We're Off to See the Wizard

Where might we find this wizard? In the Emerald City, haven't you seen the movie? Yes, but how do we get there? By following the yellow brick road of course. You sure you've seen the movie?

On Saturday we left the Olympic NP and headed off to Seattle, the Emerald City. Now the road was not paved with yellow asphalt or concrete but a good chunk of the WA State highway systems Right of Way are lined with  brilliant, yellow flowering bushes - I'm not very good at id'ing flowers but Debbie thinks they are goldenrod or maybe acacia. There is most likely some WA State DOT highway design standard that requires these to be planted and maintained because they are everywhere, for miles and miles and miles, rather nice we'd have to say.


Crappy photo thru dirty RV windshield of WA State Highway flowers.

So we set off to see the emerald city following the yellow flowered right of way......

We nestled into the Trailer Inns of Bellevue RV Park and despite my first impressions and rather harsh review in an earlier post the place worked out perfectly for us. If heading this way in an RV and plan on spending time in metro Seattle we would recommend it. The location is what makes it great, 10 minutes to downtown (an hour if traffic is bad and at certain peak times the traffic can be horrendous in this town) and about an hour or so to Mt. Rainier. It's basically a parking lot next to I-90 with mostly permanent residents but everybody minded their own business and it stayed pretty quiet plus the facilites were well maintained. Didn't see any crack heads, a couple of borderline looking folks but they were cool.

We found Seattle to be a very nice place as far as big cities go. The skyline is breathtaking especially at night and they have some great restaurants and fun entertainment venues.

I don't know, big cities just don't do much for me anymore. I spent time travelling to big cities for work with many business trips to Seattle, so maybe that tainted it a bit for me ....but, meh. First visit for Debbie and she really loved it so that part was nice for us to visit the tourist spots like the space needle, canal locks/fish ladder and Pike Place Market.

We hit Pike Place Market on a sunny and warm Sunday afternoon and it was a mob scene. As you guys know, not exactly Howie's cup of tea....yeh we saw the dudes throwing the fish around (which was fine entertainment for about 4 minutes) and then spent 90 minutes watching a million tourists try to jam their way around a several block area.

To somewhat escape the tourist throng we headed over to the Chittenden locks in nearby Ballard. An Army Corps of Engineers(ACOE) facility built in 1907 that lifts/lowers boats between the freshwater/upstream Lake Washington and the saltwater/downstream Puget Sound by way of canal locks. Very nice park/gardens and a big breather from the tourist crowds, although this place was rather busy too, but more spread out in a large park like setting. In addition to the locks and gardens it also includes the first ever salmon fish ladder as a way for spawning salmon to bypass the locks on their upstream voyage. It was designed and built by ACOE engineer Hiram Chittenden in 1907 but unfortunately for us it was closed for repairs so no salmon viewing. Google the Chittenden locks for more info, pretty cool history.








Monday we did laundry in the morning and then went out past Issaquah (seems every town name in WA either ends with a quah, ish, harbor or bay or starts with port) to catch a close glimpse of Mt. Rainier but it was a cloud covered day with the clouds dropping down to about 4000 feet - not too advantageous for trying to view/photo a 14,400 foot peak, the highest in WA.

So what to do - well let's have a drink and get something to eat. Had a very nice lunch in a hamlet called Black Diamond and took a little stroll along their boarded sidewalk.

Saw an antique shop along the way and Debbie asked if we were interested and I said only if they sell an antique gun that you can purchase and shoot me in the head with before entering, in that case, yes, let's go for it. In retrospect I think a simple 'no thanks, not interested' would have sufficed. I'm such a great travelling companion, aren't I?

Sorry folks, not to sound too down on the place we really did enjoy our stay in Seattle...it is a fun town with nice people and we had a great time there. It was also nice to pack up and move on if you get my meaning.

As I was uploading photos to the blog I realized we did not take many photos while in Seattle. I guess we got into rush rush City mode and barely stopped long enough to snap any photos. Sorry, hey at least you can find a million gorgeous shots of Seattle and her attractions on the internet. Go for it, really is a beautiful City.

Also, we found no wizard here although we tried finding the troll underneath the Aurora Bridge with no luck. Maybe next visit, or not.

Today, Tuesday, we head noth towards Anacortes - Anna-C - as the locals say, I guess. We're taking the ferry across to Whidbey Island and plan on camping tonite at Deception Pass SP near Oak Harbor.

We have reservations for the Thursday morning ferry out to Orcas Island from Anna-C to visit with cousins Susie and Ron Ambler, we can't wait.
We've made prior arrangements to store the RV in Anna C during our visit out to Orcas. Taking a big motorhome out there is costly and just not appropriate for a small community. So we'll leave the blue whale in Anna C and take the Fit out to swim with the orcas.

Oh, speaking of whales, I'm guessing with a name like Orcas Island there should be some whales of the killing type lurking about. I'll definitely have time for these kinds of photos, don't you worry!
We'll see...later everyone, thanks for riding along.