We left our campground early and headed Northwest toward
North Cascades National Park. On the way, we passed “Winthrop,” a town where
just about every downtown building looked like it was from the Old West.
It only took an hour or so to reach the edge of the North
Cascades. The mountains were the first sight:
But the most impressive thing about this park were the
bright teal colored lakes:
There are snow-covered mountains, rivers, and glaciers as well, but we stuck pretty closely to the main road through the park so we only saw those at a distance.
After leaving the park we picked up some groceries and had
sandwiches for lunch by a river. Sharon found wild blackberries:
After that we made our way to Everett, Washington, which is
about a half hour north of Seattle. Here I had made 4 PM reservations for
something that has long been on my must-see list: the Boeing aircraft assembly
line factory tour. Driving to the visitor center, we passed the front of the
assembly building – the world’s single largest building.
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| (Not my picture) |
Right next to the Boeing facility is Paine Field, the
airport which Boeing uses to test and deliver its aircraft. All the aircraft
you see are new planes being readied for delivery.
The weird looking plane below is a specially modified 747 called
the Dreamlifter which Boeing uses to transport parts to the new 787 from
contractors around the world.
The airport was busy while we stood in the visitor center
parking lot and watched. Half-painted planes were landing, taking off, and
performing fly-bys over the runway.
Then I got to see something really special – a classic,
restored Pan Am DC-3 landed and took off again.
I don’t know how lucky I was to see that, but it was the highlight of
the tour.
The visitor center itself houses an observation deck, a huge
gift shop, and a small museum.
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| Vintage Pan Am and TWA tickets |
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| Fuselage cut-out from a Pan Am 707 |
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| Closest I’ll ever get to flying Pan Am! |
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| Engines and a Norwegian Air tail on display. |
These pictures show only a fraction of the building, which houses the assembly operations for the 747,
767, 777, and 787. Tunnels criss-cross underneath. It was a unique work place,
with office cubicles, restaurants, parts bins, computer labs, cranes, and more
all mixed on the factory floor and up along the walls’ 5 stories.
It’s
unimaginable how they manage the assembly of every part and system that goes
into these planes.
We were lucky in another way during the tour – we got to see
a crane lift an entire nose fuselage section of a 747 from a bay straight into
the air.
It’s an amazing tour and I definitely recommend it to anyone
going to Seattle.
After the tour, we dropped off the camper at an RV park
outside Seattle and took the truck into the city where we met up with Alison
and Ben, friends from college who now live in Seattle.
They have an amazing
apartment in the middle of downtown, so together we walked down past Seattle’s
famous Pike’s Fish Market and the first Starbucks store. We ended up having a
good dinner at one of their favorite restaurants.
We spent the night at Ben and Alison’s (our first break from
the camper since the trip started, except for one night of backcountry
tenting).
Tomorrow the plan is to explore Seattle some more and then
head over to Washington’s Olympic Peninsula.
Random Fact of the
Day: Our Boeing tour guide spotted my Pan Am cap and it turns out he was a 727
pilot for the third (re)incarnation of Pan Am which operated in New England
about three or four years ago.
Random Fact of the Day
2: Some trivia, also courtesy of the tour guide:
- The Everett plant was specifically built for the 747 in the 1960s and was a huge gamble by the company.
- The building has 1 million light bulbs
- All of Disneyland could easily fit into the assembly building with plenty of room to spare for parking.
- The 777 is built on an assembly line that moves 1 inch every two minutes.
- There are 13 restaurants inside the building, but surprisingly no Starbucks!