After visiting the three north west states that we’d never visited before, we flew to Fairbanks to both visit Alaska, and begin our Holland America cruise – which includes a land section … we flew over spectacular scenery of mountains, glaciers, snow, rivers …
In the evening we walked around Fairbanks, including a visitor center with a nearby arch sculpture …
After dealing with our first heavy traffic of the trip, and visiting the site of the infamous Tacoma Narrows Bridge, we returned our rental car and transferred to our hotel in Seattle city, with views of the skyline and Space Needle, and an easy walk to Olympic Sculpture Park.
Next dat we walked to the bottom of the Space Needle and visited the amazing Chihuly museum, I also went to the top of the Space Needle (scary high!):
We also slightly repeated ourselves, visiting another troll Frankie Feetsplinter, and the Ballard Locks with another fish ladder!
While we flew in to Portland, we didn’t actually visit that city – too many warnings – so we stayed bit east in Troutdale in a nice rental place on an Alpaca farm, with views of Mt Hood!
Early next morning we drove to the Columbia River Gorge and explored the waterfalls there, including Multnomah Falls which we got to early enough to beat the crowds!
We also visited Bonneville Dam and fish ladder, in the same area …
In the evening we ventured closer to Portland (though not into the city), close enough to meet a friend Bridgett for great pizza dinner!
Next morning we left Troutdale, first visiting the Ole Bolle Troll:
We drove on, to the Oregon coast, which was surprisingly cold and foggy …
More driving next day, heading north along the still foggy coast, past Haystack Rock before eventually arriving in Astoria for a night with sea lions (which were in the harbor outside our room!):
The next day we left Oregon, driving to Seattle to hit our third PNW state …
M&I / GBMINI 