boeing

museum of flight at boeing field

plane taking off at boeing field

inside museum

concorde

air force one

air force one

prototype boeing 747 first flight feb 1969

dream lifter

boeing factory

new 787 dreamliners waiting to be delivered

me at boeing

Friday 4th June

Today was our last day in Seattle and we had two things that we wanted to see and do before heading off to Vancouver. The first was the Museum of Flight which was only a few kilometres from our motel. The other was the Boeing factory just north of Seattle. We got to the museum at 10.00am and entered, the museum was good, it had a selection of all old planes from the Air Force and lots of history with older planes and the designs of planes. The tour also included entrance to see the prototype 747 which had its first flight in 1969, this was amazing to think that this plane was the first 747 which today is so common to fly on. It is incredible to walk around it as the size is amazing. It is 6 stories high to the top of the tail. Also here was a Concorde, which now I think we have seen 4 of the last remaining ones. Here also was Air Force One from 1959 to 1962 a Boeing 707. This plane was used up until 1996 before being retired and put on display. We got to walk through the Concorde and Air Force One which was kind of cool. From the Museum we then headed 50kms north to the boeing factory to do the tour. The tour started at 1.30pm and we had booked our tickets on the Internet the night before. The tour was amazing, the shed where these planes are made is over 1000 metres long by 500 metres wide. It is the largest building in the world by volume and it's located at Everett, 50km north of Seattle and it's 100 acres (40.47 hectares) factory houses Boeing's 747, 767, 777 and new 787 Dreamliner aircraft production lines.
About 25,000 people work at the site, which has its own security force and fire department, a fully equipped medical clinic, a childcare centre, a water treatment plant, its own electrical sub-stations, and 19 cafeterias which serve around 17,000 meals per day.
They say 2142 average-sized homes could fit inside the factory. Just the hangar doors are each roughly the size of a football field......WOW!!!

The only thing with the tour is that you can not take cameras or phones on it so you can not get photos. The only photos I have are from the museum where the tour bus departs from. It is amazing too that Boeing have built a specialised plane 'Dreamlifter' which they fly all over the world picking up parts of the 787 plane that are made in all countries. The pieces of fuselage are made in full size pieces and fit inside the Dreamlifter. This is to save time in the building process. At the moment they have over 800, 787 planes on order at a starting cost of 173 million dollars, compared to over 270 million for a 747. The Dreamliner is also made of composite material ie carbon fibre and weighs considerably less than an aluminium plane the same size. We got to see the 787 line with 4 planes being built, 747's and 777's. Inside the factory the planes looked small but obviously they are not. The tour lasted for 90 minutes and then we hit the road for Vancouver. We arrived in Vancouver after stopping at Taco Bell for dinner at about 7.00pm. Tomorrow we are looking around Vancouver,

seattle

underground tours

underground sidewalk

space needle

view from space needle of downtown

mt rainier if you look closely

bronte in the space needle

monorail

rocky mountain chocolate caramel apples

my apple

smith's tower

view over elliott bay

from smith's tower to space needle

300 year old chinese chair

Thursday 3rd June

Bit of a slow start to the day as we had a late night on Wednesday after the movie. By the time we got out of bed and headed into the city it was getting close to 12.00pm. Managed to drive into the city without any problems and found a car park right in the centre of town near Pioneer Square. We had decided to do an underground tour which took you through the underground tunnels below the sidewalks. Seattle had a major fire on 6th June 1889 and most of the downtown area was burnt down. The shops and buildings were re-built and the city council decided to raise the ground level to prevent the tide from Elliott Bay flooding up through the drainage system. However the shop owners started to build before the council raised the soil level and hence the council had to put in retaining walls at the kerb side which were 10 to 35 feet high, then fill the middle in where the road was. They were then forced to build higher footpaths that now covered the original footpaths. In turn the first floor of all the buildings became ground level and the original ground became the basements. This area did get used for a while and then closed off to the public. It has been only in recent decades that these underground tunnels have been opened for tourists. The tour was very interesting and our guide Jo was a bit of a comedian!

From the tour we caught a free city bus to the Space Needle. The Space Needle was built for the 1962 world fair and is 184 metres high and 42 metres wide at the widest point. The view from the top was really good but due to the weather we could not quite see Mount Rainier properly.

From the needle we walked around the grounds of the worlds fair and then caught the Monorail back to the main part of the city. We strolled through the city and came across a shop called the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. They had some amazing chocolates and toffee apples in all sorts of flavours. I had to buy one and it was yummy.

