Days 35-36 -- Seattle

View of Astoria from Astoria Column

Astoria Column

Bow at Ft. Clatsop

Days 35-36 (June 29 & 30) -- This morning we work up to rain.  It was the first time it has rained in the morning on this trip.  It was gray and overcast and sort of dreary.  But, we showered quickly (all but Erin) and then loaded up the car in the rain.  We ate pancakes at the free pancake breakfast and then headed to Astoria to look around.  The first place we stopped is the Astoria Column.  It had over 400 steps to climb, but at the top there was quite a nice view.  By the time we got to the top it had stopped raining, so we got a better view, although it was still overcast.  After that we went to Ft. Clatsop where Lewis and Clark spent two years after arriving in Oregon.  We had fun looking around the old buildings and hearing about Lewis and Clark's time there.  We also got to sit on bear-skin and elk-skin rugs. 

Canoe at Ft. Clatsop

After walking around Ft. Clatsop for a time and getting our passports stamped, we started to drive North.  First we crossed the bridge from Oregon to Washington over the Columbia River (which is 4 miles wide at that point).  We followed Hwy 101 up the Western edge of Washington and then over to Olympia.  It was very interesting seeing all of the trees that grow there and how much logging there was there. One little town we went through had tons of steel sculptures that depicted different animals and people.  I took pictures of a few of them, but could not get them all.  It made for a very interesting drive through town.

Bridge from Astoria, OR to Washington

Bridge to Washington

After we got to Olympia, we hit traffic.  I really don't enjoy city traffic.  It took a while to get through the traffic by the Lewis-McCord air force base, but then it cleared out a bit.  We headed straight to Bellevue because it was getting close to dinner time. When we arrived we got to meet Katelyn for the first time (David's cousin's daughter).  She is three and is very quiet and laid back for a three-year-old.  We went to Zeke's Pizza for dinner and got to spend our last night with Bow.  After dinner we went back to Stephanie's house and worked on condensing all of Bow's stuff into three checked bags and one carry-on.  One of the funniest stories was that we had ordered some Amazon stuff for Bow (her mom wanted some vitamins and an SAT book for her sister) and had it shipped to Stephanie's house.  David also ordered a new Mark Schweizer book from the Liturgical Mystery Series - "The Treble Wore Trouble."  If anyone likes music, is an organist, likes old detective stories, or likes the combination of music and mystery, these are great books.  They are about a guy who is the police chief in a small town in North Carolina and is also the organist at an Episcopal Church.  Further, he fancies himself an amateur detective story writer (but he is terrible!).  There are always interesting little books.  Anyhow, Stephanie was so confused by all of these packages arriving at her house.  She works for Amazon and thought that someone was pranking her.  She told everyone at work about it and was so relieved when we told her it was our stuff (I thought I had texted her that I was sending it, but apparently it got lost in cyberspace).

Steel Animals

The following morning we had to take Bow to the airport to see her off.  Everyone was so sad to see her go.  But, she made her flight okay and made it home okay.  She is now back at school preparing for the 11th grade.

After dropping Bow off we headed to the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch.  This is one of my favorite restaurants, and it did not disappoint.  The bread alone was wonderful.  I has Chicken Marsala and I loved the sauce.  After lunch we went to downtown Seattle to see some sights.  Unfortunately it was late afternoon, so we didn't get to see a lot before it closed.  We went to Pike's Market and got some smoked salmon and then to a fruit stand to get some fresh fruit.  The fruit was a whole lot more expensive to buy it from the fruit stand compared to buying it from the roadside stands.  It also wasn't quite as good as the fresh fruit, but it was still tasty.  We also went into a tea store and David got some Northwest Blend black tea.

Bow at the airport leaving for Thailand

Steel Animals

After seeing downtown we went over the the Space Needle and got to see it.  We didn't go up it because the line was too long and we had to get back to Stephanie's for dinner.  It would have been nice to have an extra day in Seattle to go to the MP museum and see some more things.

Steel Animals

At Astoria Column

At Astoria Column

Western Washington