Dietz Summer Road Trip

Today we left Oregon and continued our final journey northward into Washington, before we start our two week cross country descent back to North Carolina. We left Portland and kept on I-5 North until we exited for Mt. Rainier National Park. It was really easy to get to, we arrived around 11:30, however Mt. Rainier was completely packed. There was hardly anywhere to park in the Paradise region of the park. Paradise (named after the river that runs through this portion) is the main visitor location. Something like 70% of all visitors to the park end up here. We had to circle around a few times and ended up parking probably a mile away from the Visitor Center. Advice for next time, get there earlier. But despite the crowds you got amazing views of Mt. Rainier. It was awesome to see snow/ice (glaciers really) on top of a mountain in the middle of summer. We have never seen anything like that before. We walked about the visitor center area and view points and took some great pictures. We didn’t have much time for a hike since we wanted to spend more time in Seattle tonight, so we headed out of the park shortly after.

   

 

   

    

 We stopped at a place just outside of the park boundary, service was so slow and they ran out of fries (at lunch time, when they are a side item for 75% of your menu, really?!). The food was decent, but it just took forever. Finally, after a brief discussion with the manager, we settled the bill and were on our way. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Tukwila, WA, a few miles outside of downtown Seattle. The hotel offered a shuttle to the Light Rail system. Public Transport in Seattle is very easy, affordable, and relatively clean. Or at least in our experience today it was. We hopped on the light rail and took it right into Westlake, a few blocks from the Pike Place Market. By the time we got into the city the fish and grocery market was packed up for the day but we could still walk around the Market hall. You could see where they sold all of the good stuff earlier that day.

   

 

  

We decided to go to Lowell’s right there in Public Market for dinner. They had 3 floors and we sat at a window table on the 2nd and had a great view of the Puget Sound. We ordered Salmon and Cod Fish Tacos. Both were yummy and really fresh.

   

 

   

 Lowell’s and Public Market are situated right on the water and right beside the Original Starbucks. Of course we had to go to the first Starbucks, which has been open since 1971. We waited in line for about 45 minutes total. From the sounds of it, it could have been a lot of worse. They had many exclusive mugs and coffee blends that were exclusive just to the Pike Place store. Two interesting things,1. they served no food and 2. they only had what appeared to be 4 people working. They did move really quickly and had a good system going. We each enjoyed an Iced Coffee and took it with us on our walk to the Space Needle.

   

 

   

 

   

 

   

 It was about a mile walk to the Space Needle and the Seattle Center. However, it was beautiful here today. Being in Seattle after all, we expected to need our umbrella. But the weather was perfect, sunny, warm, and a great sky. No fog, no wind, just perfect. So it made for a nice walk. We originally had tickets for a 10:00pm access to the top of the Space Needle. We ended up getting there just after 9pm. We walked around the gift shop on the entry level. This is where you can buy literally anything you can imagine with a picture of the Space Needle on it. We actually were allowed to go up much earlier than our reserved time since space was available. Once you go up you can spend as much time as you want there, they are open until midnight. The 500-foot elevator ride was interesting but the views were spectacular. We got up around 9:30pm so the last little bit of the sunset was reflecting over the water. You can walk outside around the entire observation deck and see every part of the city. The lights were just amazing. This might of been the coolest, non-park/nature excursion we have done so far. But then again the Hoover Dam and the Alamo were awesome too!

 
  

  
  

  

  

    

 
The other cool thing is inside from the observation deck there is a mini-bar, and also a lot of information and interactive displays (showing how many people have visited and how it was made). There is also a revolving restaurant one floor below the observation deck. And it also had free wifi! So at 500ft in the air we were able to FaceTime with our family still awake back in Pennsylvania!! It was awesome and unbelievebale. We ended up staying there until just after 11:00 pm.

   

 

  

Right across from the Space Needle is the Mono-rail. This is a quick, one stop rail that takes you from The Space Needle back to Westlake. Again, very accessible and designed with tourists in mind. as you ride the mono-rail you can see the Space Needle sort of disappear in the distance. 

   

 We then hopped back on the light rail at the Westlake Station and took it back into Tukwila, which is about a 30 minute ride. For the two of us, round trip, we paid about $17 in travel expenses total. Beats a cab fare any day! We then got picked up at the light rail station by our hotel shuttle. It all was very easy to navigate and we had a great time! 

  
Tomorrow we start our journey back east, across the Evergreen state. But we still have so much left to do in the next 2 weeks. National Parks, Land of Lincoln, and the St. Louis Arch. We can’t wait!