Another sunny morning in Seattle on Saturday.  It being the weekend, we braved driving into the city (25 minutes) to see a couple of things.  First stop was the Smith Tower.  We found a parking spot on the street right across the street from the tower.  (Pay and Display using credit card – it cost $8.50 for the two hours – cheap compared to parking lots).

The Smith Tower, Seattle’s original skyscraper, was built in 1914 and contains 38 floors.  It was the tallest building west of the Mississippi when it was built.  It remains a working office building but also contains the Observatory, a 360 degree outdoor viewing platform at the top complete with a full bar.  The street level entrance contains historical information before you ride to the top in a restored Otis elevator.   The views of downtown Seattle from the top are outstanding.  It’s not as tall as the Space Needle, but you get a totally different perspective of the city.

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After descending from the Observatory at the Smith Tower, we walked around Pioneer Square a bit.  On this Saturday the tourists outnumbered the homeless . . . just barely.  The area started to get busy as there was a Seattle Mariner’s game this afternoon at nearby Safeco Field.  (The Seahawks, away this weekend in AZ, play at CenturyLink Field which is practically next door to Safeco Field.)  So we hopped into Blue and headed to our next stop.

On our tour with Ken and Greg, we drove along Alki Beach.  We decided to return there to take some Seattle skyline pictures and have lunch.  No traffic problems getting there and plenty of free on-street parking.  Alki is known as the birthplace of Seattle as it is where settlers first landed.  We made a brief visit to the Log House, a tiny museum run by the West Seattle Historical Society.  It’s very small and has just two focuses (foci?): Seattle fire departments and Seattle music.  Seattle was home to the Ventures (Walk Don’t Run, Telstar), Nirvana and Kurt Cobain (Smells Like Teen Spirit), Jimi Hendrix (Hey Joe, Purple Haze), Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam (Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town), Quincy Jones (we Are the World, Billie Jean), Kenny Loggins (Footloose, Whenever I Call You Friend), Ray Charles (Hit the Road Jack, I Can’t Stop Loving You), and lots more.

After the museum we headed to another Seattle institution for food, Duke’s Chowder House, for lunch.  It would be our main (and only) meal of the day, served outside on the upper deck.  We both had their famous clam chowder (delicious!).  Elaine had a salmon sandwich with sweet potato fries.  I had wild Alaskan cod with new potatoes and veg.  It was accompanied by a nice Willamette Valley pinot noir.

Then we headed back to our digs for a nap – my first in Seattle.  By early afternoon it had clouded up and remained cloudy the rest of the day.  It was cool on the balcony, but we were out there for cocktails.  And off in the distance there was a glorious sunset behind Vachon Island with the Cascades in view.

Friday was another beautiful sunny day all day long.  The plan was to first visit the Boeing Museum of Flight for a couple of hours and then move on to other things.  We got to the Museum right at 10:00 when it opened.  When we left, it was after 4:00 in the afternoon.  What a place!  So, if your not interested in looking at planes, you can sign off and wait for tomorrow’s post.

We started off by watching two 25-minute movies: one on the operation of an aircraft carrier and the other on the rings of Saturn.  Both were entertaining, informative, and enjoyable.  Then we went and had bowls of chili in the Wings Café.  At that point the idea was this would still be just a ½ day visit at most and then we would head for Alki Beach for a walk, pictures, and an early dinner.  After lunch, eaten at an outside table, we engrossed ourselves in the museum and next thing you know, it was 4:00 pm.

The Museum of Flight covers everything about aviation.  It’s a museum of airplanes, of airplane manufacturers, of Boeing itself, of space exploration, of airplanes in WWI, of airplanes in WWII, of airplane art, of airplane pilots and crew, and of aces of fighter planes.  Prepare now for a plethora of aviation pictures.

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As we leaving the house, I took a picture of a couple of spider webs on the way to Blue’s reserved parking spot.

Boeing’s Museum of Flight is outside downtown Seattle near I-5.  It is a large part of Boeing Field, a working airport.

Arriving at the Museum of Flight

Watching the Movie

 

The Charles Simonyi Space Gallery

Charles Simonyi was a Hungarian who emigrated to America and became the head of Microsoft’s Application Software Group and oversaw the development of Microsoft Office (including Word and Excel).  He later became the fifth space tourist (i.e., he paid his way to ride the shuttle – twice). His estimated net worth is $3.1 billion.

The Aviation Pavilion

And So Much More

A random gallery of uncaptioned pictures.

Dinner was on the balcony at home on a beautiful night.  Lasagna and Salad.

