Naval Undersea Museum, Keyport

Undersea Museum in Keyport, WA

Dad in front of Sea Lab II

Dad looking through periscope of an SSBN submarine

Dad exiting a hatch from a submarine

Dad at the controls of a submarine.

This museum was really interesting and jam packed full of information and exhibits.

Seattle

Approaching Seattle. Couldn't take ferry today so had to drive. It was pretty nice this morning but it poured when we got back and we would have been soaked because its a 1-1/2 mile walk from base to ferry.

Fishermans Marina. This is the Wizard from "Deadliest Catch".

Here's the Northwestern from "Deadliest Catch. This was as close as we could get. The marina is surrounded by a fence and it's locked so we could only stand outside on the public marina and take pictures. This one is a really clean boat. The Hansen's take good care of it.

Pikes Fish Market. Very crowded today. They wouldn't throw any fish because no one was buying anything. We wanted to buy some Copper River salmon because it was so good last night at dinner in Gig Harbor but it would have cost $150 to ship home!!!!

We walked for miles on the Seattle waterfront and a lot of it was uphill! We had lunch at the Buffalo New York Style Deli. It was really good and mom was happy to sit down for a while.

The ferry coming into Seattle from Bremerton.

Sideways picture of entrance to Seattle Music Experience. It was really cool. There was a photo exhibit of musicians taken by Graham Nash, the Jimmy Hendrix Experience, and a whole exhibit on Seattle musicians over the years, including alot of their gear, original lyrics written on scratch paper, and alot of broken guitars! You could even go in and play guitar in one of the rooms and make your own demo tape.

This is the tree of guitars when you enter museum. It goes all the way to the third floor.

Seattle Space Needle. Huge long line to get in.

Damian, here is one of the DUKW's. Maybe you and dad can take a ride someday!

Tacoma and Gig harbor

A really cool cathedral in Tacoma. Lots of old architecture.

The Tacoma courthouse.

Mom and Dad in front of a glass sculture at the Tacoma Museum of Glass.

One of the many glass sculptures in front of museum. These represent waves.

Dad in front of a sculpture representing lily pads and plants. The museum is on the waterfront.

Wall of glass art as you enter the plaza going into the museum. Some of them are several feet high.

More glass scultptures entering the plaza to museum.

This is a 500' long pedestrian bridge that links downtown Tacoma with the museums. This is the ceiling of the bridge; tons of glass shaped as shells, eels, seahorses, etc. It's really cool.

Front of the Museum of Glass, Tacoma.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge. This is the bridge that was featured on TV that buckled during high winds. They have since fixed it (obviously) but the sign going on to the bridge said, "severe side winds ahead" and the windsock was blowing completely sideways!

Bremerton

Left Astoria about 9:00 a.m. and arrived in Bremerton WA around noon.

After we checked into Gateway Inn, we went to Naval Museum on base and then went to Fountain Park, between museum and ferry. Water shoots out from the top of these like a volcano. Lots of kids playing in the water.

Nature preserve in Bremerton. Lots of trails and lush ferns and trees.

Seattle skyline from Bainbridge Island. Kind of overcast.

All roads on Bainbridge Island look like this. Also walked on the beach. Lots of rocks and driftwood.

Just one of the many beautiful houses on Bainbridge Island.

Sign entering the island.

View of Bremerton and Cascades from an observation tower in Port Orchard, just across Puget Sound from the base.


Monday is dad's first day of work so no pics until the weekend. Supposed to rain all week. Boo hoo.

Thursday May 13th Day Five of our journey

This tree is through a forest on the Lewis & Clark National Park trail where they camped in the winter from 1804-1806.

Fort Clatsap at Lewis & Clark National Park

Flavil House. This house was used in the movies "The Goonies" and "Kindergarten Cop"

Sign entering Astoria Oregon

They sell the best Fish & Chips ever!!!!

Maritime Museum. Dad standing with a 16-inch round for one of the battleships of WWII.

Welcome to Astoria!

Today we hung out in Astoria. What a beautiful town. All the houses are Victoria style with big porches. We went to the the Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria Column which is 125 feet high a spiral staircase with 64 steps and a look-out tower on top where you can see beautiful views of the city and the Columbia River. From there we drove around town and took pictures of some of the streets and houses where they have filmed some movies and then on to the Lewis & Clark State Park where they built their winter fort in 1806. Beautiful trails and a great visitor center. Ate Fultano's Pizza for dinner. Yummy!

Wednesday May 12th Day four of our journey

Pictures out of order. Start at bottom.

This is the Heceta Head Lighthouse, right past the Sea Lion caves. No sea lions out today. Too cold!

View from behind us sitting along the bluffs.

Mom and dad sitting up on the bluff across from Shore Acres.

This pond was also part of the park. It was an estate and was left to Oregon when the couple died.

Shore Acres State Park, overlooking a bluff over the ocean. This park is so lush and the rhododendruns are beautiful. The depth of color in Oregon's flowers is something you don't see in CA.

Leaving Coos Bay, we had to wait for the drawbridge to let some boats through.

This tree trunk was seeded in 1660 and logged in 2000.

There were markers all over the tree to show how big it was during events like the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the start of WWII.

Marina at Coos Bay

Boardwalk at Coos Bay

Arrived in Coos Bay about 4:00 p.m. Ate German food at the Blue Heron which was really good. Walked across the street to the boardwalk and took some pictures from there. Tomorrow we head to Astoria, where Kindergarten Cop and Goonies was filmed.

Tuesday May 11th Day three of our journey

One of the smaller waterfalls seen through the trees along the Umpqua River

(Have to look at this one sideways). Moss on trees along Umpqua River

Another small waterfall.

This bridge was at the base of Fall Creek waterfall. We would have walked the mile to the actual fall but it was very wet and slippery and didn't have the right shoes. It was really dark in there and just spectacular.

This was also at the base of waterfall looking through a tunnel.

Bridge to trail at base of waterfall.

Dad at center of bridge.

Umpqua River. Lots of men fly fishing on the rocks. Popular place!

One of the many covered bridges. This was in Sunny Valley (altho it was raining).



We left Medford, OR at 9:00 a.m. after having a hot breakfast at hotel. Huge comfy king size bed and lots and lots of pillow. Had a really good night's sleep. Took the 138 from Roseburg to north end of Crater Lake (but it was closed). Drove along the Umpqua River and several waterfalls. This part of Oregon is so beautiful it's hard to imagine that it could get any better. Off to Coos Bay overnight and then on to Astoria.