Next we went to the Scott's Tower which was built in 1914 and stands at 149 metres tall. The design and the architecture was very cool and it remained as the tallest office building west of the Mississippi River until 1931 and was the highest structure on the west coast until the Space Needle opened in 1962. We then headed back to the car and drove back to the motel. After a while we went out and had A & W for dinner and then back to plan the next couple of days. Heading to Vancouver tomorrow afternoon only after a tour of the Boeing Factory which should be really good.

japenese garden

japanese gardens

flat garden area

view back over portland

me in the garden

outside the garden

Wednesday 2nd June

Today was the last day at Portland and we had one thing that we wanted to do before we left. When we went to the Chinese Gardens yesterday we were actually looking for the Japanese Gardens. The Japanese Gardens in Portland is a 5.5 acre garden that has been open to the public since 1967. It is nestled in the scenic west hills of Portland just near the zoo. We arrived at the front gate where you can get a shuttle bus to the entrance gate. We caught the bus and rode it for the 2 or 3 minutes it took to get there. The garden was beautiful, the weather was overcast and was spitting a little bit of rain but this made the garden look awesome. There are 5 different sections to the garden that are laid out in true Japanese style. The garden had a spectacular view back over the city. We spent about 2 or so hours at the garden and then took the walking track back to the car. We were now heading for Seattle WA which was only around 260kms away. We stopped for lunch at Quiznos which is a little like Subway. Once we left from having lunch we hit the road only to get buckets and buckets of rain for the trip. In sections it was really hard to see and we had to slow down a bit as it got quite dangerous. Another car rolled which had been travelling in the opposite direction and almost ended up on our side of the freeway. We arrived in our motel at Tukwila which is about 20 kms south of the city, just close enough that it is an easy drive to get there to see the Space Needle. We set up our room and then headed out to the Westfield just across the street. Walked around there for a bit and then went to Ihop for dinner. After dinner we hit the cinema and saw Sex And The City 2. The movie was really good and we both really enjoyed it. Got back to the room and chilled out for a while before going to bed. Tomorrow we hit the city........

crater lakes and portland

Tuesday 1st June

Well today we got up early and headed for the Multnomah Falls which is in the Mount Hood National Park. It was about 50kms east of Portland. We hit the road in the new Mustang with no weird noises coming from the back. Took the exit from the freeway and was soon on the Historic Columbia River Highway. The first stop was the Wahkeena Falls, it was really nice and there was a short walking trail which took us to a bridge that cut across the front of the water fall. These falls are 240 feet high and very pretty to look at. All the trees and stuff around the park were so green and lush and made everything look so good. Back in the car and a little bit further east and we came to the Multnomah Falls visitor centre. Took the walk to the base of the falls. This was spectacular, it is 620 feet tall and is the second biggest, year round water falls in the US. This also had a walkway up to the bridge that crossed over in front of the falls. We walked up and looked at the first part of the falls. It was pretty good and the view was magnificent.

From these falls we drove to Oneonta Tunnel that use to be part of the old roadway which is now not used. The tunnel was carved out of the rock in 1914 and was used up til 1948 when it was filled in with rock due to being unstable. Last year in February it was dug out and renewed to its former glory. We took a walk through it but its now closed to vehicular traffic. We then took the Historic Columbia River Highway west back towards Portland when we stumbled across Latourell Falls where we stopped and took some more photos.

From there we stumbled across Vista House which was built between 1916-1918 as a memorial to Oregon pioneers, as a comfort station for those traveling on the Historic Columbia River Highway and as an observatory. The octagonal stone structure towers 733 feet above the Columbia River. Vista House was closed for almost 5 years while an extensive restoration was completed, and was reopened in the summer of 2005. The views from the observatory out over the river were magical.

We then kept heading back to the city and stopped for lunch at Subway on the way. From there we went right into Downtown and parked the car and went to the Lan Su Chinese Gardens. These gardens are a traditional Chinese Garden built by the Chinese using all Chinese supplies shipped out from China just for this garden and only the plants were from Oregon. The garden was very pretty and was well worth the walk through to admire. Suzhou in China is the sister city with Portland and that is where the designer Kuang Zhen Yan comes from. The garden was only opened on 14th September 2000. By now it was 5.00 pm and it had started to rain so we made our way back to the car and then back to the motel. The road was bad due to the traffic and the wet roads and took us about an hour to go only 20kms. For dinner we decided to head out and have A & W. It was a double restaurant with KFC in it as well. The food was good but some street bum came in and was harassing customers and the staff and they had to call the police. He left before they got there.

