We awoke to gray skies, apparently the blue sky yesterday was as much sun as the Seattle area is allowed per month. Our plan was to visit a waterfall East of Seattle and then head into town. We headed off and the GPS showed a small slowdown near our destination. As we approached it slowed down but we were soon showing that we would clear the issue in another half mile. Then the traffic just stopped.
We sat way too long and eventually I decided to give up. We turned around and headed to the city. We will likely never see that waterfall. Our first stop was the Chihuly Garden and Glass. It’s a nice exhibit and I like his work, well some of it. If you are a fan it’s worth the stop but it’s a bit overpriced.
We then took a stroll over to Pikes Place Market. This place is famous for fish throwing but while we saw the mongers, we did not see any flying aquatic creatures. The market has many stalls with crafts, food and other junk. Overall it was crowded, dirty, and a bit dilapidated. We walked around a bit more and then headed back to Tacoma. I had found another fish and chips shop that was near our hotel.
It was a hole in the wall and really busy. We each got a fish and shrimp plate. I think this one was better than yesterdays though they were both delicious. Overall we made it a really easy day. We have been sightseeing hard for 9 days so it was good to kick back and relax.
The next morning we headed off to Mount Rainier National Park. We had seen the mountain from above, now it was time to see the park. The Pacific Northwest is known for its fog and gray skies. Yesterday and today had been gray. Heading to the park it was lots of gray with occasional mist. We did not expect to see the mountain and the mountain did not disappoint. We did see some nice rivers, waterfalls and had a good time taking short hikes. In the end we saw five waterfalls.
One detail that jumps out driving through is that some of the trees are humongous. Like super big and really tall. Overall it’s a nice park. It would be better with blue skies, some of the overlooks, I could have just as easily been looking at a blank piece of paper. We never did see the mountain from the ground. The skies had cleared back in Tacoma by the afternoon but for us the Rainier park stayed socked in.
Rainier was fun and after heading back to Tacoma we ditched the car at the Marriott and walked over to Union Station. This is an old train station that last had a train in 1948. It is now a federal courthouse and has some nice Chihuly pieces as well as cool architecture. We enjoyed the building. You need to go through security but they seemed well aware that many visitors were just there for the visuals.
We try to find new things to eat on the road but we broke down and stopped in a Starbucks for a drink. I don’t go at home but figured this was a quintessential Seattle destination. The original store was at Pike Place Market which we visited yesterday and opened in 1971. Since then the chain has expanded a bit.
I filed our flight plan for the morning and did a quick check of the weather. I was expecting it to start off low and clear by departure time. Given that we set the departure time, we had a good chance of making this. The approach minimums are 266 and 344 depending on which direction they are landing. Our departure criteria would be 500' and 1 mile visibility or better. Not a lot of terrain and we would be <5200 pounds on departure from sea level with cool temperatures.
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