| Having done a tour of the Olympic peninsula while waiting for
mail to catch up with us in Seattle, we finally made our way back to Seattle
where we had friends in the suburb of Shoreline. So as we drove up the I5 we
got a shot of the Seattle skyscraper skyline. Folk in Washington State are
just about to vote to allow/disallow the State to raise the fuel tax by 9 cents.
Ostensibly this is to repair the river frontage which is collapsing into
Puget Sound. They also need to put a flat surface on the corrugated sections
of the I5 which is the worst road we have driven on in the entire US. |
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 | Whilst in the Seattle area we just
had to go up to Everett to the Boeing factory where they make the 7X7
planes. This is the largest building in the world by volume (472 million
cubic feet) having the capacity of 75 football fields. They have been making
747s since 1968 and can make 7 a month but currently only make one. They
also make 767s and 777s and will shortly start 787s. It was amusing to
hear them turn the shortage of orders into a triumph of design and planning. |
| We have a book which has details of lots of factories you can
visit (See it made in America). This told us about the Microsoft Museum at
Redmond (another Seattle suburb). We thought this would be worth a visit. We
were assailed with a message that we had potential - well the museum had,
but it didn't realise it. Very disappointing. |
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 | Much better was the Seattle Arboretum
just a couple of miles from the city centre. We spent a couple of very
pleasant hours wandering round this park which had hundreds of different
trees and bushes. It is particularly noted for its rhododendrons. However
this is not the best time of year to see them. There were all sorts of trees
from all over the world, some with unusual bark both in colour and in form. |
| There is also a small Japanese garden of about five acres. This
was beautifully manicured. A number of the trees were wired to the ground to
keep the branches parallel to the ground. This was a very peaceful place and
we really enjoyed wandering round. There were guided tours but we just
missed one so wandered on our own. |
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 | Water always forms part of a Japanese
garden and this one had a stream and a lake with the water being
recirculated. There were some significant sized Koi swimming around and also
a number of turtles, some of whom sat on the rocks sunning themselves.. |
| Whilst in the centre of Seattle, we visited the Pike Place
market. This was filled with vegetables, fish, flowers and all manner of
other items. This impressive vegetable stall included a tray of gourmet
salad leaves which included nasturtium flowers. We were offered samples of
the fruit including golden raspberries.. |
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 | The fish
stalls were truly amazing with many different types of fish and shellfish on
sale. The salesmen were also larger than life making the sales into virtual
floorshows. Scattered about were a number of musicians playing a variety
of styles, and really well. It was a very lively place. |
| This statue is about five stories high and the arm with the
hammer was in constant motion. Seattle is very like a small version of San
Francisco (or so we believe). Travel is fairly easy north/south but very
difficult east/west. All the east/west roads are 30% slopes. Seattle is
sandwiched between two waterways and is built upon the top of a ridge. |
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 | This was one of the most
attractive skyscrapers and at one time was the tallest building outside New
York. It was owned by the Smith-Corona typewriter corporation. The
triangular shaped building in the foreground and is a car park built by the
city and known locally as the 'sinking ship'. We went on a tour of
underground Seattle in this area. Seattle was originally built on a much
lower mud flat. But after a fire in 1906 they moved millions of tons of
earth from the hilltops down to the seafront and raised the level by 10-50
ft. This improved a number of problems with sewage which the original lower
levels on the seafront caused. |
| We didn't make it to the other major sight in Seattle which is
the Space Needle, but we included this shot taken on our departure just to
show what we missed. The views are supposed to be spectacular. |
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 | Lastly the whole area relies heavily
on the Washington State Ferries which is the largest such system in the
world. This ferry is leaving Edmonds for Kingston just south of Port Townsend.
The sun is just setting behind the Olympic peninsula. |
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