Seattle Area

June 16-22, 2017

Our new home - Washington State Fairgrounds, Puyallup, WA

 We're in the Orange Lot....as opposed to the Green Lot where we initially set up :(

 Seattle

Sonic Bloom is a permanent interactive art installation at the foot of Seattle's Space Needle. Five giant solar flowers absorb the sun's energy and express it at night with patterned LED lighting and in the daytime with interactive harmonic tones triggered by people's movement around each flower.

It was great meeting up with Joe Krenetsky and his wife Mary who live in Seattle!

 We had lunch at The Pike

 Then walked around the market. 

Here's the famous fish throwing section of the market :)

 Then we headed to the Olympic Sculpture Park

Echo

Sculpture with the Space Needle in the background

 Then we headed to the International Fountain which is a mainstay from the 1962 World's Fair. It was revamped in 1995 from its early days of hard iron nozzles and surrounding sharp-edged, white rock.

 Now kids can play in the fountain bowl and venture right up to the smooth silver dome.

It was fun to watch the periodic cannon shots of water. It took some people by surprise when the wind would catch the water and soak people sitting along the far edge.

Tacoma

 Festival of Sail draws thousands of people to Tacoma's Dock Street

 The Thea Harbor Marina with views of Mt. Rainier

University of Washington in Tacoma - or W is for Wendy

Chihuly Bridge of Glass in Tacoma 

Three distinct installations comprise the Chihuly Bridge of Glass. The first installment is the Seaform Pavilion, a ceiling made of 2,364 objects. Placed on top of a fifty-by-twenty-foot plate-glass ceiling, the forms are suspended in midair and make dramatic use of natural light.

The center of the bridge has the Crystal Towers that rise 40' above the bridge deck.

The third installment is the Venetian Wall, an eighty-foot wall displaying 109 sculptures from three of Chihuly's series: Venetians, Ikebana, and Putti

 Glass fire fountain along the Thea Foss Waterway

Everything lights up in Tacoma at night - Washington State History Museum

Meeker Days in Puyallup

We were able to walk to this festival in downtown Puyallup. The 3-day long Meeker Days Festival originated in 1939 and encompasses 15 blocks in the downtown area. The festival features 4 entertainment stages and tons of food vendors and fun activities for kids.

 We enjoyed some local brews in the Beer Garden section...

which just happened to be by one of the entertainment stages. 
And it wasn't crowded on Sunday afternoon (the last day of the festival).

Snowshoeing on Mount Rainier

 Joe took Wendy and I on our first snow shoe hike - the tree lined high point on the left is where we stopped for lunch

 Gorgeous views along the way

 Working up an appetite!

 Mt. Rainier's top peeking through the clouds

 Joe smoothing out our lunch site

Joe brought a tarp so we could stay dry, relax, and enjoy the view!

Myrtle Falls, hard to pick out with all the forms of white water!

This little guy was enjoying the view also

 After our hike, we stopped by the Paradise Inn which is currently celebrating 100 years!

Not much has changed since the 1920's

The Paradise Inn was designed by a Tacoma architect and built in the popular style of the period with the building's large timber frame exposed on the interior. 

The timber used for the interior decor of the building was cut from dead Alaska cedars that had been fire-killed in the Silver Forest and had seasoned to a light gray hue.

German carpenter, Hans Frahnke, designed the furniture which includes 

imposing cedar chairs and tables...

and a rustic piano that we enjoyed listening to while we walked around.

The parking lot outside the Inn reminded us of the walls of snow at Crater Lake.

Vashon Island

We (and our bicycles) took the Chetzemoka Ferry from Point Defiance to Vashon Island

It was a great day to take the short ferry ride across Puget Sound

At just 13 miles long and 8 miles across at its widest point, 

Vashon Island is around the same size as Manhattan.

 View of Mt. Rainer from Tahlequah waterfront

  Beautiful flowers in bloom everywhere

We stopped at this beach along the Tahlequah waterfront to eat lunch

Vashon turned out to be very hilly and the hills provide some pretty challenging climbs!

 

After about 12 miles of cycling we ended up in quaint downtown Vashon. 
We stopped for a beer and a snack at the Red Bicycle Bistro. 
We enjoyed sitting in the open-air window and people watching.

 We covered about 20 miles of the Island on our bikes. 
It was a great workout in a beautiful location!

 Dave putting his feet up for the ride back to Point Defiance

Got clear views of the mountain on the ride back

Tomorrow we're off to Lynden, Washington near the Canadian border!