Tomorrow we are heading to Seattle where we plan to stay for 2 nights.

lan su chinese gardens

chinese gardens

vista house

latourell falls

our new mustang

multnomah falls

close up!

wahkeena falls

further back on wahkeena falls

Monday 31st May

Today we decide to head from Medford to Crater Lakes which is a lake in a extinct volcano much like the blue lake in Mount Gambier. It was only 150kms away and was going to be a nice drive. Once we got to about 20kms away we started to get snow on the sides of the road. It started to feel like our trip to Yellowstone 2 years ago. We did know that some of the roads are still closed until further into summer because of the snow but still accessible. We arrived and took a park at the top only to find the whole place fogged in and misty raining. We still had a walk around on the snow and walked to the edge of the crater to look down to where the water should be, but we could see nothing but white. We drove to another location which was only a few hundred metres from the main carpark and that to was no better. While up at the snow we decided to put the roof of the car down just cause we can! It was COLD!

We hit the road again now to head through some of Deschutes National Park with a bit of a detour instead of heading straight to Portland Oregon. It was about another 500 kms but the scenery was very nice. We stopped off at a rest stop and saw a chipmunk eating a nut, he was so cute and we wanted to take him home. Towards the last couple of hundred kilometres we did get a fair bit of rain until we got back down from the mountains.

Got to the airport at Portland and spoke to Hertz about our noisy car. We had organised to swap it over for a new one. We now are the proud owners of a gunmetal grey Mustang which has a couple of extras on it. It is a far better car having only 59000kms on it rather than 80000kms like the white one.

From the airport we went to the motel which was only a couple of kms away and checked in. This motel had a nice pool and spa area. I went for a spa as I had a bit of a sore back and wanted to try and soothe it. After the spa we went out for dinner and had Ihop, mmm yummy, it's been a year since the last Ihop and it was good.

Tomorrow we are going to look around Portland as they have some really great waterfalls and gardens. There are a couple of national parks very close by which have some rather large mountains still covered in snow. Mt Hodd and Rainier National Park for example.

alvin the chipmunk

crater lakes

the lake under the fog!

roof down and freeezing

road to crater lakes

medford oregon

our Mustang

road trip!

Shasta National Park

snow covered mountains

ski boats on the lake

Sunday 30th May 2010.

Today we travelled north and headed into the state of Oregon, we have actually stopped at Medford. Our route took us through some really scenic national parks. We stopped off at Shasta National Forest near Shasta Lake. Due to the long weekend here there were stacks of people everywhere on boats and jet skis. It is amazing but there is a fair amount of snow about this area and on the mountains. Some of the roads are still closed until at least July which is well into summer.

Spoke to Hertz today about our noisy car, we are swapping it over on Monday but they are not sure if it will be another Mustang.

Heading to a place called Crater Lakes tomorrow morning which is like the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier but bigger. Should get some good photos of the lake and scenery.

la and hollywood

Hi to everyone back in Adelaide Australia. Well we arrived safely at LAX at about 5.30 p.m. Friday afternoon, it took about an hour to get through customs and immigration and collect our luggage but we got through no worries. We then got a shuttle bus to the rental car depot and picked up our Mustang. We were meant to have a hard top Mustang but they did not have any so we got a convertible one. It's white with black pin strips down the side. Is is pretty cool but the diff sounds like it's going to die. The car has done 40'000 miles and is due to be traded in soon I think. Still we look cool in it!! Had our first dinner at Applebee's which we were hanging out for and it did not disappoint!

Today we got up and drove to Hollywood and onto Hollywood Boulevard. I had to go to Hurricane shoes and buy some more 'bright' shoes. They do look really cool if I do say so myself. I also got my nephew, Harrison some cool shoes that are 'like Richie's.' He will have to wait until we get home to see them.

We then hit the road and headed north and are spending the night at Milpitas CA which is about 80kms from San Fransisco. Got cheap accommodation, $39 + tax which is quite good. Heading further north tomorrow as we head closer to Seattle. I will upload some photos soon, we really haven't taken many yet.

Leaving for LA

Well its Friday morning and we are about to leave for our newest road trip. In the process of packing now. In 24 hours we should be in LA with our Mustang!