Snagboat W.T. Preston

We took a walk through the snagboat museum after we left the farmers market.  It was quite a sight to see this very large boat up close.  The snagboat was named for W. T. Preston, one of the Army Corps of Engineer's most outstanding civil engineers.

The W.T. Preston is a descendant of a long line of snagboats that worked the Puget Sound and its tributary rivers clearing the waterways of navigational hazards.  Until her retirement in 1981, the Preston was the only large, active sternwheeler remaining in the Sound.  The Preston operated as far north as Blaine and south to Olympia and Shelton.  Working all year round near large population centers distinguished the snagboat as one of the best-known vessels to navigate these waters.  The boat is 163' 6" long with a 34' 8 1/2" beam and a draft of 3' 8".  She displaced 494 tons.

For her snagging and dredging operations the Preston is outfitted with a 70 foot wooden boom on her bow that has a 30 ton snagging lift or a 15 ton bucket lift capability.  The boom has a 57 foot lift and was powered by a two-cycle steam engine.

The boat had 14 crewman on board.  Since the snagging operation often called the Preston far from home, the men ate and slept aboard the ship.

They made some of their own tools on board the ship.

Wooden bolt made from Douglas fir trees are what held the boat together.

We walked through the Heritage center that was located adjacent to the snagboat.  We read where the BMW Oracle racing boat was built in Anacortes.

This is a picture of the wind tunnel model used to test the boat. 

Farmers Market

Saturday morning we went to the Farmers Market down by the marina to check it out.  They have it every Saturday from 9 - 2 and on Wednesday's from 4 - 7 pm.  We were surprised to see it looked a lot like a festival.  There was a guy playing a guitar, lots of food vendors and of course.....produce and flowers.  There were bakery booths, people selling jewelry, and I saw one local artist had a booth.

 It had stopped raining earlier that morning and the skies started to clear soon after we got there.

Beautiful cut flowers. A large bunch cost $10.  

 There was even a nursery there.  

The produce was fresh picked.  

This was a plate from a Mexican food vendor.  They have a  restaurant downtown also, but set up at the market to sell their food.  It looked really good, but  9 am was a bit too early for this dish!  Black beans with salsa, Mexican rice with salsa, and two tamales. 

The ice cream shop just happened to be located on the same street and was open.

These are the goodies we bought.  The Rainier cherries are coming in this time of year so there are lots of people selling them.  The strawberries were smaller than the Plant City berries, but very, very sweet.  Alan bought some jalapeno cheese and of course we had to have a bag of kettle corn.  

Couldn't resist taking another picture of a Hollyhock plant.  Some were 5 - 6 foot tall.  

Bellingham, WA

On Friday we took a road trip north on I-5 about 35 miles to Bellingham.  There is an area south of the city called the Fairhaven Historic District.  We stopped to check out the treasure trove of quaint little shops and restaurants.  We also drove through a couple of parks in the area.  We were through looking around well before lunch, so we headed back to Anacortes on some back roads to see the country.
Below are some pictures we took while walking around Fairhaven.

Fat Pie Pizza 

 Waiting on his master to shop.

These flowers hung on every light pole in every town we have seen out here.  Beautiful! This is their spring.

Metal sculpture/bench was tucked in an alley around the corner from the main street.  When we walked closer to the sculpture we saw that the space opened up to shops and restaurants.

At first glance these murals were very lifelike.  Especially the kids in the windows.

The red bus was a walk up restaurant that sold among other things.....fish and chips.  Unfortunately it was too early for lunch.

The Hollyhocks are blooming and we have seen some really big plants.  

More wildflowers along the sides of the road.  

Deception Pass

On Thursday we drove down to Deception Pass which is located approximately 8 miles from Anacortes at the south end of Fidalgo Island.  The tall bridge takes you across Deception Pass to Whidbey Island.

Deception Pass State Park is located on either side of the pass.  It is a 4,134 acre marine and camping park with 77,000 feet of saltwater shoreline and 33,900 feet of freshwater shoreline on 3 lakes.  The rugged cliffs drop to meet the turbulent water of Deception Pass.  The park is outstanding for breathtaking views, old forest growths, abundant wildlife, mountain, islands, shorelines and sunsets.

