Seattle....with Tiffany and Leslie...

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July 26th 2011

Published: August 4th 2011

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Maisondubonheur

My three loves...and a Boeing...

We are late, late and late when it comes to publish our little adventures. But you know what, it's ok, we are having a great time!

Last summer Tiffany was not allowed to travel with us during the school holidays. Good news, this year she is. After having spent the full month of June with us in Bangkok...We are now enjoying a full month driving around North America with Mari, Tiffany, Leslie and myself as the designated driver!

The big guys did fly from Belize to Dallas and on to Seattle. We had a night lay-over in Dallas, but nothing really to write about. We also arrived 24 hours ahead of the little guys...In the States, it would not have been wised to have our plane (actually planes) delayed. And trust me, I simply don't trust those guys! But hey, we made it on time to Seattle.

On our first afternon, we took the light train to downtown and enjoyed a full afternoon of foraging for fresh food for dinner. Seattle downtown is a pretty nice city. They seem to be really forward thinking when it comes to being green. But the social side of the city management

on the way to Victoria...

is not in par. I've never seen so many homeless around. Google, Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks...the US dream...and thousand homeless in the streets! Not a good grade guys!

We spent a lot of time around Pike Market. This is place is really fun. We stocked on fresh veggies, on Pacific oysters, as well as some seriously nice wine from the Columbia Valley. And yes, we also walk to have a closer look to the Space Needle!

And next morning, rather early afternon, Tiffany and Leslie made it to Seattle airport after two pretty long flights from Saigon. Our little guys have no problem with taking care of themselves for such an adventure, and that's fun!

They landed an hour late just past 1pm, and by 4pm, we were an hour drive north, ready to visit the Boeing factory. Sadly, but it makes sense, you cannot take pictures during the tour of the Boeing factory. In the biggest building ever built on earth, these guys built and have the assembly line for the 777, the new 747-dash 8, and yes, the Dreamliner 787! That was a visit, 90 minutes of four of us being amazed.

The Boeing factory

Pike Market

in Everett also shows you where the future of aviation stand. We saw many planes due for delivery to Cathay, Ana, Emirates, Ethiad, Cargolux and Atlas, plus Ethiopian, and Chinese as well as Indian airlines....but not a single North American commercial carrier....go figure!

From there, we drove to Bellevue to have diner with Mari's cousins. Great to meet them and share a very nice evening. Over the next few days, we have been fortunate to share time with many of our friends that we haven't seen for a while.

The early next morning, it was time to drive to Anacortes to board our ferry to Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada. That were three hours of a great ferry ride. We saw dolphins, but sadly no orcas or whales.

Few days later we passed by Seattle on more time. On our way, we stopped to visit the Museum of flights. Hey, we are travellers, pure family of people who love to be on the move, so it feels normal that we love planes. The highlight for Mari was the Concorde, mine, Air Force One in used prior to 1973...and for the kids, it was a full Wow...can we touch!