The Traveling Twosome: Tacoma & Seattle

Packed up and left hotel at 10:35am after cleaning the car - on our way to AAA office for maps. Turned out it was closed due to the holiday today. We went to Starbucks and got on the road. We were on the freeway (84) when we saw a large sign stating the freeway is closed in 10 miles - use alternate route. Good thing we had a paper map in addition to the GPS.

We crossed into Washington and headed for the Bonneville Lock and Dam. Below is the visitor center:

A display of the fish climbing up the ladder:

Pam loved the canoe...

We bought a ceramic fish made by a local artist in Stevenson, Washington:

Our next stop is the Columbia Gorge Interpretive Center. Today was the last day the facility was going to be open for the season - we lucked out - and we were the ONLY people there. Not another car in the parking lot...

The Center just had a car event on Saturday:

We heard the waterfall...and found it in this diorama:

Nice museum store. We found the same artist of the gourd we purchased in Portland with a few gourds here in the store:

Gas fill up in Stevenson, WA

30.2 mpg - 216.3 miles - 6.867 gal @ $3.989/gal

Approx 4:15pm - stopped to take photo of Mt St Helens. Surprising, we were not able to see much along the drive because of the rows of trees.

We arrived at the hotel - Best Western Plaza by the Green - at dusk. We had read that the spa and pool was being renovated during the month of August - today is Sept 1st and it's not ready yet. Drats! Hopefully tomorrow.

Tuesday, Sep 2 - left hotel after full breakfast - love the waffles and eggs were much better than our last hotel (per Norm).

Purchased has at Arco - 33.8mpg - 190.9 miles - 7.478 gal @ $3.62/gal - we've got 15634 miles on the Honda Fit so far since leasing it.

Yeah - STARBUCKS for my morning, afternoon, evening - fix!!! It's always time for Starbucks!

A busy day planned, driving first to Woodinville east of Seattle for wine tasting and finally ending down in Tacoma for beer tasting and dinner (at 8 pm). Our Best Western room is in Kent, about half way between Seattle and Tacoma for that reason.

Left Starbucks in Kent about noon for our first stop, reknowned Chateau St Michelle - down a long drive:

This land used to be called the Hollywood Farm:

We shared the Riesling Flight then decided to go on the tour:

We were just in time for the tour - Ken was our guide - very knowledgeable:

They have an arrangement with guest winemakers who come a few times each year to help develop specific blends. This wall of photos showed all their guest winemakers and where they are from:

Norm is at the wine bar awaiting our 3 tastings at the end of the tour. We purchased two bottles of Late Harvest Riesling:

They ask different artists to design labels on occasion - Dale Chihuly was one of them:

Artist Dan Dailey made these two pieces that were on display:

The gift shop at this winery was the best I've seen. There were so many things that I wanted to buy. We both just loved these little creatures...Norm bought me the cat. It doesn't eat much!

The artist is Aaron Jackson from Australia:

I thought these manniquins we're real cute:

They had a huge high heel with lots of different high heel wine bottle holders:

These glass musical instruments (just decorative) were beautiful - yes, even a ukulele:

They have a huge amphitheater outside - I'd love to live nearby to attend their concerts:

Here we are with our prized "cat"...

After leaving this winery, we drove across the street to Columbia Winery:

I loved the fireplace glowing...made it feel cozy even though the winery was pretty modern inside. Hardly much of a gift shop - we were spoiled with the one across the street. We shared a flight of wine tasting...$10 for a tasting. Wine was good but kind of pricey. The other winery was much better.

When we left, we decided to head to Seattle and Pike Place Market. This is a view of the Space Needle from the freeway:

What a bargain! Oh....if we just lived closer...

Here we are at the Mother Ship - the first Starbucks - the only one with boobies on the logo:

Here's Pam in line with her "gold card"....

This is my kind of guy!

We walked around the market area and enjoyed some people-watching and fun signs:

I took a photo of a couple of T-shirts - just loved them:

While enjoying a nice time sitting under the tree in the shade, suddenly I looked down and a bird had shat on my sleeve...ewww...luckily it came out but it certainly toned down the romantic vibes - Ha

We walked out on an open walkway and took a few photos - a cruise ship was just departing.

We shared a sandwich at Sisters. The music in the restaurant was blaring, then we heard music from next door, then a banjo player started playing outside...where are the earplugs...(and we're not just being fuddy duddies),,,.all the music was in competition with each other.

And here was the banjo player...actually not bad once we tuned in to him.

Next we headed to the Chihuly Glass Museum next to the Space Needle. This "wall" separated our parking lot to the Space Needle. It was tall pieces of glass...

This is a photo of the ceiling in the cafe - it is made up of lots of accordians hanging from the ceiling. Pretty strange - but certainly a conversation starter...

Next to the gift shop where everything was too pricey. I did see a jewelry artist there that I saw at the Art in the Pearl show in Portland - biz name is Stubborn" - and her pricing was similar...maybe a bit higher at the museum.

I liked this necklace design so took a photo:

Next we headed to Tacoma for a tour of the Narrows Brewing Co. Tour starts at 7pm and we hit lots of traffic and made it about 5 minutes into the presentation by one of the owners. Very informative - we tasted the beer too.