continue our circumnavigation of Mt Olympus, which we have yet to see. The mountain is quite low at 7600ft and obscured by its foothills. We stopped at another beautiful lake (Lake Crescent) There was another historic lodge where Teddy Roosevelt stayed in the 1930s and declared the Olympic area a National Park. At the city of Port Angeles we could see across the San Juan Straights to Vancouver Island, Canada. 
                                                      At the visitors centre we watched a video of

the National Park before setting off on the 17 mile drive to Hurricane Ridge up in the snow again. We thought we might be thwarted seeing Mt Olympus and the surrounding ranges as we drove thru low cloud but as we got higher the cloud cleared and we had 270 degree views of the mountains.

 We climbed (on foot) even higher and the vistas were magnificent. We sat enjoying the views eating lunch before descending back into the clouds and our next camp at Sequim Bay on the coast.

10^th June

We spent some time after breakfast organising our route from Seattle to Vancouver and booked two nights in an RV park in Seattle with (we were assured) good public transport into the city. We drove thru forested areas to the shores of the Hood Canal. This is a long (70 miles) narrow harbour which we followed to its end at Hoodsport and a small State Park camp. We found a nice sunny camp site and enjoyed a warming evening.

11^th June

After a shop at the town of Sheldon we joined the ‘I-5’ for our run into Seattle. This is a very populace area with the cities of Olympia, Tacoma and finally into Seattle and our RV park. We were assigned a small site (cheap) which suited us as we plan to spend most of our time in the city. We had decided to go to the baseball tonight. The New York Yankees v the Seattle Mariners. A 15 minute walk brought us to a bus stop with an express bus straight into the city. The Seattle CBD is on a narrow piece of land with Lake Washington on one side and the Puget Sound on the other. Our bus took us over Lake Washington on two long bridges. 
 The bus stopped in sight of the Safeco Stadium where we walked to get our tickets. As the gates had just opened we went into the Bull Pen Bar (happy hour) which was at pitch level and watched the players warm up. Later the pitchers warmed up right in front of us. Awesome close up! We climbed up to our seats high above the field but with a great view. After the first innings Val bought us a hot dog and chicken and chips.

The atmosphere was great which made up for a lack lustre game. Going into the 9^th innings the Yankees were 4-0 up but the Mariners scored 2 runs which gave the home crowd a ray of hope. It was not to be and the Yankees won 4-2. This is the first game we have watched where the home team has not won. This is the first of a three game series (consecutive nights) and all the fans will be back tomorrow night. We had to wait for a while for our bus and were back at “Ernie” around 11:30pm.

12^th June

As rain is forecasted for later in the day we decided to head back into the CBD early. The bus dropped us off with a short walk to the Seattle Centre. This is where the 1962 World Fair was held. The most famous structure here is the Space Needle.We bought tickets to go up in an hours time. There was no trouble filling in the time with a band playing and shops to look at. A short fast lift ride took us up to the viewing gallery at the top. We walked around the outside with fantastic views of  Seattle city, the harbour and Lake Washington.We caught the old monorail back into the retail area and marvelled at the great sky scrapers mixed with older buildings. Next on our tour was Pike Place Market. The old warehouses have been converted into a maze of small shops selling everything. A large area was fish and fruit. After buying some local takeaways for lunch we sat overlooking the harbour. We completed our tour thru the old historical area with some beautiful architecture. This is a great city with very distinct areas and a great atmosphere.  Back on the bus and home and, as predicted the rain came.

13^th June.

An exciting day!! We booked a factory tour of Boeing a couple of weeks ago. Back on the busy freeways for a 30 mile drive north to Everett where the Future of Flight and the Boeing factory are. 

The drizzly rain has stayed with us. The parking was great and we walked a short distance to the main visitors building. Our tour was at 11:30am and we filled in the time looking at the Future of Flight exhibition and the usual gift shop. The interesting plane in this area was the first hydrogen fuel cell plane. The first part of our tour was a short video describing the 747, 777 and the 787 that we would see. Then it was onto a bus and a short ride to the biggest building in the world. It would cover 75 football pitches or Disneyland plus 12 acres of car parking! 




         On the way the Dreamlifter, a modified 747 landed in front of us. What a sight! It is designed to bring the parts of a 787 Dreamliner to the factory from manufacturers around the world. There are 3 of these monsters. This factory builds all of Boeing’s wide body jets, the 767, 777, 747 and the 787. The bus let us off at this huge building where we walked down a tunnel (3^rd of a mile) to a lift that took us up to a viewing gallery high above the factory floor. Our first area was the 747 build area. These planes are built from scratch and huge cranes lift the bits to the next position until eventually a completed 747 rolls out the door.

The next area was the 777 build area. This is different as these planes are built on a rolling assembly system travelling very slowly to the completed aircraft. The last area was the 787 Dreamliner assembly line. These parts are manufactured all around the world and fitted together in a shorter line. They make 10.3 a month. They have orders for 1000! The factory employs 44,000 in 3 shifts. All mind boggling stuff! The tour took 90 minutes and was as good as I had hoped for. No photos unfortunately as cameras are banned. Outside parked ready for test flights and delivery was Air NZ’s first 787-9 Dreamliner. It was a very short drive to the ferry for Whidbey Island where we camped at the South Whidbey State Park. It was still overcast with the odd shower. We walked down to the beach at Admiral Inlet. Whidbey Island is north of Seattle in the Puget Sound.

14^th June

It is still drizzling and we drove to the cute little town of Coupeville. This is the 2^nd oldest town in Washington. Very touristy but not at its best in the gloomy weather. We continued on to Oak Harbour and after lunch the weather cleared a bit and we went for a walk along the beach front and to the historic town. Lots of antique and craft shops. Whidbey Island reminds us of a large version of Waiheke Island, very near a major city but with great beaches and inlets and a very arty relaxed feel. We found an RV Park right on the beach for our last night on the island.

15^th June.

We drove the last 17 miles of the 54 mile length of Whidbey Island in gloomy rain and crossed the famous Deception Pass Bridge back onto the mainland. The Deception Pass has a huge tidal flow very much like French Pass. The road gradually changed from farm land to forest as we climbed into the Cascade Ranges and the Northern Cascade National Park We went to the visitors centre and decided to drive a further 11 miles into the national park to the Lake Diablo camp.We hiked an uphill track 4 miles return to Thunder Knob and some great views of the lake and the surrounding mountains. Luckily the rain had stopped and cloud had lifted.

16^th June

More drizzly rain!! The road climbed steeply and we had some great views of the peaks. At Washington Pass we were into the snow and stopped at the view point at the top. The skies briefly cleared and the views were spectacular. Down the other side and into the historic town of Winthrop.

We found an RV Park so that we could explore this great town. It has most of its old buildings and boardwalks. During our walk around, the skys opened so we sheltered in the oldest saloon in Washington. It had a great atmosphere and seemed to be the “local” watering hole. As we have good internet we will publish this blog.