Future of Flight and Puget Sound

We spent much of the day at the Future of Flight Museum and Boeing factory, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Jeff and the three older kids got to tour the factory, which includes the largest building in the world. They all absolutely loved the tour and were completely fascinated with the process and the immense scale of everything. There was a height restriction which kept Clay from participating in the tour, but he and I enjoyed the kid's area of the Future of Flight Museum while everyone else was touring.

The largest building in the world, and Mt. Baker

Mt. Rainier at the other end of the runway

Having a blast in the Kid Zone

Pilot and co-pilot

Taking a ride in the flight simulator

Boeing

In the late afternoon, we headed over to Mukilteo, a little waterfront town on Puget Sound. We grabbed a bite to eat at Diamond Knot and then went down by the water to see the quaint lighthouse, watch a ferry come into port, and observe a guy doing jumps on his jet ski. It was big fun!

Clay was thrilled to get to make his own pizza!

Mukilteo Lighthouse

The ferry coming in

An awesome hunk of driftwood

Playing leapfrog in the grass

That's how you know it was a good day!

Flying Things

Our first stop of the day was the Museum of Flight. We spent several enjoyable hours exploring the insides and outsides of many different kinds of planes and space equipment.

Our next stop was the Pike Place Market, home of the "flying" fish. We loved watching the fish fly around and looking at all the other beautiful and tasty market offerings. We grabbed lunch at Seatown Seabar and had afternoon treats at Starbucks (because, Seattle!)--not the original Starbucks, mind you, because the line to even get inside was ridiculous, but the Starbucks half a block away, which we figured was close enough.

Helicopter pilot

Plenty of leg room

The really big planes at the Museum of Flight

Pike Place Market

The largest piggy bank we've ever seen!

Can you see the flying fish?

Dungeness crab cake at Seatown Seabar

The original Starbucks and its ridiculous line

A fish of our very own

Dinner from our market finds

Happy campers under a spectacular sunset

Vasa Park Resort

While we love the thrill of sightseeing and exploring, some days just beg to be slow and easy. After several days of hitting it hard and putting lots of miles on the van and pictures on the camera, we needed slow and easy in the worst way. We are camping at the Vasa Park Resort in Bellvue, on the outskirts of Seattle, and with its awesome waterslides, playground, horseshoe pits, basketball courts, picnic tables, great quantity of playmates, big grassy areas, and scenic location on the shores of Lake Sammamish, it was the perfect place for us to be today.

The platform of fun

Keeping an eye on things
(And hoping the water will magically warm up)

Swimming buddies

Horseshoes

Peaceful Lake Sammamish

Mount St. Helens

We spent the morning hanging out around our KOA--working out, doing laundry, eating doughnuts, and playing in the awesome club house--waiting for the rain to clear out. Then, we headed over to Mount St. Helens, where we got to watch a video about the 1980 blast and hear a presentation from a park ranger about the geologists who were working in the area at the time of the eruption. The clouds were low, so we couldn't see the blast site or the crater, but it was still a very cool experience. At the bottom of the volcano, we stopped for a late lunch at Fire Mountain Grill, where Weston attempted to eat the Bigfoot Burger -- 4 hamburger patties, ham, turkey, cheese, pulled pork, bacon, fire sauce, crispy onions, caramelized onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles -- and a pile of cheese-covered chips, in 30 minutes, with the hopes of winning a free t-shirt. He polished off the burger but couldn't make his way through all the chips, so he didn't get the t-shirt, and he may have expressed a few other regrets at the end of the meal, but it was an experience he will not soon forget!

Mount St. Helens

Race to the top of the volcano playground

Fire Mountain Grill

Lunch time view of the Toutle River

Ridiculously awesome burger