Seattle (the bluest skies you've ever seen, in Seattle)

Daily Mileage=272;Trip Total=6,000 (AND, YET ANOTHER MILESTONE. RICH SAYS WE'RE OVER OUR 85o0 mile trip estimate!)

Today we stopped at another section of the Olympic Peninsula, called Quinault Rain Forest. However, it actually also had a beautiful lake that was the result of the river running downstream from the mountains. The main peak being Mt. Olympus (7900 feet). We tried to capture it in a photo, it still has still snow on the top of it.

The rain forest was once again beautiful and we drove around the lake on at least 20 miles of dirt road. It took you to out of the way places to camp, hike and gain access to the water for boating and/or fishing. The ride was a little bit more than we needed to do, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway. Let's just say the car is a new color (dusty brown) and needs to be washed! We did a brief hike which showed a homesteader's house and abandoned farm. When you read the history about it, you could see why they left after being flooded out every time the river overflowed. We would once again recommend exploring this area which has cute little cottages along the lake shore. Reminded us of vacations long ago to the Poconos or the Catskills.

We then continued onto Seattle. As we were driving we could see Mt.Rainier in the distance at every turn and apparently, Mt. Rainer is seen everywhere. It looks unreal floating on the horizon. It still has a lot of snow on it and that's probably why we won't be visiting it (lots of road closures).

When we got to Seattle we found our hotel in the Queen Anne neighbor which is slightly north of downtown. It's very close to the Space Needle and the Seattle Center grounds. The area is quite hilly and residential which reminds us of San Francisco. It has a mix of restaurants, bars and entertainment spots. It works because it is also close to the monorail which brings you downtown. (By the way, the BLOG title is a song that kept going through my head. Bobby Sherman sang it and it was the theme song for a "sitcom" show way back... about Seattle and brothers and logging. Anyone know the name of the show? Anyway, the song kept coming into my mind, but I wasn't sure the title was actually SEATTLE until I looked it up!)

Of course we had to visit the Seattle Space Needle. It was built in 1962 for the Seattle World's Fair. The observation deck is 520feet high, although it seemed higher to me as you went up an exterior elevator! The views were spectacular since it was clear and sunny when we were there. They have a good amount of information at what you're viewing which helped us newcomers.

Tomorrow we will explore the city all day but tonight we had a wonderful Thai dinner (we've had several out here since there is a great Asian influence in these western cities). In fact that was one of the items they spoke about at the Space Needle. Seattle is a great blend of cultures and people in a relatively small city that has more than just coffee!
Let you know in tomorrow's blog. Love & Joy, Mare & Rich