About a year ago Elaine and her sister Caroline did a tour of Ireland together.  Two of their favorite people they met on their tour group are from Seattle.  One of them, Ken, visited us awhile back in Scottsdale.  So today we met up with both of them, and they were our tour guides for the day.  We drove to Greg’s house to meet them.  We were in Ken’s car for the day.  First stop was at the Washington Park Arboretum, a site near the University of Washington that is jointly administered by the city and UWA.  After a short walk from the parking lot directly under the Interstate we were at the shores of Lake Washington for reunion pictures.

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By now it was lunchtime, so Ken and Greg treated us to lunch at a Seattle institution, Ray’s Boathouse.  Seafood salad for me; a bowl of cl;am chowder for Elaine.  I got to have a glass of Manny’s Pale Ale – I’m not driving today.  We sat outside on the deck in the beautiful weather and ate watching the boats go by.

Next it was on the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks on the Lake Washington Ship Canal.  It is run by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers.  It was an interesting sight that we never would have seen without our superb local tour guides.

Final stop was at the Museum of History and Innovation (MOHAI) which houses the Bezos Center of Innovation.  Fabulous museum!  We had time to cover only one floor.  It was fascinating.

We drove around a lot of other places in Seattle including the complex of Amazon Buildings that house my favorite retailer’s headquarters, downtown Seattle, and Alki Beach, a delightful stretch of beach that faces Seattle’s skyline.

Finally we went back to Greg’s for a delicious home cooked meal featuring barbecued salmon and steak.  Yum.  Then goodbyes and home to bed.

Tuesday

On to Seattle.  Five hour drive with some dramatic scenery.  We took I-90 all the way with a stop in Ellensburg for lunch at the burrito stand we ate at last week.  I-90 crosses Route 2, last weeks route to CDA, at Ellensburg.  We also met up again with the mighty Columbia which we have deemed to be America’s most beautiful river.

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Approaching Seattle at 3 pm, we switched to I-405 to get to South Seattle (Burien) to get to our rental for six nights.  Bumper-to-bumper traffic, but they had a car pool lane in which we zipped right along.  The rental is everything the delightful carriage house in Coeur d’Alene wasn’t.  The view is tremendous from a spacious balcony, but the inside is old and dated.  The kitchen is small.  We shall make do and spend lots of time on the balcony.  We had crackers, cheese, salami, and wine for dinner.  We also had a visit from a neighborhood cat.

Wednesday

Fabulous first full day in Seattle.  Weather forecast seemed perfect.  We decided to go into downtown Seattle, a good 30-40 minute drive from where we are.  Instead we opted to drive just 10 minutes to the Angle Lake LINK station and take the light rail downtown.  Plan was Space Needle first and then on the Public Market.  But as we rode into town, the clouds and fog took over the city.  The Space Needle seemed silly with those conditions, so we changed plans.

Seattle’s Pike Place Market (Public Market) is fantastic, one of the best market areas in the world.  We walked around the neighborhood and the seven or eight levels of the main building.  It was lunch time and we wanted seafood.  So we picked Lowell’s.  Their motto is “Almost Classy“.Good choice.  Elaine had fish and chips while I had a grilled seafood platter.  Spot on.  The clouds lifted as we ate.

On the Walk to the Space Needle

After lunch we walked the waterfront a bit and walked on about a mile to the Space Needle,. Originally built for the 1962 World Fair, it was just recently totally transformed in a multi-million dollar renovation.  It now boasts the world’s only rotating glass floor. It was blessedly not crowded on this September weekday.  And the sky was now bright blue.  We rode to the top and did the whole thing.  Elaine freaked out as I leaned against the glass windows, sat on glass window ledges, and walked on the glass floor looking down.  But she did good staying a bit away from the windows and on solid flooring.

After descending we visited the permanent Chihuly Garden and Glass Exhibit which is practically next door.  We’ve seen temporary Chihuly exhibits at the Desert Botanical Garden and the Chihuly lobby in the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  The exhibits here, including Indian blankets and Indian portraits, are spectacular.  I’ll let pictures tell the story.

After viewing everything we took the Monorail back to the LINK station for the ride home. At the LINK station where our car was, there was a great view of Mount Ranier.

After reclaiming the car, we stopped at a Fred Meyer for some supplies and got home just in time for another spectacular evening of cocktails and hors d’oeuvres on the balcony overlooking Elliot Bay and Vashon Island.  (We may have to go over one day.)  A couple of freighters chugged by and we can watch the ferries back and forth from the mainland to Vashon Island.

Tomorrow (Thursday) we are meeting up with Ken and Greg who were Elaine’s and Caroline’s dates on their tour of Ireland last year.

