Washington. 8/18/2006-8/22/2006.

As penance for not going to Italy with us, Joe agreed to spend a few days with us in the Seattle area. The weather was gorgeous, with light scattered clouds. It’s hard to believe that it rains 250 days out of the year in this city (although the total rainfall is only 37”).

Anne & I took a quick ride to Snoqualmie Falls, located about 45 minutes from the SeaTac airport.

We hit many of the Seattle attractions. These included the Space Needle, still looking fresh and modern after 40 odd years (it was built for the 1962 World’s Fair); the Experience Music Project inside a Gehry-designed building; the Science Fiction Hall of Fame; and the Pike Market. Joe’s friend left him a game cartridge lodged in the crack of a wall, which amazingly he managed to find.

The cruise on Lakes Union and Washington was quite pleasant. We passed by Bill Gates’ house, built at a cost of over $50M and now assessed at over $100M (well, you don’t really know what it is worth until it is sold). For such an impressive sounding house, it looked surprisingly modest. It was also interesting to see Route 520 built on top of a floating bridge. We also passed by the water home community of “Sleepless in Seattle” fame. It’s amazing how many boats there are in the Seattle area – one registered boat for about 10 residents.

A water home community on Lake Union.

The Gates estate as seen from the tour boat. Surprisingly modest for a place worth over $100M.

It was great fun watching boats being launched from the Alki ramp while we waited for Joe to finish his 9-mile jog.

Inside the Seattle Public Library, known for its unusal architecture. Indeed.

Monday we had lunch (hamburgers) at Dick's in Queen Anne, where they had a shooting a couple of days earlier. Simple but tasty fare. Afternoon drive to Port Angeles via a couple of Ferries. Ferry traffic was quite heavy during the summer season; we had to wait about 45 minutes for the boats. The Red Lion hotel is located on the waterfront. Known as the gateway to the Olympic National Park, Port Angeles is a surprisingly small, quiet town that appears to be on the decline.

Dinner at the 3-Crab restaurant in Dungeness was okay. Sequim is the "lavender capital" of North America.

On top of Hurricane Ridge, with glaciers and snow-covered mountains in the background.

The ride to Hurricane Ridge took 40 minutes, covering 19 miles. The skies were clear at an altitude of over 5000 feet. There are quite a few trails along the way, we didn’t have time to walk them, though. We drove back to SeaTac at a leisurely pace, had dinner in Chinatown (Weller Street), and caught the redeye to get back to Newark Wednesday morning.

Seattle skyline in view from the Ferry, on our way back from Port Angeles.