August 9-13, 2017 Seattle, WA

Time to head to Seattle.  We rode another ferry & this time, our RV rode too. We rode the car ferry from Kingston across a stretch of Puget Sound to Edmonds WA. It was a large ferry with 2 levels of parking for vehicles. We arrived to Lake Pleasant RV Park in Bothell WA. This park is going to be our home while we visit with Doug's brother Rick & then our RV will stay here while we are in Alaska for 2 weeks. It is a really nice park: well maintained with great facilities.

Our first night, using Uber, we met my cousin Hannah & her girlfriend Nova for dinner in Wildinwood @ the Tipsy Pig. They have recently moved to Seattle from Michigan. They both have found great jobs & are doing well. It was great catching up & meeting Nova.

The next day Rick came & after we gave him a tour of the RV, which took 2 minutes, he drove us to his place in downtown Seattle. We walked to a Thai place for lunch. Then he took us for a walking tour around downtown, hitting all the important places: Starbucks Reserve, the under construction biosphere by Amazon, Pike's Fish Market, a view of the Space Needle & carousel. We even squeezed in a bit of shopping @ the Columbia Store & a ride on the subway. Rick invited us back to enjoy Margs & dinner @ his & Darin's place. They have a wonderful oasis in their backyard of waterfalls, trees & flowers. Rick let us drive his car back to our RV park so we could come back to visit the next day & cut the travel time down.

Our second day in Seattle, Rick & Darin took us on the ferry over to Bainbridge Island where Rick used to live.  We did not walk the whole island but there is a charming area not far from the ferry dock.  We stopped in the art museum, a few shops & enjoyed a great lunch @ one of Rick's favorite spots. The weather has been great, sunny & warm yet hazy due to wildfires in Canada so we are not able to see Mt Rainier. Luckily we had great views of it when we were staying in the NP. We walked through bustling Pioneer Square & loved the parks & architecture. Rick & Darin again fed us a delicious dinner @ their place.

Our third day in Seattle, we again started @ Rick & Darin's place but instead of walking, the four of us piled in Rick's car and they drove us out to the Lake Union area.  We walked around a few of the marinas in Lake Union; it is a beautiful spot. There is a set of locks between Puget Sound & Lake Washington & Lake Union called the Ballard Locks. The locks maintain the water level of these fresh water lakes & prevents the mixing of sea water from Puget Sound with the fresh water.  We were entertained by the pleasure boats locking through.  They experienced some stressful moments as they were pushed & pulled against the unforgiving wall of the lock. The salmon ladder is also there at the Chittenden/Ballard Locks & we had never seen anything like this. The salmon were returning to the fresh water to spawn then die. There were all kinds of salmon working hard to get up that set of steps. The salmon either jump through or swim through tunnel-like openings. There is a great viewing area. We hit the peak time for the salmon to spawn. We lunched at a local block party out of some cool food trucks. We ended this fun day with Mango Margs @ Rick & Darin's then walking to a neighborhood bar for dinner on a patio.

The next day we stored our RV in a parking lot @ Lake Pleasant RV park where we have been staying. We were even able to plug it in. Rick drove us to the Seattle airport Hampton Inn Hotel where we stayed the night & got a shuttle in the morning to the airport.

It was wonderful visiting with Rick & finally meeting Darin
Thank you for a visit filled with great memories