The sun was shining brightly when we got up on Monday and the forecast is for sun all day.  Temps in the 50’s.  Nice.  So we decided to some scenic driving.  First objective was the Lake Coeur d’Alene Scenic Byway which starts just ten miles or so from the carriage house.off I-90.  We saw an eagle!  Love my Canon G16!

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That goes through Harrison, a popular little marina and fishing town in the summer.

Then we drove the White Pine Scenic Byway back to I-90. We saw elk!

Next a stop at Cataldo Mission State Park where the oldest building in Idaho stands.  The Coeur d’Alene Indians sought out conversion to Christianity.  They would eventually regret it.  They sent delegations to St. Louis seeking missionaries. The Jesuits responded in spades.  It was a good relationship for years, but eventually the white man drove the Indians to reservations.  We had a picnic with no bees!

Then it was back to the carriage house for drinks before a very nice dinner at the Moon Time Ale House.  Yikes.

For a starter we shared PORK PASTOR QUESADILLA- Seasoned char-grilled pork, diced onions, Monterey jack cheese and chopped cilantro stuffed into a flour tortilla and grilled. Served with grilled pineapple salsa and sour cream

Elaine had  NORTH IDAHO SLOPPY JOES– Ground pork, ground beef, bell peppers, garlic, tomatoes, paprika, and onions served over smoked cheddar cheese cornbread. Garnished with parsley and diced tomatoes then accompanied by an iceberg lettuce wedge drizzled with blue cheese dressing.

I had CAJUN RAVIOLI– Cheese stuffed raviolis topped with an Andouille sausage, chicken and rock shrimp Cajun cream sauce. Garnished with Tabasco sauce, parsley and served with sliced French bread.

The have one dessert only.  We shared THE MOON UNIT – A rich chocolate brownie topped with vanilla ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce.

And then bed after viewing the harvest moon from the balcony.  We drive to Seattle tomorrow (Tuesday).  About a six hour drive.  No posting tomorrow night.  Be back on Wednesday night.

 

First off, thanks to all for the comments.  We read and appreciate every one.  Secondly, I forgot to post two videos that I took at the Sierra Mine Tour yesterday.  Like I said, it’s the only mine tour that actually demonstrates the mining equipment.  The first shows our miner/guide drilling into the mine wall; the second shows a sludging machine that clears our water and sludge.

Now on to Sunday.  We spent a cloudy and cool day in and around Coeur d’Alene.  In the morning we did the Tubbs Hill  hike.  Mountain lions (aka cougars) don’t scare us.  It was a nice walk.  No cougars seen.

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Then we had a nice lunch.  Remember the picture of the bar with all the draft beer taps?  We ate there at Crafted, sitting outside.  Burgers again!  Well, for me.  And good beer: Mother Earth Brewery Cali Creamin’ Cream Ale for Elaine and Mad Bomber Brewery Brett’s Oktoberfest Lager for me.  The burger looks great and was good, but not as tasty as at Ralph’s on Friday or at the 313 Club in Wallace on Saturday.

In the afternoon we did a 1½ cruise on Lake Coeur d’Alene.  Fabulous houses along the shoreline.  It was cool up top on the boat but still enjoyable. The houses, some of which look like hotels, are all private residences. Many of them can only be reached by boat – no road access.  The sun came out as we came back to the dock.

Cocktails and dinner at home.  Early night.  We’re old!

We watched the Patriots on TV.  They have serious problems.  Belichick/Brady magic will be severely tested this year. Frankly, it’s not unexpected (by me).

See you tomorrow.  Weather is predicted to be sunny.

It was raining lightly when we got up on Saturday, so there were no walks.  The forecast was for clouds all day with a chance of showers.  Our first outing of the day was a drive to Costco to fill up on gas and wine and get something for meals at home.  They had the delicious huge Costco chicken pot pies so we bought one.  That will take care of our two nights eating in here (and then some).

In deciding what to do for the day, Elaine suggested that we visit a brothel museum in Wallace, ID.  I was skeptical since it was an hour’s drive away.  In the end we decided to do it.  It turned out to be a great decision.  So we heading out in Blue for the hour’s drive along I-90 (nice 75 mph speed limits most of the way).

