Kingston Rovers

We are nearing the end of our stay in Seattle and thought we would visit the Boeing Aircraft Factory and Museum in Everett. The tour comprised of seeing some of the sheds where the 787, 777 and 747 were being built. The tour comprised of a bus ride and some walking and made up most of the 1.5 hours of the tour. Because cameras were not allowed I only took the following photo and this was taken from a TV advertisement in the museum.

The above photo shows one of the sheds and the amount of planes the shed can hold. The sheds can hold 75 football fields and if all the games were played at once the season would be a lot shorter!!! Boeing employs 35,000 people in the Everett area and are said to really look after their employees. Both my brothers-in-laws used to work for Boeing and as Glenn's diabetes progressed causing him to become blind, they brought in special computer equipment to help him.

The above two photos give you an idea of how big Gary is, I mean how big an engine and cargo plane are to Gary. Sorry Gary.

Once again, I got the chance to fly a 'plane, not really but I did get the chance to sit in the cockpit of a 727. With so many levers and switches I am glad I am not a pilot as Gary said I had my hand on the throttle and my left arm up on some switch or other so had no control over the plane in my present position. Leaving Boeing we passed the huge shed-

the doors were open to let in cool air for the workers.
After Boeing we went to Pike Place Market in Seattle for lunch. The market sells fruits, veg and fish as well as tourist items. We had a nice lunch and a walk around to see what the market had to offer.

The market is famous for its fish throwing. You make a purchase of fish and they throw it for wrapping after yelling out a warning. I waited about 5 mins and nobody bought any fish for the attendants to throw. Whilst waiting for them to throw a fish, I decided to take a closer look at the ugly monk fish (below) which encouraged people to come closed for a look. Unknown to me it must have been on a string or something else because the fish every now and then shifts forward as though it is going to fall off the shelf. Luckily for me it did not do it whilst I was crouching down to take a photo because if it had I think I would have fallen backwards onto the floor in surprise.

The market had the most flower bouquets I had ever seen in lovely arrangements and for an excellent price. If I had lived in Seattle and was going home I definitely would have bought one for myself or Gary would have bought one for me, eh Gary??
The next day had us visiting the Olympic National Forest which was quite unique due to the moss growing on the trees due to the abundant waterfall per year (over 144").

The ferns in the foreground look silver when in fact, they are covered in dust from the gravel road. Washington has a fairly long dry season and we had timed our visit for that time.

The above photo looks to be in black and white when it is just a close-up of dust covered ferns.
During our drive we were passed by a Smart car-

Can you believe this car was offered to Gary and I along with 3 large suitcases, one carry-on suitcase, a backpack and a shoulder bag. If we had managed to get the luggage in, Gary and I would had to have sat on the roof!!
The Olympic National Forest in known for its waterfalls-

We decided to take detour and visit a fish hatchery. There was a lady feeding the fish and I managed to catch the feed in mid-air and hitting the water causing the fish to gather then (hence the ripples, you cannot see the fish and neither did we). I asked her what she was feeding them and she replied "fish meal" hmmm fish meal to fish, that's like giving a dog dog food, isn't it??

The fish hatchery was raising coho and sockeye salmon for release into the wild. There was a trailer we could visit where they were tagging fish and removing their adipose fin 36000 a day. The reason they removed this fin (which did not hurt the fish) was to let fishermen know if they caught it it was a farm raised fish and had to be released back into the wild.
The hatchery had a fishing day for children which seemed a little weird because they were raising the fish to be released into the wild and now you can bring your children and catch the young fish.

We went for a walk down to a beach and saw this tree on a tree. I wonder how long it had taken the tree to grow into that position.

Down at the bottom of the pathway to the beach was this nice bridge made of driftwood.

I thought that was a good use of wood that had floated up on the beach.
The holes in the photo below were made by piddock clams who rock backwards and forwards to burrow into the limestone.

The tide pools were full of lovely pale green sea anemones in different stages of their lives.

If anyone can tell me what I am holding in the next photo, I would be most obliged. It was soft and squishy and looked liked miniature elephant legs with toe nails attached. Is it animal or vegetable or a bit of both?