Category: Outings

Karen and I had a wonderful time on our anniversary trip.  With it being our 10th anniversary, we considered many different trips.  We decided to include train travel on the trip, because we travelled by train on our honeymoon.

We started out by flying to Seattle, Washington.  After picking up our rental car, we checked-in to our hotel and headed to Pyramid Ale.  We had fun finding their restaurant and brewery, because we thought it was located at 1201 North 1st Street, but it was actually at 1201 South 1st Street.  The lady working at 1201 North 1st Street said she is asked about the brewery all the time.  As for Pyramid Ale, we tried a number of their beers along with a great sausage dish featuring three types of sausage.

For our actual anniversary on August 3rd, we decided to travel to Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada.  Our destination was Granville Island, which is a small area within Vancouver that has open markets, artisan shops, boutiques, and restaurants.  The artisans make a wide variety of items including metal works, blown glass, fabrics, and clothing.  Karen had a blast looking in all of the shops.  You could watch many of the artisans work their craft.  We had a great lunch outside at Dockside.  We purchased some bread and sausage to have for dinner back in Seattle.

For our anniversary dinner, we headed back to the hotel and had our bread and sausage for dinner while watching “My Favorite Spy” starring Bob Hope.

The next morning, we went hiking on Mount Rainier near the Paradise lodge.  The trails were surrounded by meadows filled with flowers, which were in full bloom.  On the way to and from Mount Rainier, we stopped in Eatonville, Washington.

As we were driving by Eatonville, Karen spotted a sign for the Eatonville Lion’s Club Art Festival.  Karen loves art festivals.  We found an artisan that had made dishes shaped like fish.  They are shaped such that chips can be place in the body and dip can be placed on the tail.  On our return from hiking, we stopped again tried their famous roast beef sandwich, which was great.

On Saturday, August 5th, 2006, we headed south to Tacoma, Washington to see the Museum of Glass.  Generally, we were not impressed with the museum.  It was very small and this is especially true given the cost of $10 a person.  I suggest that you find a coupon, which we did.  A lot of the pieces are note even glass.  On a positive note, the hands on area, the bridge of glass, and the Hot Shop Amphitheater were great.  When we visited, the hands on area allow us to make something out of glass pieces and wire. Karen and I made bracelets.  Mine was not as nice as Karen’s.  The picture about is from bridge of glass, which was designed by Dale Chihuly.  The Hot Shop Amphitheater is a place where visiting artisans can build their glass art while you watch.

We went to Point Defiance Park to see the beach and enjoyed the five mile loop around the park.  On the drive, we take pictures of raccoons.  We stopped by the Camp 6 Logging Museum.

On Sunday, we went to the Pike Place Market in Seattle to see the fish fly at Pike Place Fish.  If you order a fish, I suggest that you stand back, because the fish will start to fly.  We had a great lunch at the Athenian Inn.

On Monday, we started are train ride back to home, but I will post more about that later.

Everyone had a great time at the reunion.  The main course was 40 pounds of shrimp which everyone enjoyed.  Of course, it was more food than we could eat.  Karen and I had left over shrimp the whole week.

The weather was great with a light breeze and the water was great.  Reynolds Powe water-skied for the first time; while, a number of the adults had see if they could still water-ski.

Karen and I stayed with Uncle Tommy for the whole week.  We had a blast boating out to the Middle Bay Light.

Here some more pictures from the reunion, just click the picture to see them.