Wallace (population 925) was and is a mining town located in Shoshone County.  It is on a 100-year run as the world’s largest silver producer, thus making it the richest mining town still in existence.  It is also the only town in America where every downtown building is on the National Register of Historic Places.  The town took the step of seeking this registration to prevent the Federal Government from constructing Interstate 90 right through the middle of town.  When it was planned and built back in the 1950’s, I-90 took heavy advantage of existing roads.  The city won after a 17-year battle and I-90 through Wallace continued to be on it’s original main street. . Wallace was famous as the having the only stoplight on I-90 from its beginning in Boston to its terminus in Seattle.  When the Feds finally constructed an viaduct around the town in 1991 to make I-90 bypass the town center, the citizens held a funeral for the stoplight that made national news.  Wallace is also the site of the Sunshine Mine disaster in 1972 in which over 80 miners were killed.  Finally, Wallace was the birthplace of Lana Turner .

We arrived in the pretty town at 11:30 am, so first order of business was lunch.  We chose the historic 1313 Club.  Inspired choice!  It was great.  The interior was like a museum.  I had a cup of posole and a great bacon cheeseburger; Elaine had a salmon burger with huckleberry sauce.  Everything was served with house made potato chips and everything was delicious.

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Then we had a nice walk about town snapping pictures and chatting with residents who are clearly very proud of their town (and rightly so).

Next on the agenda: a tour of an the Sierra Silver Mine.. There was no silver ever found at the Sierra, but a huge lode of silver was discovered just below where the Sierra owners gave up and halted operations.  Desperate for miners back in boom days (think Hunt Brothers cornering the market), the city converted the Sierra into a training center for the town’s high school seniors who wanted to become miners.  The center, which closed when silver dropped dramatically in price, was a huge success.  Now the Sierra is a unique mine tour where you go through the mine with an actual miner and actually see original mining tools in operation.  The miner also explains exactly what happened (fire) in the nearby Sunshine Mine back in 1972.  Alas, the picture of us at the mine entrance came out very blurry – blame the miner who took it.  Otherwise, he was a treat!

Next:  A visit to the Oasis Brothel Museum.  This is an actual brother, originally a small hotel, that was open legally and then illegally until 1988 when the FBI came to town to close it up.  Tipped off just before the agents raided, the madame and her employees hastily gathered up what they could and escaped before the raid began, leaving behind everything in the kitchen and most of their personal items in their rooms.  It was boarded up for years before being purchased by a local business man who turned it into the museum it is today.  Below are pictures from the first floor museum and shop.  Photographs were not allowed upstairs where the girls and their Madame lived.  It’s all very interesting!  Most of the final residents have returned to take the tour and were allowed to retrieve personal items.  Most took a few things but decided to leave most items to be part of the authentic museum.  Great fun here!

Finally we visited the old Northern Pacific Railroad Depot which is now a museum.  It has all sorts of railroad memorabilia including a working model railway.  But the gem of the museum was the Canadian man who comes down four times a year from Calgary to continue restoring the model railway.  He is 91 years old!  We were lucky to be here when he was here. The museum wasn’t busy and he chatted with us for a long time.  Turns out his original occupation was as a projectionist and he was the man who restored the projector in the Oasis Bordello museum.  He was fascinating; so fascinating that I missed getting key pictures.  Next time.

Long day!  Great day!  If you are ever in Idaho, don’t miss Wallace!  Then we drove home, had cocktails, chicken pot pie for dinner, and bed.

Tune in tomorrow.

Friday broke nice and sunny and stayed that way until clouds rolled in late in the day.  In the morning we walked (together for a change) from our Garden District carriage house to downtown CDA (as Coeur d’Alene is commonly referred to) and the lakefront.  Plenty of Mudgy Moose statues about – he’s CDA’s mascot.

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We stopped by and picked some local information at the Visitor Center.  Since it was a nice day we decided to take a drive north on route 95 (not interstate) to see Farragut State Park and the town of Sandpoint.  Sandpoint is about an hour north with the park in between.

Farragut State Park has a nice lake and lots of hiking trials but was, frankly, pretty boring.  The high point was just outside the park in a small town called Bayview where we stopped for lunch at Ralph’s.  Ralph’s is a nondescript little place with three tables where had the best burgers we have had in a long time.  And the homemade potato salad was outstanding.  I enjoyed mine with a delicious huckleberry frappe (milk shake to you non-Bostonians).

Then we drove on to Sandpoint which is a pretty little artist community on Lake Pend Oreille, Oregon’s largest.  It was pleasant but not really worth the hour ride.  You could drive on from there eastward along the lake on a supposedly very picturesque (but long) drive, but it was getting late and we chose to double back to CDA.

We had cocktails on our balcony (without the ocean view to which we have become accustomed) before heading to dinner at 315 Martinis and Tapas.  It’s a great little neighborhood eatery.  Good cocktails!  Great Caesar salad.  Elaine had delicious salmon and I had, amazingly, my first steak of the trip.  Everything, including the service, was excellent.  The wine was an Elk Cove Vineyards pinot noir from Oregon’s Willamette Valley.

