Day 4 in Seattle

---

Up early again today as we we're going to a tour of the Boeing Factory in Everett - about a 40 minute drive from where we are staying.

The factory is so huge is difficult to put into prospective but the guide told us that 7 Taj Mahals could fit inside the factory, or the whole of Disneyland with a 12 acre parking lot would be equal to the size of Boeing so that gives you an idea of the magnitude of the place. The tour is 90 minutes long and you get a bus to different parts of the factory to see the workings of the place.

Boeing employs 42,000 staff at the plant. It is virtually a city within a city and has its own fire brigade, air strip, control tower, restaurants, coffee shops, day care centre and it operates 24 hours a day Monday to Friday.

We were going to put down a deposit for a new 747 but the price of $350 million put us off a bit! We also got to see the 787 that Boeing has started building. They are a new state of the art plane and we will start to see them flying next year. These new planes are fully recyclable and are expected to be able to fly for up to 50 years. They are made of carbon fibre and will be more fuel efficient than current models. These planes are in demand and Boeing have orders that will keep them busy until 2020.

Next we were off to the premium outlets at Tulalip where we did our shopping for the Alaskan/Canadian part of our adventure. We found plenty of bargains at The North Face and Columbia stores. The prices were about a quarter of what we would pay in Australia for these brands.

The weather has been fantastic. Sunny and warm during the days and a little cooler at night. The sun doesn't set until 9pm so the days have been long. Needless to say we are quite exhausted and plan on sleeping in tomorrow morning.

Forgot to mention in previous blogs - it was super easy to get a prepaid mobile account this visit. We popped into a T mobile store, got a sim and $30 credit - talk, text and data for 30 days on a "pay as you go" Plan. No contract! First time ever we have been able to connect in the USA so we were very happy.

---

Photos

image
Aircraft ready for testing before delivery

image
One ready for down under

image
Geoff with a Rolls Royce engine

image
The shell of the new 787