PartII - Aug 5 in Seattle (Monday - day 11)

Nice relaxing day in Seattle.   

Breakfast at Lola's.  Eggs were great - very tasty.   Bacon was very thick, but everything else was rather ordinary.

And some casual strolling around Seattle.  

We even visited Nordstrom store #1.  Rick wasn't really thrilled to go shopping, but he was willing to go in for me!  It is a LOT bigger than any other Nordstrom!  Didn't buy anything though - as there really isn't any room in my suitcase.

We met up ith our friends from Norway,  Tor and Liv, who are returning to Norway that afternoon.   We met a the Elephant & Castle right outside their hotel.  It was a beautiful day to sit outside and visit with good friends, 

Spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the weather, and then went to the water's edge for dinner at Anthony's Pier 66.  We had a great view of the water - and an outstanding view of Mt. Ranier as we walked to dinner. 

Dinner was good.  We had the local 'steamers ' - Manila Clams.  Much smaller than the Northeast's steamers, but still very good.   Followed that up with Scallops and Ahi Tuna.  

All in all, a very enjoyable dinner.

  We went to bed early because we wanted a very early start in our trip to Salt Lake City on Tuesday.

PartII - travel day: Seattle to Salt Lake City via Boise (day 12)

 Leaving Seattle we saw a 787 outside of the Boeing building

Take off was directly in the direction of Mt. Rainier - on an absolutely clear day.    What a gorgeous view.  Mt. Ranier is 14,411ft. 

Going thru the Cascades Mountain Range.     There is a mountain just past Ranier -  pretty sure it's Mt. Adams at 12,276 ft.  We can see three mountains here, and we are at 11000.  Looked like a flattened mountain between the two (Ranier and Adams) in the distance.  It might be Mt. St. Helen's according to our maps, but our cameras can't get a good photo.

First big valley one hour out if Seattle after the Cascades. This is probably near the town of Yakima.

At this point, we had a tailwind of 4 knots coming over the cascades, but when we turned at Yakima, it became a headwind.  Of 2 knots!  Compared to out western flights, this is nothing. 

The Cascades Valley (Yakima and Benton counties) seem very fertile - lots of farms. 

Then we headed toward Sunnyside, continuing fairly straight toward Boise.  We will pass over the Columbia River near Umatilla, WA - which is where the McNary Locks and Dam are located.  This is east of The Dalles, where we stopped on Saturday, and saw the Dalles Dam.

Gorgeous views of the Columbia River, and a little sneak of the McNary Dam - which was almost directly below us, so very difficult to get a good picture.

Flew over the Wallows-Whitman national forest, which is in both Oregon and Idaho.  Just beautiful.

Once we were over Idaho, we were in Moutain time. We had been in the air just short of two hours when we decided we could go directly to Salt Lake City (11:10am MT).  Without any significant headwinds, and even with some tailwinds, we were doing well and the ride was gorgeous - there was no real need to stop.  We estimated we had about 1.5 hours of travel left to Salt Lake.  So, Rick adjusted our flight plan and got permission to go directly to Ogden, Utah (just north of Salt Lake City) - where we we planning on landing.)  Interestingly, Seattle Center told us we would have to go to 12000, and asked why we were changing our fight plan.  Not a big deal.  Looks like its 12000 because we will be near Castle Peak which is 11,000+ ft high.

And then, we have a great tailwind :  19 knots.  

Great views of the Snake River 

Passing Boise, but can't see it cause it. Is on the other side of the mountains 

Looking down, we saw this very cool cloud below us - long and wispy.  Very pretty.  

Top picute - leaving Idaho.  Bottom picture, entering into Utah - notice Salt Lake in the top left of that picture.

We had some pretty incredible views of Salt Lake from the plane.  I'm not sure what is creating those colors, but it is beautiful  (hopefully we will learn about it on Wednesday).  

Ogden Hinckley airport is 4,473 ft above sea level.  That's almost a mile above !

Got a rental car (they actually had it right next to the plane when we came in), and we headed south to Salt Lake City.  Because we had flown direct (it was 4 hrs total) we had time in the afternoon to tour Salt Lake City.   I walked around the center of the city for a bit.

 

I thought it humerous to travel across the US and see this.  Even Utah loves Boston.

And then Rick and I toured Temple Square   This is the religious center for the LDS (Mormon) religion.  

And the conference center, which seats 21,000 people, and has a waterfall cascading down the south face.  It even has a garden on the roof.

The covered pyramids are skylights that have to be covered when they are televising events and concerts.

We had a lovely tour guide who took our picture on the roof.

Then dinner at Cafe Molise.  Nice Italian meals.

Part II - August 4 (Sunday) in Seattle. Day10

Had a relaxing day around Seattle.  Started with a run along the waterfront, then we walked to the Pike Place market.  

Doesn't he look happy?

And it is home of the first Starbucks.   That everyone was waiting in line for!

Lots and lots of people.  Very crowded and a lot of walking.  The fruit looked heavenly - so we got some for a few days.   Of course, the walking around and shopping did not last very long :

 

There was a nice little park near the market, right on the water.  

Gorgeous day to be sitting by the ocean.

As well as sculptures on the water's edge:

  In the afternoon Doug and Elise Russell picked us up for dinner in Ballard.  Rick and Doug have been friends since high school.

Great meal with Halibut and Scallops.

Right on the water. - it was really nice.  Interestingly, Doug and Elise love living in Seattle, except they feel it is the state that never says no.  Including, now, that pot is legal for anyone over 21.   It is a bit challenging with school-aged children. 

 We thought this sign in the restaurant bar was interesting as well.

