Christmas In Seattle
07 January 2010 | Seattle,Washington
Christmas in Seattle
Seattle is spectacular. It seems that nearly every house has a view of either the Cascade Mountains, the Seattle waterfront or Puget Sound and often, both. Water views in Connecticut pale in comparison.
The girls share a house with one other CG officer, Taylor Gruber. Taylor is temporarily attached to Lauren's cutter the Midget.
Lauren had some time off and she drove us through all of the Seattle neighborhoods. Each seemed better than the last. We went to the tourist areas of down town (the Peak shopping district, the museum of science, etc.) we had dinner in the waterfront restaurants (fish of course). We saw the troll under the highway. We saw the statute to Linin(brought back to Seattle after the Cold War by an art lover who got a "deal" on in some eastern country) and a tour of all of the boating associated stores dedicated to the marine environment.
One highlight was a trip to the Peninsula where the Olympic national rainforest. To understand this trip one must know something about the Twilight series of books popular with young women. The story line is a love story between a young girl and a vampire. There is movie based on the book. The scene is set in Forks, Washington, and Forks is located at the far corner of the Olympic Peninsula. I had no interest in going to Forks but only after leaving did I realize that this was the purpose of the visit according to the girls.
Well the trip started out as a trip to Port Townsend on the coast of the Straights of Saint Juan de Fuca. The trip entails heading north to get a ferry, going across the Sound to the Peninsula and then heading to the town. We had lunch there and the town is picturesque, to say the least. The restaurant was excellent.
After lunch the suggestion for the trip to the rain forest came up. and two to one we voted to go. The scenery was breathtaking at first, but as the sun began to set, it began to rain. We drove on in the twilight (hint for those of you that did not note the story line above). It was dark, it was raining and we were in Forks. The author of the books had spent time in Forks to get the flavor of the community correct for the book. The book was successful and the town has adopted the motif. There is twilight Motel, a restaurant, grocery store, etc. There is a driving tour you can take that brings you past the high school, town hall etc. all scenes in the books. There is bulletin board telling you where to look for the literary characters, and of course, they have always moved on before one can reach their last location.
Forks is in reality a small logging town that has a higher rain fall than any other city in the US, and it has the setting for Twilight.
Well we stopped at a gas station. Lauren ran across the street returning with a book on tape. Which book on tape you ask? Well two thing happened on the way back. I ended up driving in the darkness and rain through the rain forest and we heard the first ten chapters of the first book.
If I do not get back to Forks soon, I am sure I have not missed much, but Jerie and Lauren were thrilled to have been there. Like I pointed out before two to one on the vote.
Taylor's family came to Seattle for Christmas, and with a full house, it was a lot of fun.
Another highlight of our trip to Seattle was our visit with Dave and Dorothy Nagle. We visited our sister ship " David Ellis", Diesel duck hull 2. Peking is hull 3. We so enjoyed meeting and being with the Nagles. They were a wealth of information and graciously introduced us to the sailing community of Seattle. We had the great pleasure of bringing the newest Diesel Duck sedan through the Lake Washington lock with its owners Marcia and Kurt David helped with the lock while Dorothy took the pictures.