Monday, August 11, 2008

Vacation. Sunday. August 3rd.

Our FABULOUS vacation to Seattle, Washington began early Saturday morning, August 2nd. When I say early ... I mean early ... 3:30 am to be precise. Our flight left Richmond at 6:00 am so we had to leave our house by 4:00 am to get there in time.

This was Griffin's first airplane ride and he did absolutely wonderfully. He had the window seat and kept a watch on the sky almost the entire time. We had a layover in Cincinnati and then on to Seattle we went.


This is a view of Mt. Ranier from the sky ... oh my goodness ... it was absolutely breath taking. Can you make out the top of the mountain in the picture? It's the portion that looks like clouds almost in the middle of the frame ... but that's not clouds folks ... that is the magnificant Mt. Ranier.

We arrived in Seattle in the late afternoon. Mike's mother Bett was flying in to meet us there. We only had to wait about an hour for her flight to arrive.

After a quick bite to eat, we arrived at our hotel and pretty much collapsed for the evening. There is a three hour time difference for us ... I didn't know how we were going to deal with that, but it worked out just fine.


Sunday morning we decided to take a ferry boat ride over to the San Juan islands. This was a very, very good decision. We drove about an hour and a half to Anacortes to catch the ferry boat. Once upon the ferry boat it was about another hour and a half boat ride. It was amazing.


A view from the ferry boat ...


Griffin and Mike enjoying our first ferry boat ride.


We docked at Friday Harbour and we had this amazing view while we ate lunch at Downriggers Restaurant.


Mike, Griffin and me at Friday Harbor


We thought about taking a Whale Watching Cruise, but then we discovered we might be able to see the orcas (killer whales, think Shamu) from an area on the island. We headed over to Kiln Lime Park and we were greeted by this sign. I thought it was cute.


Do you see the orca in the picture? It's right in the middle of the frame ... see it ... yes?


And another picture of another orca. I'm not sure how many orcas was in the pod, but we counted at least four. This was simply amazing. To see orcas in the wild. Beyond amazing really. I could have stayed there all day!


As we were headed back to the mainland we saw this beautiful view from the ferry boat. It was overcast and cloudy on our way out ... imagine our surprise to realize this beautiful view was around us and we didn't even know it!

For our first day out ... we made a good choice by visiting the San Juan Islands.

I plan to blog about our other adventures as well. I hope I do not bore you to tears with information and details ... but we had SO MUCH FUN I just want to share everything I can!!

If interested ... I'll share our schedule.

2nd - Saturday - Arrived In Seattle
3rd - Sunday - Visited San Juan Islands
4th - Monday - Visited Pike's Place Market, Seattle
5th - Tuesday - Visited the Space Needle, Seattle
6th - Wednesday - Visited Mt. St. Helens
7th - Thursday - Watched Sea Planes in Lake Union
8th - Friday - Visited Mt. Ranier
9th - Saturday - Traveled Home

I will be sharing our trip in the next several posts ... I hope you will check them out.

6 comments:

Gary ("Old Dude") said...

most impressive picture of Mt. Ranier poking up above the clouds. In fact all the pics you posted are very good. You can always apply for a job at the Seattle Chamber of Commerce (lol)

BuckMountain said...

Glad you enjoyed your visit to the San Juans. (You mentioned the magic words "san juan islands" in your blog and desticam.com picked it up. Desticam has live webcams of various spots in the islands in case you want to return vicariously.)

We made a similar trip but had more time and luckily didn't get sick so we saw a lot more. My wife has lived in snowless Florida all her life so she will never forget being on Mt Rainier when it snowed June 6th!

Did the Fish Market (did you find the original Starbucks?) and the Space Needle - couldn't see Mt Rainier either. Guess you missed the troll in Fremont (a suburb in the north of Seattle). It's a big sculpture of a troll under a bridge (where else would you find a troll?). No billie goats but he has caught an old VW bug. No matter, you can catch it next time you go.

You were unbelieveably lucky to see the orcas from the park on your first try. I know people who have been 5 times and never seen them. There is a link on Desticam to a site with webcams where you can listen to and watch for whales. One of the cameras is right near Lime Kiln Park.

Our ferry ride cost us a lot since we fell in love with the islands and wound up buying property on Orcas Island (largest of the San Juans tho with fewer people and more hills). Send us an email before you go again and if we are there we can meet up and show you around "the gem of the San Juans," Orcas Island.

We are retiring there next year so I visit desticam regularly to get my island fix.

Ron

Judi said...

Beautiful pictures!!

Cecile said...

Beautiful Pictures!!!
I have never vistited the sites but I might have to plan a vacation soon:))

Bonnie said...

It was good talking to you even though the phone gave out. The pictures of vacation are fabulous. And how lucky were you to see the whales! I'm so glad you guys took time to get away and have some fun.

Anonymous said...

just caught up on your blog, the pictures are great, the memories you've made are even greater!