Great day in Seattle - really enjoyed being here.  We have another day in Seattle on Monday as well.

PartII - Aug. 3 Boise ID to Seattle, WA via Columbia River Gorge (day9)

Forgot to add some pictures from Boise.   Below was on the side of the Grove Hotel.  Quite pretty

And the Idaho State capital building was beautiful - modeled after the real Capital.  With a memorial to Lincoln on the grounds, as well as Lewis & Clark with the Nez Perce Indians.

 

So that was Boise.

Saturday, Aug 3rd.

Left Boise after a great breakfast at a local spot: Goldy's.  People were waiting to get in.  Fortunately we were willing to sit at the counter.  Blueberry muffin that was solo yummy and filled with blueberries.   Rick said it reminded him of the real Jordan Marsh muffins.

A beautiful flying day - heading north west to the Columbia River Gorge - specifically landing in the town of The Dalles.  Went over quite a lot of mountains.  

Terrain changed as we approached the Gorge.  Below is the John Day river - which flows into the Columbia east of The Dalles (where we are landing).

The John Day Dam was the Dam Riley helped fix on World's Toughest Fixes.

Interesting descent into the airport, which is jointly owned by two states (WA and OR),   The airport is located on a small peninsula sticking into the Columbia River.   Oh, and there are very large hills all around.  It is a gorge after all .

  Very nice people at the FBO.  They mentioned how lucky we were today, as there was almost no wind.  It is usually quite windy, with winds of 30 knots yesterday, and 50 knots a few days ago.    They let us use a crew car, with directions to the Discovery Center and the Dalles Dam.

We had a picnic lunch at the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center.  

It was amazing seeing the Gorge - and thinking of Lewis and Clark coming down the river with a group of 30 people - and how small they must have felt going through this gorge - which would just tower over them.  

Lewis & Clark passed through the Gorge in October 1805 and returned in April 1806.  As the Discovery Center placard stated:  "they thrilled to the majesty of the scenery".

Our next stop was to visit The Dalles Dam, which was built in 1952, in response to the need to use natural resources to power the area.    It is a concrete-gravity run-of-the-river dam that generates a total of 1779.8 MW .   (Got a great view f the dam during take-off.)

 The dam is 1.5 miles long, and the power plant itself is a half mile long,  It creates enough power to supply 2 cities the size of Portland, Oregon.    There are two fish ladders (for the very abundant salmon), and locks to improve ship traffic through the Columbia.  Just so incredibly impressive.  (It's not the same dam Riley fixed in The World's Toughest Fixes - but very similar, and on the same river.) 

Left the Gorge to meet up with Tor and Lev in Seattle.  Flying to Seattle was only possible because Rick has his Instrument license.  There were just a lot of clouds in the way.

Landed at Boeing field just outside of Seattle - and had some interesting planes sitting near by when we parked the plane at Galvin Aviation.

They were there for the Seafair air show happening this weekend over Lake Washington.

Great view from our hotel

Met up with our friends from Norway and had dinner at the Blueacre - just 2 blocks away.  Absolutely great food.   I had Black Cod 

Delicious and melt in your mouth good.  

Part II - Friday, day 8. August 2

Today's goal:  leave Great Falls, Montana and get over the Rocky mountains. Ultmately, we hope to be in Portland tonight, and catch up with our friens - the Vestys and Tor & Liv.  We are a little cautious though, as we need to make sure we don't get into clouds with temperatures below freezing. Worst case, we divert to Boise Idaho.  We will be traveling at 14,000 feet, so we are equipped with oxygen.  

Just before we we ready to go, four F-15s tok off.  They are part of the Montana Air Natonsl Guard.  So cool!  They we're wheels up in less than 5 seconds, and then went vertical to gain altitude.  

Take off with an immediate climb to 13,000 feet.  We are first traveling over the Big Belt range.  Absolutely gorgeous.

,

Twenty minutes into the flight we are at 14,000 feet and above the clouds.  Can't see the mountains (boo hoo), but we also don't have to worry about ice - as the temperature up here is 26 degrees F.   (big yahoo).

Well, that was good, but another 20 minutes and we are climbing to 18,000 because the clouds got higher.    Naughty clouds.   But we can see through the clouds from time to time, and it is amazing.  I'm pretty sure we climbed through the Big Belt Range first, and then we will be going over the Bitter Root range once we move into Idaho close to Oregon.  We have a 25 knot headwind, so we are only at approx 100 knots per hour.  

At 2:29 we decided to divert to Boise to refuel and refill the oxygen.  We've been dealing with 30+ knot headwinds, and just using too much fuel to get all the way to Portland without stressing about it.  And this is supposed to be a stress-less trip, so Boise here we come.  That's why we had Boise as a back-up.   And then the clouds parted and I got a great picture of the mountains - as we entered into Idaho.  

Went over Deadwood Reservoir (below)

Landing in Boise was interesting, as it's just over the mountains .  Had to descend quickly from 12,000  ft for our landing - but Rick did a great job.  Best landing of the trip so far - very smooth.

And look - it's the Idaho Air National Guard and more F15s, and even 2 F18s.  

Western Air FBO was very nice.  Melissa took very good care of us.  We stayed right in downtown Boise, and really liked it.  Seemed to be a very vibrant downtown - lots of nice shops and restaurants -- and we didn't see any national chains.

Had dinner at Chandler's steak house.  OMG so very, very good.  Steaks were awesome.  The Halibut was great.  And the Fruit Cobbler with cinnamon ice cream was incredibly scrumptious.   There will definitely have to be some minimal eating days after that cobbler !n   But soooooo worth it.