Port Townsend and Mt Rainier

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.