Traveling Fool

  On the way to Friday Harbour, sadly, no frequent flyer miles. I will admit that this trip was not planned out as well as it could have been, so I kind of crammed my whale watching tour into a one day frenzy. I could have taken my chances with a tour closer to Seattle, but I wanted to increase my odds, so I booked a tour with San Juan Excursions who also helped me coordinate the flight to Friday Harbour on Kenmore Air . The flight provided an aerial view of Seattle and was really nice, although very loud. Once I landed and checked in for the tour, I had a couple of hours to walk around town, get some breakfast and just relax. from the plane We boarded the boat and the crew talked us through the game plan for the day, explaining some of the expectations and guidelines for watching the whales. The boats have to stay a certain distance from the whales, and if the whales get closer, the engines are cut, there is also a flag that gets put on the boat to let other boats know there are ...

I spent my Sunday in Seattle going to the Chihuly Garden and Glass  and the Space Needle. I booked a joint ticket; it was timed for entrance into the Space Needle, but open-ended for Chihuly. I didn't have any idea what to expect at Chihuly, I thought, meh, glass, okay I'll check it out. Well, shut the front door, I was blown away, jaw-dropping. The colors, the shapes and complexity and variety, it was all just crazy. The hushed silences were not required, but I think everyone was overwhelmed with the scope of what we were seeing. You kind of flow from room to room, taking in the colors, and then you move out of the dark rooms into a greenhouse type of structure and then into gardens.  The Chihuly is very near the Space Needle and a park with treats and vendors, which is a good place to hang out and people watch and wait for your turn to join the queue to go up to the top. There are some reviews that are dismissive of going to the top of the Space Needle, it's cheesy, tack...

 In August I headed to Seattle, originally it was to go to a Seattle Mariners' game, but in the end, the trip was so much more than that. There was something magical about flying over Mt. Rainier, pinkish blue fromt he sunset and sadly, forest fires. I only had four days, and I tried to cram as much in as possible. I used my first day to try and get oriented, learning how to take the bus outside my motel to downtown and to the waterfront. We'll just say it was an experience. I do like that it was pretty easy to get around and there are a lot of options for getting around the Seattle area buses, trams, trains and ferries. It was unseasonably hot, even in the great Northwest; ridiculous heat. I booked a harbor tour, about 2 hours or so getting a view of the Seattle port, skyline, etc. It's not a whale watching tour, although it could happen. I did see two little jellyfish before we even left the dock.   After the tour and a nice lunch, I headed back to the motel for a littl...