Vancouver

Vancouver from Stanley Park (many totem poles carved by Canadian Eskimo tribes in this park).

Seems like flying via float planes is a very popular way to travel.  Constant stream of them in and out of this bay in front of Vancouver.

Exciting and scary walking around these platforms and suspension bridge in North Vancouver.  But also very beautiful.  The cedar and Douglas Firs are huge.  Makes a gorgeous forest.

 

 

As if they don't have enough weird characters on these totum poles.

 

 

 

 

We rode a tram to the top of Grouse Mountain also just North of North Vancouver.  The lumber jack show (competition) was very entertaining. 

View of Vancouver coming down from Grouse Mountain on the tram.

Seattle

This building at the Boeing plant in Everett, Washington (1 hour North of Seattle), is the size of 75 football fields.  No cameras allowed so I could not take pictures of the assembly lines we saw.  We got to see them putting together 749's, 777's, & the new 787's.   Very interesting.  Outside was sitting about 20 planes waiting for about that many countries to pick them up. 

Pike Market place in Seattle.

This is the Smith & Wesson building in downtown Seattle.  The top peak is an apartment.  Our tour guide told us the woman who converted it into a penthouse made a lot of money with Microsoft.  The very top ball is her bedroom.

China town in Seattle.  These colorful dragons are on several of the light poles.

The space needle.  There's a restaurant near the top that rotates.  The price of a steak dinner is $56.00.

 

 Day care Seattle style.

 We took a boat tour to Blake Island, where the natives entertained us with an alder-smoked salmon dinner and native dance show.

 Camp kids on our boat tour with us.  I wish they had these kind of camps when I was growing up.

Beautiful Mount Ranier in Central Washington.  It's about 14,000 feet tall.  The locals say the mountain is out today when it isn't socked-in (which is about 90% of the time).

Discovery of Flight museum on Boeing Field in Seattle.   Our tour guide flew during WWI and then for McDonnell Douglas.  He knew a lot about these planes.

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 Cliff reading about a Viet Nam operation that happened when he was there in 1971.  His unit was suppose to participate, but was the small helicopters (LOH's) were pulled off of the operation.

 Space shuttle above.   Air Force One (used by Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, & Nixon) and the Concorde below.  Very fun going through these planes.

Mount St. Helens, Washington

 Below shows Spirit Lake off to the left (you can just see a sliver of blue).  When the side of the mountain slid down the slope from the earthquake that happened, the lake was filled with trees and other debris causing it to rise by 200 feet.

 Picture of this popular mountain before the eruption.  It was a vacation destination for thousands, including a boy scout camp and many other campgrounds.

 Picture after the eruption.  Within 10 minutes, 230 square miles of forest was destroyed, mostly by the explosion but also by the heat and ash fall out. 

Columbia River Gorge

 MaryHill Winery named the top winery in the US in 2009.  Sits  in Washington along the Columbia River near our campground.  A few bottles were consumed by our group here.

 Bonneville Dam built back in the 1930's with FDR's approval.   It put 3000 people back to work during the depression.  Picture shows the turbines inside the power plant.

 Herman the sturgeon has a home at the Fish Hatchery near the dam.  He's 74 years old.  He lives in a beautiful pond that he shares with other sturgeons.

 Our caravan group took a Stearnwheeler boat tour down the Columbia and through the locks at Bonneville dam.

 

 

 Passed an international taser sailboat race during our boat ride.

 Mount Hood in Oregon.  We went to the top of Larch Mountain which had a 360 degree view of Washington and Oregon.  On a good day you can see 6 major mountains including Mt. Ranier and Mr. St. Helens.  We did not have a good day, so could only see Mt. Hood, but it was beautiful.

 Multnomah Falls is the number one tourist destination in Oregon.  We made it up the 1/4 mile to the bridge, but did not make the additional mile up to the top.