The Washington Hotel Port Townsend

Wednesday we drove north to Everett to visit the Boeing. We took a tour of the 472 million cubic foot plant. Well, not exactly... we saw two sections of it. It's amazing to see how many planes are inside and how the process all comes together. We saw the new 787 Dreamliners being assembled. And we saw the Dream Lifter - a modified aircraft that can ...

Well, another oil change and a new front tire. Skagit Valley Polaris folks couldn't be nicer. My, how the money flies. Hard to believe the big fella is over 13,000 mi old now. Ran an errand in Bellingham and now riding south along the coast (Chuckanut Dr and Rte 11 - ah, the evergreen scent) to Anacortes. The road is glorious with twisties ...

... closed for he night, but we stilll enjoyed our walk. When we returned, we watched Gran Torino, while Niko returned to the garage to work on the car. Good news! He found the problem! Bad news... it couldn#t be repaired. Well, it could, but the repair would cost more than the worth of the car. Now what to do??? Fly to the East coast? Rent a car for next 3 weeks for about $700? Trade our car? Sell ours on Craigslist? We decided to go to bed and rest on it.

... it was mediocre at best, we were stuffed, and when we returned to our B&B a few moments later we were welcomed by a basket of cold milk and fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, still warm from the oven. Most of us did manage to eat at least one cookie then out to the deck we went to enjoy the rest of the evening in the hot tub, getting acquainted with other guests and reading under beautiful glass grape lights.

... from our Port side. We changed our course to avoid him but he kept turning into us. The freighter eventually passed fairly close behind us as it turned North between Viti Rocks and Lummi Island. It was a little freaky, but eventually he went behind us and into Rosario Strait and we stayed on our course crossing Rosario Strait. Then the ferry came towards us through ...

... eco-village presently has limits to the sizes of homes. A single person is limited to 450 feet and a couple 700 feet. Our guide, Kees (pronounced Case), gave us a tour of his 700 square foot cottage, which seemed roomy, cozy, and certainly sufficient for two people. We had some refreshing down time at the home of Bob and Phyllis Shultz and dinner with Cathy Whitmire and Tom Ewell, F/friends from New England sojourning on Whidbey Island. It was good to reconnect with them ...

... I go back to Thailand on May 2nd ...

I can't believe that I'll be leaving in a couple of weeks! It felt like I had soooo much time and now it's just around the corner. I am excited, but really nervous at the same time. I will be completely immersed in a different culture. I'm traveling outside the United States for the first time (Canada doesn't count)...it ...

... comforts of my life, and I hope they do. From simple things like toilet paper in bathrooms to friends and family who love us unconditionally, clean drinking water and grass to run barefoot through (M: Ooh, yeah, clean places for naked feet) to being able to take the time and save the money to take a trip as amazing as this one. There were times when six months seemed like forever and then times when I couldn't believe another week had already passed us by. I ...

... Centre, such as the Children's Museum, Science Museum and Science Fiction Museum. We were going to go to the Sci Fi Museum but you aren't allowed to take photos so we decided against it. After a walk round the Seattle Centre we walked down 5th Ave to the city centre again and had some lunch. In the afternoon we walked to Pioneer Square. They raised the street level of the area after a fire in 1889 ...