Ending the Journey in Seattle

Seattle was the final city on my west coast vacation.

I woke to sunny skies with a great view of the downtown and Puget Sound

I headed out for a walk in the neighbourhood looking for some breakfast.  No shortages of Starbucks in the Emerald City.

My plans for today included a visit to the Boeing factory in Everett, WA.  http://www.boeing.com/company/tours/

Since this was north of the city, I had booked a package with a local tour group.  They picked me up at my hotel and drove me to the Boeing plant.  We learned about Bill Boeing and the Seattle area during the drive up.  Here is a view of the plant area from the outside.

Cameras were not allowed during the actual plant tour but here are some pictures I found on the web.

It was a quite an experience

During the tour I started to talk to one of the other unaccompanied guests on the tour.   She happened to be a member of the State Legislature of Colorado.  We talked about some of the important issues facing the people of her state.   To me this is one of the great advantages of travelling alone; the ability to strike up conversations with other travellers.

 The next day I explored the downtown area of the city.  I took the monorail to Seattle Center, site of the Space Needle.

Also on the grounds was the E.M.P. Museum (http://www.empmuseum.org/) which had a lot to offer 

They had a great exhibit featuring the history of the band Nirvana

A great exhibit on Jimi Hendrix

Jimi reflecting on his visit to Ottawa

                                     

Also on display was a Star Wars costume exhibit

Other exhibits included  the work of famous Warner Brothers animator Chuck Jones, some science fiction stuff and more music exhibits

Next I decided to "ride the ducks".  This was a city tour on some old WWII amphibious vehicles.  We toured both land and water.  The tour guide's delivery was slapstick at times;  this turned out to be extremely entertaining.  http://www.ridetheducksofseattle.com/

I then headed over to the Pike Place Market along the waterfront.  This is a working market with plenty of fresh fish and produce.

The next day I spent at the "Museum of Flight"  This was a good collection of some past civilian and military aircraft.

Here is "Air Force One" that was used up to and including President Richard Nixon

This is a re-creation of  Bill Boeing's original shop.

Some of the more modern aircraft on display

With my energy waning on the last day of my vacation I decided to just take it easy.  So I headed downtown to the ferry docks and boarded the ferry for Bremerton.  This was a peaceful 60 minute ride across Puget sound. 

   At Bremerton

  After reaching Bremerton, I re-boarded the ferry for the return voyage.  Here I am returning to Seattle.

That evening I headed to the airport and took the red eye to Toronto.  A few hours later I was back home in Ottawa.

This was a fantastic vacation.  I took away so many pleasant memories and really enjoyed myself.
I'm hoping I will get to return to the Los Angeles area and spend some more time there.  I can see how a few days in Santa Monica would help beat the winter blues.

Los Angeles to Seattle by Amtrak

After I had decided to visit Los Angeles I decided that I wanted to take the train to another city.  I picked Seattle and booked a "roomette" on the Coast Starlight.   It would be a 32 hour trip.  My longest train trip up to this point had been about 5 hours so I was looking forward to the two day experience.  

Here is the route the train would be following

   At around 9 am on Tuesday morning I arrived in Union Station in Los Angeles.  This was on the subway line and only a few stops from my downtown hotel where I had been staying for RushCon.

At around 10 am we all boarded the train

   Here you can get a sense of size of my Roomette.  It consisted of two wide chairs with an fold down table in between.  The cabin also had a sliding glass door and curtains for privacy.  During the night the chairs folded down to make a lower bunk.  There was also an upper bunk which could be folded down if needed.

We pulled out of the station and in no time we had some great scenery

  I also had access to a few other cars on the train.  This is the Parlour car which was a great place to sit and talk with other passengers.  It was also where we met for 3 pm wine tasting.

We hugged the Pacific Coast for a while

From the car hallway looking out my cabin window.

A great mix of coastline followed by farm country

  Mealtime was great.  If you wanted you could eat in your room or the parlour car but I always chose the dining car.  I always chose the dining car because you were put in groups of four to fill the table.

  One meal, our foursome was myself ( a software guy from Ottawa), an independent film maker from New York City, a retired truck driver from Oklahoma, and an Insurance Broker from Texas (who was about to retire and work on her evangelical Christian writing).   I thought that this was great; meeting such different people from what I was used to.

   The food was also very good tasting as well.  The room included meals so you just ordered what you wanted from the menu.  The staff on board were always helpful as well.

Some more sightseeing from the cabin.

The Cabin Attendant had prepared my bed for the night.  It was pretty comfortable and I had no trouble sleeping.  I woke up a few times and it was cool to just sit up and watch the world go by.

The next morning we were still in Northern California

  Some of the stops were very short, others a little longer.  Here in Oregon we stopped for about 15 minutes so many of us left the train just to walk around

Here I am

Some lakes and ponds

Here we are approaching the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.  In a short while the train was in Seattle

  The Seattle train station was downtown and a very quick cab ride to my hotel.

  I really enjoyed the train trip.  It was a nice relaxing pace in between my visit to two big cities.  I was able to really enjoy the scenery more than if I had drove.

I then enjoyed a few days in Seattle http://theglennv.blogspot.ca/2015/08/ending-journey-in-seattle.html