Boeing Plant Tour

Hello all of you bloggers this is Ben.

We went on this really awesome tour of the Boeing plant in Seattle Washington on the morning of Saturday October 1^st. All of the boys, Uncle Bill, Mr. Mike Cecor, Uncle Chris, Uncle Phil, and Josh, Daniel, Dad, and I went on this tour. It starts in the Boeing visitor center where we paid and poked around in the gift shop. Then we got on a bus and drove off by bus to the biggest building by volume in the world. We saw the 747’s being built, the 777’s, and the new 787 Dreamliners being built all right there in one building. We also went to an observation deck where we could overlook the building of the 787’s. We also went into a museum where we saw how a jet turbine works and saw full sized airplanes hanging from the ceiling. We are all kind of aviation nerds so we all thoroughly enjoyed the tour. They wouldn’t let us take any pictures on the tour, sorry! 

Sightseeing in Seattle

Hey Everyone,

After Dad and I met the others in the suburbs of Seattle on Friday, we headed for our campground in Issaquah, only about 25 minutes from Seattle. We got to our campground, and Mom and I headed to the salon to get our hair cut for the first time in 6 weeks!! As we were headed back to the RV we saw Dad, Josh, Ben and Daniel out along the side of the road picking, guess what? Blackberries! Unfortunately most of them were a bit dried up but we got a few too few for a cobbler, so we added some peaches and it turned out great!! The next morning Uncle Bill, Aunt Karen, and their friends, Mike and Carolyn Cecor came over, saw the RV and we all went sightseeing! First we headed to see Tree House Point, where the wedding was to be held.  We got to get to walk around the property; all the tree houses were so neat! After the tree houses we went to see the Snoqualmie Falls, a huge, beautiful waterfall in Issaquah, Washington.  After the waterfalls we headed to meet Uncle Chris and Aunt Vicki at the hotel where the family was staying.  We drove down to downtown Seattle, parked and walked to find Genghis Kahn, a Chinese Restaurant.  We had a nice dinner, and walked back to the cars, drove to others back to hotel and we went to our RV for bed.

Blackberry Peach Cobbler

Snoqualmie Falls

The our group at the falls

Olympic National Park, Day 2

How doing all of you avid Blog readers,

Josh, Ben, Daniel and Anna here ready to give you a write-up on our second day in Olympic National Park on Friday.  Coast, forest and mountain ecosystems combine to create this spectacular wilderness park.  It’s the only park in the nation where you can explore the snow in the morning and ocean tide pools in the afternoon!  Our day on the Olympic Peninsula began with a wake-up call at 6:00 a.m., breakfast and a drive to the Olympic coast.  We pulled into the parking lot of Beach 4 where we began our trek to the beach.  The ½ mile trail wound through a spectacular rain forest complete with a waterfall draining to the beach.  We walked another ½ mile along the gravel beach while waves crashed against the shore.  The rocks were perfect were skipping across the ocean waves.  When we reached a rock area, we discovered the most wonderful tide pools.  The rock pools were filled with water creatures including colorful sea stars, sea annenomies, urchins and barnacles.  Unfortunately, the tide came in quickly so we could only enjoy our sea friends for about an hour. 

We walked through the rain forest back to the van and headed about 30 miles away to an incredible rain forest.  This rain forest is the only one of its kind in the world.  It gets roughly 180 inches of precipitation annually making it a extremely wet climate.  Well we arrived at the rain forest and started out on a 1.3 mile round trip hike to a old homestead.  Once we were below the forest canopy it was like we walked into another world; moss covered everything and there were ferns almost 4 feet high. After we returned from our little hike through the jungle we clambered back into the van and drove off to rendezvous with dad and Gi-gi in the RV. That pretty much sums up our day at Olympic National Park.  

One of the tide pools

Beaches, rainforests and mountains!

Hiking through the rainforest

Look at those ferns!

