Rodeway Inn Tacoma

... and I wandered the streets of Seattle. We went by the Space Needle, walked Pike Place Market, even got a chance to visit my cousin Kristin's salon. Now I am back at Kristin's house, printing and making copies of all our travel documents and reservations. Our flight leaves at 6:00am tomorrow, and we will not be arriving in the UK unitil Thursday morning at 7:00am.

... and lupine in a multicolored bouquet. If nothing else has calmed our frazzled nerves this would be the perfect tranquilizer. Meandering through the forest following the Wind River to the Paradise Creek campground for a peek at a place we are sure to return. There is nothing like the Sirens calling, disguised as a tree canopy over a winding road to eat up all your travel time heading in the wrong direction. With no other ...

... saying something)-and eaten gross airport Chinese food. I've also decided I could never be a flight attendant. I'd be fired for puking on a passenger. Matthew survived his first flight with flying colors. He still can't believe you don't have to pay for the Coke on the plane. Did you know you can no longer eat peanuts on airplanes? Apparently there are too many people with awful nut allergies. Now ...

... I still have their business card. From this store I got some really tasty smoked salmon, it came vacuum sealed and inside this really neat looking wooden box, that of course I kept. We also bought a couple of boxes with an assortment of products from the Made In Washington Store. We of course went to the obligatory ...

... very warm and pleasant. Norah went downtown round the shops and then visited the aquarium. Generally a chill out day. I went on a boy's day out - a trip round the 'Museum of Flight', down at the original Boeing field. Lots of aircraft including a "Dakota" and a "MR71 Blackbird", I had heard of an SR71 and did not see the difference - still impressive though. On the airfield park was the first Boeing 737, 747 and a 707 that had been 'Airforce One' for Kennedy ...

... Starbucks (there's actually a million Starbucks - they're very proud of it here), the Boeing factory and lots of large plastic pigs (see photos).  In fact - it's a wonder they ever made a film called "Sleepless in Seattle" - there isn't much else to do other than sleep.  Maybe Tom Hanks had drunk too many Starbucks. Given the lack of things to do I booked myself on a trip out of the city on Monday.  I went to Mount Ranier (it's a big ...

... in a sourdough bowl for $6 or less. we also thought it was appropriate to focus on seafood given our proximity to the fishmarket. so sunday night was trivial pursuit nite. YAY?!?! 80's edition, US style no less. if you took a stab and said michael dukakis, donald trump, Ronald reagan or mikael gobachev, chances were that you were getting pie. we were playing with a scottish civil engineer called rich, who had just worked the banff ski season as a ...

Seattle It wasn't any more fun than yesterday. Got up and wandered around a bit and found a post office to pay my stupid parking fine. Found the local 'Football' and Baseball stadia. Both closed with no impending games. Also found some sort of car show that may have been interesting had there been any Ferraris or indeed anything that wasn't an SUV or truck. But there weren't so I didn't go in ...

... they would just melt into the snow, silent as the tentacles of fog creeping through the trees. The silence was wonderful, is wonderful, for it is still occurring even as I sit in my tiny room at PLU, listening to the heater wheeze and my roommate clomp around calling people. Even now, perhaps hordes of miniscule snowflakes are sifting through the tall snow-laden pines on the slopes of the volcano, an endless procession through the bitter night air. Whispering secrets of frozen ...

... as they did with a plane or two here)! We returned in time for the 9am tour of the facility, which began with a nice little video showing images of Boeing in the past, present and future, followed by a time-lapse piece demonstrating how a 747 is assembled. This led onto the bus to the factory building itself. The building is the largest building in the world by volume, we were only going to see a small part of it: the assembly area for the 747. We had to walk through ...