Week 9 Feb 27-March 3

Olympia & Seattle

This week is full of firsts!  I made my first trip to the Pacific Northwest.  For work, I had to go to the Seattle/Olympia area of Washington for a few days and it was a good time.

Home of Pikes Fish Market

View of the sun coming up outside the house I stayed at.
You could see Mt. Rainer in the background when
there were no clouds.

I arrived late Sunday, so there wasn't much time to do anything. I flew into Seattle and traveled to Olympia, where my meetings were.  The next day was pretty busy until about 4 in the afternoon.  With the time change from the east coast to the west coast, this was about 7:00 at night Michigan time.  Wanting to explore the area a little, I headed out to take a trek to the Pacific Ocean which I have not yet seen or touched in person.



Me at the Pacific Ocean for Sunset

On the way to the ocean, we past signs for Forks.  Yep, from the Twilight Movies.  I didn't realize it was a real town.  The kids got a kick out of it though.  In fact, we had to explain to them the I was not going to the "Washington" with the White House, but the "Washington" with the Vampires.


Sign to Forks


More work on the second day, ending in with a meeting at 3:00, which was too late for me to get a flight home at a reasonable time on Tuesday.  Needing to be home Wednesday, I had to take the red eye from Seattle back to good ole' Grand Rapids, which left Seattle at 11:45 pm. 

With time to spare before I needed to go to the airport, one of my new found friends was able to arrange for us to have a small tour of Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners.  Terry, one of the people I was meeting with, has some pretty prestigious season tickets and was able to talk one of his friends who works for the Mariner's to take us on a quick tour.

Rowen, Me, and Terry at Safeco

My return trip was to fly all night, with little sleep, and back to work on Wednesday.  It was a good trip.  The temperature was close to the same as it was at home, but it sure felt a lot warmer.  It is so green there in the great North American rain forest.  I hope to be able to see it again in the spring or summer.