On the road again or should I say plane again? Gary and I are off to the west coast for some cooler temperatures and less humidity. We have been having 100 degree temps and high humidity in Maryland making it very unpleasant to do anything outside. All you want to do is stay in air conditioning. Anyway, we are off to Seattle and British Columbia on a trip to the west coast.
I decided to take a nap on the plane as we had to get up at 5:30am to catch the flight. I masked my eyes and slept for a while. When I opened my eyes, removed the mask and looked out of the window I was greeted with this view-

The mountain range was spectacular. But, when I looked higher up the airplane window, this is what I saw-

Oh my gosh, it was Mt Rainier in its finest costume of snow. The mountain is 14,411 feet tall and it was just a magnificent sight. We had been to Washington many, many years ago and never saw Mt Rainier as it was always in the clouds so to be greeted with his view was a spectacular start to our vacation.
Because hotels are so expensive in the Seattle area, we stayed in the private home of Rowenn where we had a very comfortable queen size bed, private bathroom and access to a kitchen, washing machine and dryer and a massage chair at the end of a busy sight seeing day. If you have not tried Airbnb, we highly recommend it as we have met some very nice home owners who have opened up a room in their homes for visitors. If you are interested in staying in the Seattle/Everett area, Rowenn can be reached at: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/13721221
Our fist day in Washington was spent driving part of the Cascade Highway. We drove the route anti clockwise as recommended. The scenery and the weather were great. Temperatures were in the 80s and the humidity was low so it made for a very pleasant day.

 This is a view of Deception Bridge. The bridge, one of the scenic wonders of the Pacific Northwest, is actually two spans, one over Canoe Pass to the north, and another over Deception Pass to the south. Pass Island lies between the two bridges. Construction began in August 1934, and the completed bridge was dedicated at noon on July 31, 1935. The Wallace Bridge and Structural Co. of Seattle, Washington provided 460 tons of steel for the 511-foot Canoe Pass arch and 1130 tons for the 976-foot Deception Pass span. The cost of the New Deal-era construction was $482,000, made possible through the Public Works Administration and county funds.

The above photo is the view looking down from Deception Bridge.
We paid a visit to a PBY Museum, PBY meaning Patrol, Bomber and the Y stood for Consolidated (do not ask my why Y?), I think because PBC was taken. The museum was quite interesting and had a PBY (Catalina Flying Boat) across the street that we could visit.

One of the most interesting hands-on objects in the museum was a flight simulator. I just had to try my hand at that. I managed to get myself off the ground "flying" an F14 but needed help when up in the air. A young museum volunteer came to my rescue and complimented me at being able to take off without assistance. However, I did need help landing and landed safely with his help.

                              The F14 I flew is in the above photograph.
After leaving the museum we continued to the town of Coupeville which was very pretty with hanging baskets lining the street and a quaint down town harbour area.

In one of Coupeville's shop window was a dress made from seashells. I took a photo of the bodice because I could not get the whole dress in my shot. It looked like something Madonna would wear. If I were to have worn it, it would be due to me being shell shocked!!!

Next stop on our tour was Meerkerk Gardens. They were nice to see even though they were not very big. The gardens are actually best seen in the Spring due to having many rhododendron bushes and daffodils.

Next, we visited the bay to go and look in some tidal pools. However, there were no real pools only areas of the beach that had shallow water left behind as the tide went out. There were however, 2 views of Mt Rainier that I liked.

The only inhabitants of the water on the beach were these fiddler crabs who were not camera shy. Do you think they were crabby having to share their piece of wood?

The above shot was taken at Langley and their quaint harbour.

The final photo of the day shows the ferry we rode back to the mainland on. So, our first full day was well spent and most enjoyable.