2007 Travel Adventures

On Saturday afternoon, I took one of the famous "Duck Tours" of the city. I got some great views both from the land and the water, and the trip was a lot of fun!

Drove right past the park:

This is the boat I wanted to buy for Steph and I. It's perfect - room for two to live, bike on the back, lounge chairs on the porch, there are even 2 lounge chairs on the top deck for soaking up the rays!

One of the many sea planes that I saw up close when we were on the lake:

How often do you see a dog in a lifejacket on the front of a boat?

Views looking back at the city:

I'm guessing this boat's pretty slow.....

Great View of the Space Needle

Sailboat out for a ride

This building's interesting look caught my eye

Sharp looking wooden boat

This is a popular kite-flying park on the Lake

View of the Mountains looking through the Tallest bridge in Seattle

The variety of the lake amazed me - there were kayaks 20 feet from yachts 20 feet from sea planes landing and taking off, all while looking at the city skyline in one direction and the mountains in the other.

These are something that I had never seen before - floating houses! These houses literally float on top of the water, and average about 2000 square feet at a cost of just over a million dollars:

I Guess if you can afford the house, you can afford an equally large boat....

Cool mural in the city (apparently just outside of Wallingford):

Since I had back-to-back workshops in Seattle the weeks of 2/12 and 2/19, I spent the weekend in between out there. On Saturday morning, I was up early and decided to take some pictures of the view. I am staying at the Westin Bellevue, about 10 miles outside of Seattle. Visible from my room on the 17th floor, to the South East, is Mount Rainier. These pictures were taken at (and just after) Sunrise:

Later on Saturday, I went down into Seattle Center to see the Space Needle. I had a great day for riding up to the observation deck due to the clear skies and warm weather (Highs in the 60's). The Observation deck of the Space Needle is 620 feet up. The ride up is in a glass elevator, attached on the back to the needle, allowing for beautiful views during the 30 second ride.

Here are a few photos of the Space Needle from the ground below it. If you look closely in the first one, you'll see an orange car about 90% of the way up. That's one of the elevators.

Once I was up at the top, there's an outside observation deck that wraps full circle around for viewing in all directions. There are also many free telescopes for use, allowing for great viewing of the surrounding areas. These pictures were taken on my first trip up around 1:00 pm.

Seattle Skyline - Note the 2 Sports domes on the right (Safeco Field, home to the Seattle Mariners and QWest Field, home to the Seattle Seahawks).

Close-Up of the sports domes and Mt Rainier in the background:

Across Puget Sound, to the West, is the beautiful Olympic National Park. This park is amazingly diverse, as it has Rainforests, miles of Pacific Ocean Coastline, and the Glacial Peaks of the Olympic Mountains. I was hoping to visit the park, but called and found out they had over 100 inches of snow this year already!!

One of the more interesting things that I learned while in Seattle is that they have the highest per capita boat population in the nation. Check out this concentration of boats:

Just to give you some perspective on the height:

Looking out to the East / Northeast is the picturesque Lake Washington. Beyond the Lake, to the Northeast, is North Cascades National Park, home to Glacier Peak, a Volcano standing over 10,500 feet. North Cascades Park extends all the way up to Canada.

One of the coolest things that I saw out there were the Sea planes. Although I've never seen one in the east, they have them everywhere out here, and if you watch the lake for 5 minutes you're sure to see one landing or taking off. I managed to get a picture of one taking off from Lake Washington (Just beyond the sail boats):

On Lake Washington, not only is the boat concentration impressive, but so are the calibre of the boats:

Across the Lake due East is the city of Bellevue, where I stayed during my trip. The Westin is the tallest building in town, so it's relatively easy to spot in the photo: