Day 445: Touring Seattle

We had a great Shabbos here in Seattle.  We met our new friends Chanan and Sarah, who it turns out are friends with our Las Vegas friends Micha and Tehilla, who in turn also know Kent and Bracha here in Seattle, whom we’ve known for 15 years of so.  Small world!

Saturday night there was a pretty bad storm, and the neighborhood lost power for 12 hours or so.  This was a big deal for folks living here, but for us it was a non-event since we weren’t plugged in anyway.  We are going to need to plug in or run the generator soon, as the constant cloud cover is reducing our solar panel harvest.

This morning, the sun came out for 30 minutes or so, and I was so excited I was jumping up and down in the RV.  A local told me that Seattle has the lowest average lumens of any major city in the US.  It gets a little depressing.

Late this morning we drove into downtown.  After driving around for a bit, we found a parking spot and walked over to the Space Needle:

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The area has some interesting sculptures:

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Getting nice photos with M is never easy, as he can’t just stand still:

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Seattle has bike kiosks where for $8 a day one can rent one of these slightly more green than celeste bikes.  There’s even a closet at the end of the aisle that contains sanitized helmets for use with the bikes:

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We walked down to the Olympic Sculpture Park to view what passes for art these days:

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It started to rain pretty hard:

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After a nice lunch at the Bamboo Garden, we again found a parking spot and walked down to the waterfront:

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From there, we walked over to the Pike Place Market:

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The famous gum wall, where thousands of tourists have left their chewing gum on the alley walls:

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This fellow paints customer’s names by creating a Chinese art scene for each letter:

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I love the cobblestone streets:

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It was a long day with quite a bit of walking, and it confirmed that I still hate being in an urban setting.

Day 443: Arlington to Seattle

The clouds cleared this morning so we were able to see the Cascades to the East from the Walmart parking lot:

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B continues using her wall to work on her writing curriculum:

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It’s easy to tell which room is a boy’s room:

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After finishing homeschool, we drove South to overnight at the synagogue in Seattle, in the Seward Park neighborhood.  Good Shabbos from Seattle, Washington!  See the trip map for driving details.

Day 442: Burlington to Arlington

We left the Lowes of Burlington this morning and repositioned to the Walmart of Arlington for a day of home schooling and RV repairs:

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We had wanted to visit North Cascades National Park, but the drive was 70ish miles one way from Burlington and the weather was very cloudy and it was raining. I called the visitor center and they confirmed that the mountains were hidden by clouds, so we decided to skip it for now.

See the trip map for driving details.

Day 441: Podcasts, School, and RV Work in Burlington

It was another cloudy, dreary day here in Washington:

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Trish finalized her reorganization of the pantry:

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B did some of her homeschool on her wall:

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When I initially installed the door between the living room and the bathroom, the door opened outward into the living room, which caused the door to collide with B’s bedroom door.  I took the door down and remounted it so it now opens into the bathroom:

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In Geography, the kids learned about and recreated the terracotta soldiers found in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of China:
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B (left) and Trish (right) wait for their soldiers to dry:

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Exciting News! We’ve finally posted podcasts that the kids produced for pervious days on our trip.  The podcasts can be found at the end of the posts for these three days:

Day 406: Great Basin National Park

Day 407: Flat Out at the Bonneville Flats

Day 410: Craters of the Moon National Monument

To avoid wearing out our welcome, we’re overnighting at the Lowe’s of Burlington.  Since we had no sun all day, I’m running the generator to charge the batteries, one of the few times we’ve had to do that on this trip.

Day 440: Ferries and Islands – the San Juans

This morning, we left Burlington before sunrise and drove to Anacortes, dropped off the RV in a parking lot, and got in line to board the 9:30am ferry to San Juan Island:

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The ferry can hold about 150 vehicles:

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Apparently this is not the busy season:

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Watching the world go by:

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While onboard, the fire crew went through their monthly drill:

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Another ferry going the other way:

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People leave jigsaw puzzles on the ferry for passengers to work on as they travel:

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After about an hour, we arrived in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island:

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After driving off the ferry, we drove to the South side of the island to visit the American Camp unit of the San Juan Island National Historical Park, site of the Pig War that culminated in decisive US ownership of the San Juan Islands.  The Americans built a military outpost here to protect US citizens from expulsion from the island by British Forces while ownership of the island was in question.  Unfortunately, the visitor center is only opened from Wednesday to Saturday, so we weren’t able to get Junior Ranger badges here:

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The laundry building:

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The two buildings above are on the left side of the period photograph below:

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An artillery redoubt built to overlook the shore:

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We hiked the southern shore of the island:

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Slug on a mushroom:

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We drove South to view the Castle Point Lighthouse:

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Next we drove North to visit a Lavender farm:

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Continuing North, we visited the British Camp on the island:

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The British had a formal garden here:

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Next we visited a sculpture garden that includes a horizontal tree trunk with an engraver next to it.  Visitors are encouraged to carve on the log.  Trish carved this fish:

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B left her mark as well:

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Lots of interesting, ridiculously overpriced art here:

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This mirror-on-an-easel piece was pretty neat:

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We briefly walked around Friday Harbor’s quaint downtown:

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Back on the ferry:

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So long, San Juan Island:

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Coming to the island, the trip was direct from Anacortes to San Juan Island.  On this return trip, we had an intermediate stop at Lopez Island:

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Leaving Lopez Island:

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Since we happened to be on the same ferry on the way back, the kids tried to find the jigsaw puzzle they worked on this morning.  Unfortunately, someone must have finished it and put it away while we were on the island, so we had to start over.  It was very nearly finished by the time we returned to Anacortes:

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It was a long day, but traveling by ferry and touring the island was great fun!

After departing from the ferry, we hitched up the RV and returned to Big 5 Sporting Goods in Burlington to overnight.  See the trip map for route details.

Update:The kids have recorded a podcast for today’s trip.  Play it below: