Last year the convention was in Denver and it gave me the opportunity to visit with our Colorado friends. The year before it was in San Antonio and I met Graham's sister Marian and enjoyed seeing the Riverwalk as well as the Alamo. This year, the program is being held in Seattle.
Just as Graham and I met online, we have many internet friends located around the world and are lucky to have Carol in Seattle. I met her a couple of years ago when we took a family vacation and she was happy to spend much of the time Graham was in meetings with me.
On Saturday we went to one of the area's largest wineries, CHateau Ste Michelle where we took the tour and had time to wander a bit on the grounds, enjoying the sunshine and 60 degree weather. We saw ducks but most special, we saw some of the winery's peacocks.
We stayed in the Hilton which was located adjacent to I-5 in the downtown area. Our 19th floor window faced east/southeast and we enjoyed the play of shadows and reflections off the adjacent tower as well as comparing the Saturday and Monday mornign traffic at 7:30 am.
Another of Graham's internet friends, Diane, met Carol and me for lunch at a nice restaurant called 13 Coins near the SeaTac airport. It is a lot of fun putting a face to a name, someone I have heard about. None of us are shy so we yakked and yakked. Diane brought a friend, Jeff, and hopefully he did not think we were too verbose. LOL
Graham's classic dinner with wine pose....if we did not take one of these you would not believe I spent time with him. He took me to another restaurant that he had found a few years ago when the Academy met in Seattle. It had an amazing selection of oysters and I was surprised to find them edible!
Mt. Rainier is visible throughout the Seattle area but is actually quite a distance away. It is over 14,000 feet and a quiet volcano. The photo with space needle is not mine (I borrowed it from the web to help show the grandeur of the mountain as my photos are pretty pitiful in comparison.)
The state of Washington is home to five volvanic peaks from Mt Adams in the north to Mt St Helens in the south, with Mt Hood in Oregon and Mt Lassen and Mt Shasta in California. These mountains, although part of the Cascade Mountain range, are so magestically tall. They stand out prominantly and can be seen for hundreds of miles.
The Olympic Mountain range, located on the Olympic Peninsula, also have high snowcapped peaks. When I called home and told Sam that the weather was clear and I could see the Olympics, he misunderstood and only when he asked if I could see the snowboarding event did I realize I needed to clarify the view.
The white spots on the water in several of these photos are ferries. We saw them constantly sailing back and forth across Puget Sound, connecting Seattle with several locations on the peninsula as well as other islands.
The Pike Street Market is a large covered marketplace where you can find fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and meat, other food stuff from the State of Washington and flowers. There are also booths selling crafts, artwork and more permanent shops on the lower level.
