Blogs from Seattle, Washington, United States, North America - page 15

I’m exactly year behind on this write-up, but I think most of the information is still relevant, so here it goes. My trip to Washington State was part recreation and part business. I should say - it was ALL recreation for me, and part business for my wife. We had a few days to travel where we pleased….. after that, she had to attend a conference in Seattle, WA. We arrived to the airport without a specific plan, but soon decided to check out Mt. St. Helens as our first destination. We rented a car and plugged in our GPS. The airport is close to suburban neighborhoods, so it was easy to find a grocery store where we loaded up on supplies and Fat Tire Beer (something I still have trouble finding in New England). It ... read more

Phoenix to Seattle The flight to Seattle was quiet and uneventful as it should be. Amazingly, the mountains were “out” for us… we flew by Mt. St. Helens with the sun shining it was awesome. Then into Seattle with another spectacular view… Mt. Rainier. As I always have an aisle seat, my very nice seatmates leaned back so I could have a view of these beautiful mountains. On into Seattle where we grabbed the bus to the rental car and picked up a snazzy red job. Hey, we’re on vacation ;-) A quick overnight at the Fairfield Inn by SeaTac and we were off to breakfast with our step-daughter and her friend Danny at the Portage Café in Downtown, Washington. After spending 10 minutes trying to figure out where to put the parking sticker on our ... read more

The day started out with a GREAT breakfast at our Comfort Inn & Suites in Spokane. They had a large selection of hot and cold items including made to order omelettes and four staff running around keeping everything full and the place clean. In Canada, we're lucky if one employee glances into the room once. Don't know how they do it here other than perhaps paying the staff a lot less. It was a warm and sunny day so the roof was down all the way to Seattle. I have never driven this route before so was really surprised at the changing terrain, from evergreen forests to semi-desert to farming. We stopped at a great viewpoint with paved trails all around the cliff-side on the Columbia River, just before crossing the bridge. Then it was over ... read more

Geo: 47.4323, -121.803I have accumulated too much vacation at work so I have decided to take a month off and hang out in Europe. Originally this was to be 30 days in London but a friend, Achsa, convinced me to start the vacation in Edinburgh to view the annual Royal Military Tattoo and the famous Fringe Festival. From there I will be spending 18 days in London where I will be visiting all of the tourist sites that I missed on my 2012 trip to that city. I will also be kayaking on the Thames, go whitewater rafting on the artificial river that was used for the 2012 Olympic Games, and spend an afternoon learning how to drive a 55 ton tank (a British Chieftain which was the largest tank used by any NATO nation), Finally, ... read more

We have a red eye flight back tonight so we still had some time today. The Museum of History and Industry was just around the block from our hotel and today Microsoft was hosting an event there which had the museum open free to the public. Paul Allen and Bill Gates of Microsoft fame made this museum a reality. All types of history items about Seattle and a quirky exhibit on Chocolate (Mary Ann's personal favorite) on 2 filled floors with a lot of interactive exhibits. Walked along the waterfront and decided to ride the Great Wheel during the day to watch the activity on the bay. Navy vessels, pleasure boats, sailboats, kayaks, ferries, container ships, and Coast Guard vessels were all out on the water and again we watched the Blue Angels fly overhead. Fairwell ... read more