Olympic National Park, Washington State

Hey All,

Well, we made it to our destination state, Washington, on Wednesday evening, we stayed on the Hood Canal Wednesday and Thursday nights. On Thursday we drove for two hours, until finally we got to Olympic National Park around 3:30 PM. By the time we finally got there all the visitor centers were almost closed. Daniel and Anna picked up their Junior Ranger activity booklets at the visitor center. We drove for about another hour until we reached Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.  Hurricane Ridge is a beautiful stretch of mountains, some of the higher peaks even had snow on them! After  moseying around the gift shop, Daniel and Anna got their Junior Ranger badges and we left for the three hour drive back to the RV. On our way to the RV, about 10 miles from the RV park, we saw a elk cross the road, when we looked, on the other side of the road we saw about 30 elk! A whole herd! We tried to get some pictures, but we couldn't quite get them, it was dusk and they turned out dark.  Anyway, here are some  of the few pictures we took!

Not in the park, but the land in the back
is the Canada-US border!

A deer we saw along the road in the park.

One of the elk in the herd, they weren't scared of them

Mount Rainer, Washington State

Hey Everyone,

Sorry we haven’t written much, yesterday night we stayed in a rest area parking lot, and obviously there wasn’t internet! Yesterday we saw Mount Rainer, and it was so beautiful, let me tell you! After leaving our rest area around noon we drove for about 45 minutes to Mount Rainer. Now, we were a bit disheartend after driving  45 minutes through the rain and finding out that part of the road was closed in the park. We had gone to bed in the rain, listened to the rain on the roof of the RV all morning while we did school while Dad worked and drove through the rain.  To make matters worse, it was also cold, yes, a cold  50 degrees for us Georgia folks. We drove to the first Visitor Center in the park, which was quite small, picked up Daniel and Anna’s Junior Ranger booklets and headed out.  As we were driving through the park, the weather got a bit better.  As we were looking up into the sky, we saw it.  Mount Rainer. It was so beautiful, even with all fog. It’s hard to describe! The peak of the mountain is totally covered with snow, below the snow-covered peak are paths where glaciers cut through the hardened lava. We learned that Mount Rainer is actually a dormant volcano, meaning that it could erupt any time.  After seeing some breathtaking views of the mountain, we went to the Paradise Visitor Center, watched a movie about the park, went to a Ranger Talk and Daniel and Anna got their 10th Junior Ranger badges (they have gotten their Junior Ranger badges at every NP that we have been to!) mom and dad decided to get Daniel and Anna each a Junior Ranger vest.  They are so excited about those vests!! Here are some pictures:

Mount Rainer, before the clouds cleared!

After they mostly cleared.

Junior Ranger Daniel and Junior Ranger Anna

Maritime Museum, Astoria Oregon

Hello all of you It’s me, Ben,

We were out crusin’ in our big rig down the Oregan coast when we saw this really cool looking maritime museum. And it was cool! So we walked through the cold rain and into the building. we first saw a 20 minute video about the Columbia River bar. The bar is where 2000 ships of all shapes and sizes were sunken.  The bar is a place of extremes it is where the mighty Columbia rapids collide with the waves of the Pacific Ocean. The bar is so intense that special bar pilots are needed to sail the ships through the 17 mile stretch of terror. We also learned about the coast guard and all of their missions to make the Columbia bar a safer place. 

Daniel and Anna playing in a life size control room

Coat Guard bunk!

The Dining room, anyone hungry?

Finally, the Coast Guard Galley

Hiking the Sand Dunes, Reedsport Oregon

Hi All,
Annie again because no one wanted to do the post on the sand dunes. The boys, mom, dad and I went to the sand dunes yesterday. Daniel and I found some treasures: shell dishes! We went to the point Jetty and there were large waves crashing up on it! Daniel, Mom and I went on a walk on the beach while the boys and Dad hiked on. Gabrielle didn't come on the hike with us, because she had a sore throat. Here's some information about the dunes from the brocure: The dunes are like no others in North America, they extend for 40 miles along the Oregon coast. Here are some pictures mom took:

The 400 foot dunes!

Standing on the Jetty