Washington and Oregon Delights

Hi Again!

When we left Seattle we drove the huge distance to Tacoma — about 40 minutes.  Our first stop was at the LeMay Auto Museum.  It was amazing…..and huge!!!  All kinds of cars both new and old — historic and racing and funny….  The police car below was finished being refurbished and put on the floor the day before we arrived.  Here are some of them:

It was time for some lunch.  John knew a good pizza place from his last trip to Tacoma with Campbell; we headed there.

Just across the street from the pizza stop is the United States Court Building — a beautiful old building that is still in service as the courts.

Obviously we are still in Chihuly land — all beautifully installed in this lovely old building.  When you walk out the door and go a few feet you turn left and go onto a bridge over to the Museum of Glass.  It is all another installation by Dale Chihuly….and really different and beautiful pieces.

The sculptures below are on the open part of the bridge over a huge highway below.  Think how fun it would be to drive underneath and see these wonderful pieces of glass in the sky!

I didn’t see this guy coming.  He asked “do I look good in the picture?”  Good for size!

Across the bridge sits the Museum of Glass with lots of ramps to get me down to ground level.  Michael found a Lime scooter and left me in his dust!

There were some interesting pieces — but it was not Chihuly — IMO.  However, below are some pieces by children from ages 6 to 11.  There are glass classes held there — pretty amazing….

And, of course, I couldn’t pass by the beautiful flowers on the way out….

We ended our day of exploring with a side trip to see Stadium High School and Stadium Field.  The school was built as a hotel, burned to a shell in 1898, then turned into a school in the early 1900’s as Tacoma High School.  The name was changed to Stadium High because of the stadium next door built in what was called “Old Woman’s Gulch”.  Very unusual — both of them!

The best surprise came at our check-in for one night at the Fairfield Inn:

The next morning began a big day for us:  trying to tackle seeing both Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens.  It turns out that it wasn’t too difficult — we could never see it looming on the horizon…..and, when we got to the park entrance, the guards told us not to bother paying  to go into the park — we wouldn’t see any more than we had seen already.  I have some pictures of Mt. Rainier to show you — maybe:). We did see some beautiful  countryside — if a little dark and wet.

Undaunted we headed on to Mount Saint Helens — one of my big goals for the trip!  I’ll show you more pix along the way:

This makes Michael so angry!!

And then we arrived at Mt. St. Helens — the destination that I was most excited to see.

At the Visitor  Center we watched a movie all about the eruption on May 18, 1980.

At the end of the movie the screen was lifted into the ceiling, the draperies parted to open onto a gigantic window that overlooks the volcano!!!  Here it is!

Nothing at all….just fog!

So I took some pictures of the exhibit and the photos.

 

 I decided NOT to pay for the special viewer — didn’t think it would enhance my experience 🙂

Well, so much for Mount St. Helens; at least the movie and exhibits were interesting!  We continued on our way, arriving late afternoon in Portland.  It had been a long driving day and a disappointing one…..but discovering Portland was ahead.

Our morning began with a stop at Mother’s Bistro — great food!

Just across the street was the famous Voodoo Doughnuts; we wanted to look inside at the doughnuts but the line scared us off.  And, a native told Michael that Blue Star was better!  But you should google voodoo doughnuts to see the kinds….

The scenery was wonderful as we headed to the Columbia River Gorge and Multnomah Falls!

We arrived, started up to the falls and the skies flat opened.  We did not take umbrellas for the first time and we were instantly drenched!!!  We turned around and headed to the restaurant and the minute we ordered, the sun came out!

John and Michael climbed up to the bridge; they are on the right.

Interesting facts:

Further into the Columbia River Gorge we came across another falls…..much smaller but also pretty.  You’ll see I’m a little drenched.

This amused John; the woman was posing for her picture.

More nice scenery on the way back

Once close to town we stopped at the Nike World Headquarters.  It is a huge and beautiful campus with A LOT of buildings.

They shooed us out of the Tiger Woods Building; they were trying out some new product!

Michael was getting tired of my random pix!

A woman employee was walking by and gave John a card entitling us to get into the Nike Company store with a 40% discount.  Needless to say we all found something!

That night we met Michael’s uncle and family for dinner.  That would be Peter & Kelly Alandt and their son Leon…..that would also be my former husband Peter’s son and family.  I have known them before; they stayed with us at the lake when Melissa & Karl got married; they are great people and we enjoyed being with them!

The next morning began with a binge — we stopped at Blue Star Doughnuts to buy a bunch of doughnuts to take to the Jenkins Family Reunion in Depoe Bay.  Doughnuts for Grownups is their slogan — many interesting and wonderful kinds!

This is a creme brûlée donut.  We watched her glaze the sugar on the top

We traveled westward and south to reach the Tillamook Factory.  Interesting and very tasty….

We have been having a wonderful and interesting trip.  The next chapter starts later this same day.

Bye for now,

Beth