shadowmeboy

We then headed into the smaller Forest Animals exhibits. We did the upper viewing deck first. This was Trace's favorite! @tgloersen Badger River Otter They were eating lunch when we got there. Porcupine We moved to the lower viewing deck. Beaver Badger Trace hanging by the Racoon enclosure, seeing his friends! Max's M wanted a picture with the Racoons! Another shot of the Beaver

Grizzly Bear Chipmunk! White Wolf Wolf habitat Fox habitat The Fox is hard to see, the whole lot was sun bathing. Bobcat Cougar - sun bathing near the middle of the picture. Lynx

When you do a Northwest Trek Wild Drive ($92 per car for up to 8 people), you also get admission to the zoo like part of Northwest Trek. Bald Eagles Frog Species All of Northwest Trek's animals are native to the Pacific Northwest. Black bear Max's M could not bear not getting a picture with the Bear!

Female Bison Filming with the GoPro as we go by! Mountain Goat Male Bison up on the hill. Here is the video from our drive!

Monday, July 4th, 2022 - PreCruise Day 2 of 3 We have a busy day planned! We head south to Puyallup and go to Tim's kitchen for Breakfast. I had never been before, but I would go back. Great decorations! Trace and Maria looked a little tired from the cross country flight the day before. I got a hamburger steak with brown gravy, loaded hashbowns, and eggs over medium. Trace got the Lumberjack Hobo Hash Susan got Breakfast Pizza - It was amazing Maria got the Nutty Pig - Pancakes topped with Peanut Butter and Bacon After breakfast we headed South towards our first activity of the day. We arrived at Northwest Trek for our Wild Drive Tour of the free range area. Max's M had to get a picture! Female Bison hiding in the tall grass. Head of a Male Bison. A slightly better view of him. Trace watching the scenery. Ferns and other native Northwest plant life

I have looked at that in the past, but it typically is at the wrong time of year for both Susan and myself. I am thinking the week long P of A will work the best, with a few days before the cruise to explore.

Susan and I both only have Hawaii left. Unfortunately a Pride of America cruise was one of our 5 cancellations. We haven’t rescheduled yet.

Susan and I went to dinner at Olive Garden after getting back to the Hotel. She got Soup for the starter. I did the Salad! Not sure why I took another picture though. Susan had make your own pasta I got the Chicken Parm! We headed back to the hotel and tracked Trace and Maria's flight. Then headed to SeaTac to pick them up! The gangs back together! Loading the car with their bags! We all headed back to the hotel and called it a night. They were especially tired coming from the east coast. We were all going to a long day tomorrow. --

Mariners Win! Julio was the Player of the Game for the Mariners! Roots Sports crew - Angie and Dave A bunch of happy people heading back on the light rail!

Mariner's Centerfielder Julio Rodriguez led off for the Mariners. Here is a video of his at bat! Rodriguez coming up again in the 3rd Max's M had to get a picture at T-Mobile as well! I think she likes the pretzel. She did share. Julio up in the 6th with a runner on 1st! Throwing over to 1st This at bat was the second at-bat in the video above. Mariners were up 2-0 in the 7th! Pitching change Look closely at the above picture. See the right field foul pole (yellow pole)? Look just to the right, and you can see a guy dropping down onto the field. He got tackled and arrested.

Getting settled in our seats for the game. Susan's cuisine de jour - a Hot Dog I went with a Seattle classic! Ivar's fish and Chips! We also had to get the garlic fries! Maybe that's why no-one was sitting close to us... Mariners were playing the Oakland A's this day. Mariner Moose with some kids! Mariner Moose wanted to do some rock, Paper, Scissors with the A's players. No takers There were 9 kids who went out to the different positions. Each got a baseball signed by the Mariner at that position. This kid got Eugenio Suarez's autograph! 2021 AL Cy Young Award winner Robbie Ray was on the mound this afternoon. warming up! Time to play Ball! First Pitch!

Once inside the Stadium, I found the Mariners Hall of Fame! National Baseball Hall of Famer - Ken Griffey Jr. National Baseball Hall of Famer - Randy Johnson Quick fact: Did you know Randy Johnson is an awesome photographer? Check out his website sometime, he has some great shots. https://rj51photos.com/ His logo is awesome too! Seattle Icon - Dan "the man" Wilson! National Baseball Hall of Famer - Edgar Martinez National Baseball Hall of Famer - Ford C Fick Award Winner - Dave Niehaus "Grandma get out the Rye Bread and Mustard, its Grand Salami Time!" Winningest Manager in Mariners History - Lou Piniella Alvin Davis - Mr. Mariner Jay "bad to the bone" Buhner Jamie Moyer - Only pitcher to pitch so slow it looked like the ball stopped in the air. He was our crafty lefty! Home Plate entrance to T-Mobile Park

Downtown Seattle after coming out of the Beacon Hill Tunnel and crossing over I5. Well the reason for coming downtown was to attend a Seattle Mariners game! This is an optical illusion painted on the overpass. Dave Neihaus, the late, great, Seattle Mariner Broadcaster and Seattle and National Baseball Hall of Famer would say this all the time! Lumen Field - Home of the Seattle Seahawks King Street Station - Originally built by the Great Northern Railroad it still serves Amtrak passengers on the Cascade route, the Coast Starlight, and the Great Northern namesake, The Empire Builder. There she is! T-Mobile Park (still Safeco Field in my heart), the home of the Seattle Mariners!

