Washington and Oregon State Adventures

Daughter came to visit after six weeks traveling around France and four weeks at FUS. With her in tow, we wandered down to find weird stuff in Portland, stopped at Mount St. Helens on the way back, explored a little of Tacoma, and wandered around our old haunts in Seattle.

Highline Botanical Garden

One of our favorite places near our Tukwila apartment is the Highline Botanical Garden. Even right in the flight path for SeaTac airport, it was a nice place to relax and hang out with the jet-lagged daughter.

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Powell’s Bookstore

Mt St Helens Panorama

Mt St Helens

We rented a car and drove down to Portland for a day. We wandered around the old city, original Chinatown area, looked for a short line at Voodoo Donuts (none found), and spent an hour at Powell’s Bookstore.

On the way back to Seattle, we detoured off to see what we might see at Mount Saint Helens.  Although clouds hid the very top, the visitor center provided interesting displays of the 1980 volcanic eruption.

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Chihuly Bridge of Glass

Chihuly Bridge of Glass

Statue with nice backpack remembering Union Station

Tacoma delighted us with the Museum of Glass neighborhood along the Thea Foss waterway. The US District Court which originally was the Union Station still captures the atmosphere with a bronze life size statue of a waiting passenger.

The fabulous Chihuly glass sculptures are everywhere. Our original introduction to the artist Chihuly was at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. During a drive around the Eastern United States in 2008, we stopped there specifically to see their temporary exhibit on glass making, art, and sculpture.

We spent the afternoon exploring Gig harbor, an old fishing community, just beyond the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

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