The Adventures of Brownie Orange Dotson

It's been awhile since Brownie had an adventure, so it was time to get out and take a trip! We wanted to visit the Pacific Northwest again to see friends so we booked an Airbnb near Port Townsend for a few days and also planned to visit Paradise Inn on Mount Rainier for a couple nights.

The first night we stayed in Tacoma, WA just south of Seattle. Since we had to get up at 4:00am(!!!) for our flight, we had some time in the evening after we arrived so we went to see a movie. They had recliners in the theater!!!

Another reason to stop in Tacoma was to visit the Museum of Glass. We've watched both seasons of the competition show "Blown Away," so we're basically experts in blown glass now. On the way to the museum, Brownie was almost eaten by a bird!

Also, to get to the museum we had to cross the Bridge of Glass which crosses the highway. On top is displayed a bunch of amazing glass pieces. This is the kind of stuff we expected to see IN the museum, but being displayed in the outdoor lighting was really cool.

Inside they have a fully equipped glass studio and in-house glass artists that you can watch make stuff. We didn't stay long because it was super hot in there.

You're basically inside a giant chimney:

There was way too much awesome stuff to show, but here were a couple highlights for us. First is a glass marble maze that actually had 2-3 different paths the marbles could take. Next is fragrance sample case which is interesting for it's history (ask Jeannette), but also in how small all of the identical bottles are. Finally, they also had some neon signs, the one of two snakes fits us because of our love of reptiles.

Our Airbnb (rental cabin/house) was about 30min outside of Port Townsend, located on a private beach. It was gorgeous!

In addition to the deer, there was a bald eagle in the area that would perch on the tree out back and a coyote we saw just on the other side of the fence.

Dop on the beach:

Giant slugs at the rental... it turns out, the soil is too acidic for snails to make shells, but slugs are just fine:

Panoramic view from the beach.

We stopped for a beer at the Port Townsend Brewery and they were both delicious. The main shipyard in Port Townsend is home to Samson Boat Company which is run be Leo, a guy we've been following on Youtube for the past couple years. He's been restoring/rebuilding a wooden sailing yacht. Unfortunately, they're popular enough and busy enough that they don't give tours of the shop.

After three nights it was time to head to Paradise Inn on Mount Rainier. It's not really that far away, but the curvy mountain roads make the drive take awhile.

Whoops... we misjudged the season. While it's already the middle of June, the snow hasn't melted enough at the elevation we were staying at. This is the view outside our window:

In fact, it was actually snowing when we arrived with another inch of accumulation over night. It was cloudy the first two days so we couldn't see the mountain at all. The last time Dop was here he was able to take some trails, but this was what the trail entrance looked like. If you zoom in you can see the sign.

Paradise Inn was opened in 1917. It's a really cool structure (which I think is shown in a previous post). Here's us sitting across from each other at a big table with massive chairs.

Finally, on the morning of the last day the sun came out! These birds visited us while we ate breakfast, the blue one is a Stellar Jay (thanks Mom!) It was over 100 degrees back home, but we were enjoying the cool mountain air.

Mount Rainier:

Narada Falls was super clear since it's all basically just snow melt water.

I'm pretty sure this river/stream came from Narada Falls as well. You can see all the rocks deposited from when the glaciers melted.

The moss!!!

Just a little further down stream, looking for interesting rocks.

Finally, as we were leaving we saw some pencil lead art in the airport:

Overall it was a pretty good trip with good food and good friends. Brownie had a good time, but he said next time he'd prefer to just stay in one general location rather than travel again mid-vacation. I think I agree.

While Brownie is always traveling around in Mike's backpack, it's been awhile since we've had an adventure worth writing about (it's just been work trips and conferences for awhile). Here we are though!

Jeannette and Mike decided to take a cross country train trip on Amtrak's Empire Builder which goes from Chicago, IL to Seattle, WA. They were traveling with their good friends, Trent and Heather. Trent put together the following map of the route and included rough times for a lot of the stops. We left Chicago at about 2:30pm on Wednesday, April 5 and would arrive in Seattle about 10:30am on Friday, April 7.

Since this was going to be a trip that included two nights, we splurged and got bedrooms in one of the sleeper cars. Brownie was the first to take a seat in our room.

Across from this chair was a longer couch-type seat that would fold down into a bed at night. There's another small bed that would fold down from the wall sort of like a bunk bed. While the train has shared bathrooms and a shower, these bedrooms each come with their own tiny bathroom as well.

