Posts In The “North America Pacific Coast” Category
When traveling downtown, we either walk or Uber. When out on weekend trips, we normally drive. The appeal of driving is complete flexibility and, the further you go, the more advantaged you are to drive yourself. But, there are some upsides of paying for a ride. In this case, we wanted to spend the weekend…
Spring arrived in Seattle in March, with daffodils in bloom, and weather warm enough to eat outside. But winter was definitely still in force in the Cascade Mountains, where we made a couple of snowshoe trips and enjoyed the snowy scenery. James made several business trips this month, starting off in Denver, then to the…
We very much enjoyed last year’s trip to beautiful Santa Barbara, but didn’t spend much time downtown. We returned this year on a weekend trip before James attended a conference nearby, and this time stayed closer to the center of town. Our room at the boutique Palihouse Hotel was wonderful, and within walking distance of…
The snowshoe route to Hyak Lake leads just east of the Summit Central ski runs at the Summit at Snoqualmie. We set off on St. Patrick’s Day among the ski and snowboarding crowd, with frequent glimpses to the ski runs as we progressed. We mostly were following Hyak Creek, almost completely covered over with snow,…
The Cirque du Soleil show Corteo came to Climate Pledge Arena this year, and we somehow managed to snag last-minute front-row seats. The show is about a clown, Mauro, who imagines his own funeral procession and is told in typical Cirque du Soleil fashion through skilled acrobats dressed in fantastic costumes. We had an excellent…
In early March we made a snowshoe trip to the new Annette Lake Sno-Park just east of Snoqualmie Pass. We loved being out in the beautiful winter scenery with deep fresh powder everywhere, and had a great time. We first walked a portion of the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, a historic rail trail,…
February was even colder than January, with Seattle setting a record low temperature for Feb 24th of 22°F (-5.5°C) and fountains and ponds freezing up throughout the city. We started the month at the Seattle Boat Show, where we presented a seminar on our the trip around the world and checked out some of the…
January was unseasonably cold for Seattle. The temperature fell as low as 27°F (-2.7° C), about 10°F (5.4°C) below average for this time of year, and several winter storms passed through. Except for a quick long weekend in Honolulu, we spent much of the month closer to home trying new restaurants and returning to old…
We had a busy two weeks before our Antarctic cruise, where James was away on business for three days and we attended a Seattle Kraken hockey game and two Seattle Seahawks football games. The second football game, two days before we departed for Argentina, was even more exciting than normal. Amazon Prime Video has exclusive…
The Georgetown Steam Plant was built in 1906 along the Duwamish River to power Seattle’s streetcars. The advent of hydropower soon made the plant noncompetitive, and it was used only as an emergency backup starting in the 1920s. Decommissioned in 1977 and declared a National Historic Monument in 1984, the plant houses the only two…
Friday Harbor is the only incorporated town in the San Juan Islands and the main transportation hub, with frequent ferry, float plane and small craft traffic. The many restaurants, bars, and other attractions, plus a wonderful waterfront setting, make the town an exceedingly popular summer tourist destination, and accommodations, flights and ferry reservations book up…
Point Ruston in Tacoma, the inspiration for Frank Herbert’s epic science-fiction novel Dune, was once one of the most polluted superfund sites in the world. In writing the first best-selling science-fiction novel with an environmental theme, Tacoma-born Herbert was influenced by the foul-smelling smoke that spewed from the ASARCO copper smelter at Point Ruston. After…
We enjoyed our Ballard fresh hop beer tasting tour so much that we decided to go all out and attend the Fresh Hop Ale Festival in Yakima, WA the following weekend. Yakima is a 2:20 drive east from Seattle on I-90, but we instead took a slightly longer route south through Mt. Rainier National Park…
Autumn is fresh hop beer season in the Pacific Northwest. Most beer is made from dried hops, while fresh hop beers are made from hops that have never been dried. The beer must be brewed very soon after the hops are ripe, so can’t be made very far from the fields. Since over 77% of…
September was warmer than usual for Seattle, with the temperature frequently above 80°F (27° C) even late in the month, more than 10 degrees above average. The warm, clear, and dry weather was ideal for camping and we made two multi-night trips. The first was a three-night stop in Gifford Pinchot National Forest with a…
In what would turn out to be our final camping trip of the year, we found a fabulous site at the end of a road with a sweeping view southeast across Kachees Lake. We’d been improving our skills in pre-scouting online for a campsite, and drove straight to this one without investigating any other potential…
Naval Base San Diego is the second largest surface ship base of the United States Navy and the main home port of the Pacific Fleet of over 50 ships. On a recent trip to the city, James got some great views to the naval base, San Diego Bay and the city skyline as his plane…
The Seattle Seahawks opened their season with a Monday Night Football home game against the Denver Broncos. Making the game even more exciting, this was the first where quarterback Russell Wilson was playing against the Seahawks rather than for them. The Seahawks won in an exciting and closely-contested match that we were expected to lose,…