Wednesday night we feasted on brats and beer.  Thursday morning we had last walkabouts in Leavenworth.  Elaine saw a deer close up.  I saw shop windows.

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At 9:00 am we left for the five hour drive east to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.  It was a pleasant drive on route 2 first along the Wenatchee River and then along the Columbia River.  This is serious fruit growing territory – grapes (and wineries and Washington peaches and apples.  We stopped at a lake and the Gehrke Windmill Garden for brief pictures and then motored on to Grand Coulee Dam.

I remember learning about Grand Coulee Dam in grade school back in the 1950’s.  It was a huge depression area WPA project under FDR.  The lake behind the dam is named Roosevelt Lake.  The dam is massive!  At the time it was built it was the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world.  It is still the largest in the USA.  The concrete in the dam could build a four-foot sidewalk around the Equator twice.  It could build a four lane highway from Seattle to Miami.  81 people died during construction, mostly from falls.  They have a great movie about the construction that we watched.  There are tours but we missed them.

We started a nice picnic in a picnic area in the shadow of the dam.  Like our last picnic, we were soon forced back to Blue, our trusty Nissan Rogue, as one bee, then another, then another, etc. arrived to enjoy the picnic.

Route 2 eventually merged in to I-90 (about 3,000 west of I-90 Mass Turnpike).  That took us through a busy Spokane, Washington and into Idaho.  Coeur d’Alene is just about 30 minutes east of Spokane.  We arrived at our condo rental in Coeur d’Alene’s garden district at about 5:00 pm after an obligatory stop at Safeway for some essentials for our five nights here.

The carriage house unit is beautiful, albeit without any interesting views.  It’s a 15-minute walk to Lake Coeur d’Alene.  We’ll check it out in the morning.  Good night for now.

 

Weather wise Tuesday & Wednesday were a perfect 10 from start to finish.  Long post tonight with lots of pictures.

Tuesday

We drove from Richland to Yakima for a stop at Costco for gas and wine.  Then on to Ellenburg with a stop along I-84 to view the Cascades in the distance from a viewpoint on I-82.

We stopped in Ellenburg mainly to grab some lunch.  So as we were driving donw the main street, Elaine noticed something and told me to circle back down a side street.  There at the corner of 1st and Pearl streets we found Dick and Jayne’s Spot.  Wow.  They actually live here.  You cannot go in, but the outside is a fantastic . . . . something.  Dick & Jane’s Spot is dedicated to the philosophy that “one hearty laugh is worth ten trips to the doctor.”   Pictures may not do it justice, but here they are:  Lunch was fantastic – a Taco Truck where we both had Super Burritos (mine with carne asada anbd Elaine’s with carne adovada; And Mexican Coca Cola made with real cane sugar)

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In Leavenworth we checked into the Bavarian Lodge form our two-night stay.  It’a a lovely hotel right in the center of town.  Our room is large with both a fireplace (gas) and balcony.

Leavenworth is an inspiring story about a town that reinvented itself.  When it lost its railway and timber industries, Leavenworth became a town in decline.  In the 1980’s it took the plunge to dedicate itself to tourism for the future.  With mountainous countryside resembling Bavaria in Germany, it remodeled itself as a Bavarian alpine village (think Garmisch or Berchesgaden)  Atter lots of research, changing building codes, and reconstruction, Leavenworth now looks the part.  Both businesses and residents have totally embraced the concept.  Houses look Bavarian.  Starbucks looks Bavarian.  McDonald’s looks Bavarian.  It’s now an upscale shopping and eating and drinking mecca.  Population is about 2,200.  It’s a very enjoyable place for a two-day visit.  And it has a nutcracker museum!

We stopped at an outdoor beer garden for some refreshments.

Dinner was at a good German restaurant, Andreas Keller, one of dozens in town, but this one is clearly the most popular.  Elaine had a delicious schnitzel with potato salad and I had a schnitzel cordon blue with spätzle.  All very yummy and authentic.  Oddly the house red wine, which we had, was from Bordeaux.  After dinner we had ice cream cones at Cold Stone Creamery (which, yes, looked Bavarian).

Wednesday

An Early Morning  Walk Around Leavenworth

A Drive to Tumwater Dam and Lake Wenatchee

The Nutcracker Museum

Thought you’d seen everything.  Here are over 7,000 nutcrackers and a 17 minute video on their history, all presided over by the mid-90’s collector and founder.  Their web page is here.

This post took forever to  upload.  Great hotel but slooooooow wi fi.  Tomorrow morning we leave for five nights in Couer d”Alene, Idaho.  Next post from there.