As we headed into the state park, we stopped for Alan to see if he could reach around this tree.  Just kidding.  Just wanted to show you how big a lot of the trees are up here.  Alan said this tree would make a lot of 2 by 4's.  We were told they are Douglas Firs.

Driftwood was scattered all along this section of the beach.

This tree was on the trail leading down to the beach. We were standing in one of the crevices of the trunk.

Wild raspberry bushes are everywhere .....  even around town along the sides of the road.

There are several trails you can take that lead down to the beach.  One of the trails comes out close to the bridge.  We walked down to the beach where several people were fishing.  One guy told us they were fishing for herring.

This rock was beautiful!  The color looked like marble but the texture looked like lava.

This was a look at the bridge from one of the trails.  You can see one of the arches along the side of bridge.

It's a long way down!

The beach is made up of mostly small smooth rocks. Hard to walk on, but really pretty.

This is the view from the bridge.  Awesome!

Coupeville, WA

After we left the state park, we rode down toward the ferry landings in Coupeville.  It is a small town located mid-way down Whidbey Island where you catch the ferry to Port Townsend.  We drove around the small town and spotted the Lavender Wind which is a retail outlet for a local lavender farm a few miles away.  We had seen an advertisement for he business in a brochure.  The shop offers classes on how to cook with lavender as well as many items to purchase.  They had baked items such as cookies and scones.  Also jams, mixes, soaps, bath oils, etc.  You couldn't miss the shop.  It was surrounded by lavender plants.

We spotted this elephant statue at a roadside produce stand.  Not sure why.....unless it was there to catch your eye.  Must have worked.  We stopped.  They were selling fresh strawberries, raspberries, cherries, apricots and hand dipped ice cream in fresh made waffle cones.  YUM!  The fresh hot waffle cone smell was in the air for miles around!

Boeing Factory Tour

On Wednesday we decided to drive to Everett, WA to tour the Boeing facility.  Everett is about 25 miles north of Seattle on I-5.
The Boeing factory is the largest building in the world by volume.  It is a 98.3 acre building.  Back in the 70's before they compressed air from the building, clouds would form inside.
We arrived at the Future of Flight building and checked in for our tour.  We were all assembled into a theater room to watch a short video of how Boeing got started and to be given tour instructions.  NO cameras, cell phones, recording devices or bags, purses, backpacks are allowed on the tour.  Pretty much nothing is allowed.  You can rent a locker for $1.00.  We then boarded a large bus and were taken across the interstate to the factory.
This is where they assemble the wide-body Boeing 747s, 767s, 777s, and the new 787 Dreamliners.   It was really amazing to see the size of the equipment and shear size of the inside of the building.  There are 12 cafe's inside and many coffee shops.  These are all for the employees.  They have 41,000 employees working three shifts.
We left the bus and walked down a long hall underground to a freight elevator where we all rode to the a viewing platform above the assembly area for the 747s where we could walk around and see all the people below working on different areas of the plane.  We then boarded the bus again and we were taken to the other side of the factory where we repeated the long walk and elevator to see where they were  working on the 777s and 787s.
After returning to the Future of Flight building we exited from the bus straight into the gift shop.  Really? :)
After looking through the gift shop we headed for the strato deck located above the gift shop.  Out here is where you can take pictures of the surrounding buildings and planes.  While we were on the stato deck we watched a plane take off for a test flight.
It was a great experience.    These are a few of the pictures we took from the strato deck.

The tall buildings are the paint shops.

See how small the cars are outside the doors.

These following pictures were taken inside the Aviation Gallery at the Future of Flight building:

The items on display give you a general idea of just how big everything is on these planes.

One of the engines.

Section of seats....

Landing gear....it's huge!

This is a picture of the two engines and the vertical tail stabilizer.   It was taken from the second floor looking down.

This is a picture of Alan standing next to the vertical tail stabilizer.  Get the picture?  HUGE!  It really is interesting to get up close and personal with these airplane parts.  It's hard to judge how big these things are until you get a chance to see them up close.

You can go inside a cockpit and see all the buttons and gadgets the pilots use to fly the plane.  Got a kick out of the girl on my right.  She was funny!  And very animated while pretending to fly this plane.

We really enjoyed the tour and the Future of Flight building.  Would recommend the tour to anyone in the area.