There were a LOT of train-related things to see along the way as well as beautiful scenery. Here Brownie is checking out an old private train car (I'm pretty sure this was at the Milwaukee, WI station).

Our bedroom connected directly to Trent and Heather's so when we were awake we usually kept the adjoining door open. Here you can see Trent and part of Heather sitting in their room which was setup like a mirror of ours.

Our view at dinner the first night from the dining car. I'm not sure if it's always this wet up north or if it's just because it was Spring.

Playing a game in the lounge car that night, we had the worst luck! Three people in a row pulled a "No Dice" card which means they immediately lost their turn. The lounge car has windows that go all the way up the side of the car and seats angled so you're looking right out of the window. We spent quite a bit of time in there.

They next morning we were headed through North Dakota... pretty boring looking for the most part. Sleeping on the train wasn't too bad, but don't expect to be as rested as you would at home. The train is always moving and there's lots of little noises from things rattling around. It helps to bring ear plugs.

Into eastern Montana the scenery isn't much different, but we started taking opportunities at some of the longer stops to get out and stretch our legs. Above, I'm taking a picture of Jeannette as she gets a picture of Trent and Heather.

Eastern Montana, wooo! You can almost see the curvature of the Earth.

At another stop I walked up to the front of the train to get a picture of the engines. The Empire Builder has two engines and cars destined for both Seattle and Portland. The next night in Spokane, WA while we're sleeping, they'll split the train and each half continued on its way.

Okay, now we're starting to see some more interesting stuff.

The Rocky Mountains!

More mountains!

Mountain view continued during dinner the second night. It just keep getting cooler to look at and was really beautiful for the remainder of the trip.

The next morning it was overcast, but we'd actually crossed eastern Washington by this point and were in the Cascade mountains. Later on in the Cascades we crossed through an 8-mile long tunnel! It took about 14 minutes to get through the tunnel with, in the direction we were going was at a slight downward angle.

On the train, because seating is limited, you often end up seated at lunch and dinner with other passengers you don't know. At lunch we were seated next to a freight train engineer who was telling us that it's not uncommon that they get stuck in that tunnel. As they're headed up the slope, if one of the engines overheats they have to stop in the tunnel and let it cool down.

On our way down to Seattle from Everett, WA we crossed a train bridge that you may recognize from a previous blog post: Seattle Again and Vancouver

This is a train turntable which I'd never seen before in person. Train engines, etc can go onto the turntable and get rotated to go the other direction or as a way to more easily move engines in/out of storage or maintenance.

Finally at our destination, King Street Station in Seattle! You can see Trent and Heather getting off the train in the background.

BONUS TRAIN TRIP

For everyone but Mike the trip was over after Seattle and they flew home. Mike decided to take another train from Seattle to Emeryville, CA which is right by Berkeley, CA where he works out of.

As always, Brownie was along for the ride. This time, Mike didn't have a full bedroom, but he did have a two seat "Roomette" since he'd be spending the night on the train again. This room has two large seats facing each other and at night they fold down to create a bed. There's another bed that folds down from above as well, but since Mike was traveling alone he didn't need it.

Just after leaving Seattle's train station, we past the headquarters for Starbucks. The first actual Starbucks location is located near Pike's Place Market in downtown Seattle.

Mike and Jeannette use a "Find My Friends" app on their phones in case either one of them is lost (usually Jeannette). This is a screenshot that shows Jeannette waiting at the airport for her flight while Mike (the blue dot) rides south on the train.

At this section of track they're pulling out and replacing the old rail road ties. It's a pretty cool process if you look it up on Youtube.

These two photos are of the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It's famous for the old one collapsing because an engineering flaw would cause it to resonate with the wind and flex.

I thought this train station with it's clock tower was really cool. Just one of several.

Here is the Willamette Falls Reservoir. I'd like to learn more about it.

This is my favorite picture of the trip. I'm pretty sure the yellow in the background is blooming flowers based on other fields I saw nearby, but in the foreground the sun shining through the clouds puts a highlight on a pile of old straw bales.

If you zoom into this picture you'll see hundreds of Canadian geese. Mike took this picture to show that Champaign isn't the only place with a geese problem.

One last picture of mountains. The train took a winding path through a huge national park in Oregon near Crater Lake. Lots of turns and great scenery, but it was hard to take pictures in the quick gaps between trees. To truly experience it you'll just have to take a long train ride. Mike would arrive at Emeryville, CA on time the next morning for another visit to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

BONUS PICTURES!!!!

Heather and Trent got some good pictures as well.