Sunday, July 3rd, 2022 - PreCruise Day 1 of 3 Susan and I took advantage of the hotels continental breakfast. The breakfast at this hotel used to be awesome PreCovid, like a lot of things! Breakfast was memorable this morning, due to the fact a guest blew up a hard boiled egg in the microwave. Why would you heat up a hard boiled egg in a microwave? Why? We went outside to catch the shuttle up to the light rail station at Angle Lake. They are constructing a light rail extension near the hotel. So Aunt Susan took Max's M on a light rail ride as we headed to Downtown Seattle. She was not very energetic about the M traveling with us, but my Mom (aka Grandma to Max) is going to make a M book about Max's M's travels. Starting to fill up after passing through SeaTac Airport station

Yes, it was our first time on the Spirit.

When we go to Seattle, we stay near SeaTac because we can take the light rail into downtown and not have to drive, deal with traffic, and pay exurbanite parking fees. As you will see in my next set of pictures, We took light rail downtown the next day and also picked up our friends from SeaTac International Airport. Plus the airport hotels are often cheaper and we have stayed at this hotel so many times, they welcome us back each time!

We stay at the Best Western Seattle Airport Hotel. The IHOP is a long block up the road.

After the train we head South on I5 through Seattle. The Space Noodle, I mean Space Needle! Peek-a-boo, I see you! Lake Union is the body of water shown in this picture. Into Downtown and its horrible traffic due to road construction. The "revive I5" work was going on that day. Finally we made it to SeaTac and our hotel. We would be staying here for 3 nights (should have been two). We decided to go up the street to IHOP for dinner. Susan got Strawberry Banana Pancakes and Bacon. I got country fried steak, hashbrowns, and eggs with the sausage gravy on the side. I also got two pancakes as it is IHOP. We called it a night after that as we had a busy day the next day! --

We head West on US 2 towards Everett, but not before we picked a special item in Skykomish. My nephew Maximus, who is currently two, has a Brio type train that spells out his name. Well the M at the beginning of his name broke. So my Mom tasked us with finding a replacement. She originally bought the train in Leavenworth. We quickly vetoed stopping in Leavenworth on the Saturday of 4th of July weekend. We luckily found the Yellow M at the Great Northern & Cascade railroad gift shop in the old station. I mention the M as it will become an important item on this trip! We make it to Mukilteo near Everett, because I wanted to railfan Amtrak's Empire Builder (Seattle Section) as it heads east to Chicago. Positioned along the BNSF Scenic Sub at Mukilteo waiting for the train! Boeing was testing a Southwest Airlines jet out of Paine Field (Where the 777X is being made) nearby. Finally Train time! Of course, I filmed the trains passing!

We arrive into Skykomish, WA on the west side of Stevens Pass on US 2. The Town of Skykomish is a Great Northern town. Skykomish exists along with many small towns because of the railroad. I enjoy visiting Skykomish because the BNSF Scenic Subdivision runs through town, there is a Virtual Railfan camera there, I am friends with the Mayor and owner of the Cascadia Inn, and finally there is a 1/7th scale railroad next to the old station which anyone can ride operating on weekends from May to October. Lots to see and do in this historic town! Our first stop in town is to grab lunch at the Cascadia Inn's Cafe. I got a bacon burger and fries. Susan got the grilled meatloaf sandwich with potato salad. If you come to the Cascadia and are really hungry, try the Cadia Burger. It has 2 beef patties, bacon, mushrooms, and 2 cheeses and very tasty but greasy. I wasn't hungry enough for that. Since my last visit to Skykomish, they created a walking tour with little information plaques around town, so people can learn more of the history. Susan is posing with one of the plaques which is on the Cascadia Inn. Great Northern memorabilia inside the historic Skykomish station home of the Great Northern & Cascade Railway. Since we were in town on a Saturday, we had a chance to ride the train! Here is the video of the train ride!

Thank you very much! I enjoy doing them, so others can have ideas on what to do/not do. Thank you! Hope I don't dissapoint. 😉 Thank you. Lots of cool and amazing pictures in this one!

Here are a couple videos to show what the drive looks like! This includes the part through Tumwater Canyon! This is my favorite part, which is going over the Summit of Stevens Pass. It would have been one complete drive video, but Susan got too cold, turned down the air conditioner in the car, and overheated the GoPro which was in direct sunlight from above inside on our dash. Thanks Babe!

The review is up!

They are coming! Even the one of you flipping me off! 🤣

Hitting the road... With it being an Alaskan cruise, we get to drive to the port! So we headed out of North Central Washington. US 97 in Chelan County Turtle Rock in Douglas County, WA just North of Wenatchee. The Richard Odabashian Bridge (US Highway 2 West /97 South) from Douglas County to Chelan County. Welcome to Wenatchee, the Apple Capitol of the World! We grab some breakfast at Wendy's before heading west! BNSF railway's Scenic Subdivision passing over the highway at Dryden. US 2 and US 97 split up at the junction just east of Leavenworth. Beautiful day! I have a thing for big flags! Wilkommen to Leavenworth Leavenworth is a Bavarian themed town, where every business has to look like it came out of the German Alps, even the Starbucks and McDonalds. After fighting summer crowds, we make our way out of Leavenworth (without stopping). US 2 heading into Tumwater Canyon. Where the Highway is today is where the Great Northern Railroad had the right-of-way through the canyon leading up to Steven Pass before the line got relocated in the 1930's. It follows a different path today. Beautiful! Climbing to the summit of Stevens Pass. Heading down the other side! -- I am going to stop here for the night!