Seattle - February 2006

Kathleen had to make a trip to the Seattle area for some work stuff, so I tagged along for a mini vacation.

We spent the weekend in Seattle revisiting some sites and friends from when Kathleen lived in Seattle. The weather was typical Seattle winter, rain and wind. All the requisite Seattle sites were covered, from Pike Place Market to Ivar's Acres of Clams to the Elliott Bay Book Company.

Sunday night we hopped the ferry and drove to Silverdale (live cam). Kathleen would spend the rest of the trip in meetings, while I roamed and enjoyed the sunny, warm weather that rolled in.

I spent Monday on the Kitsap Peninsula. I had breakfast on the pier in Seabeck and listened to the locals bemoan Seattle's loss in the Super Bowl. Near Bremerton I visited the Naval Undersea Museum and got to see a really fascinating exhibit about the life of submariner's families. After lunch and a wander around Poulsbo, including a visit to their eerie New Urbanist development, I headed to Port Townsend to catch the ferry back to the mainland. Knowing the area's traffic speeds and issues with drawbridges and such, I left myself 1.5 hours to travel 30 miles. After just a short trip up the road, traffic was stopped by a police officer blocking the road near the Hood Canal drawbridge. After waiting over 20 minutes I saw the reason for the delay - a nuclear sub was sailing out to sea through the canal's drawbridge. Apparently they keep traffic well back from the bridge to deter troublemakers. Once the sub passed safely through the bridge, complete with an escort of three Blackhawk helicopters, traffic was released. I pushed as hard as I could, only to arrive at the ferry landing in Port Townsend just as the ferry was pulling out, leaving me a 1.5 hour wait until the next ferry. The good news though was that the next ferry would leave right at sunset, which gave me a very beautiful ferry ride, but left me with an after-dark ride through the mountains, so no sight-seeing there.

I finally made it to Bellingham, arriving at the hotel just as Kathleen returned from dinner. Tuesday I wandered around Bellingham, home to Western Washington University with their nifty outdoor sculpture collection. I took a drive up to the Canadian border, then wandered the back roads around Mount Baker. I also had to make a brief visit to my client's cucumber-sorting facility, just for the heck of it. Then it was off to Lynnwood, WA. I had time for just a little look through Lynnwood Wednesday morning before we headed for the airport to return home.

Click on the thumbnail below for a full-size map of the trip.

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