7 - One Huge Factory, a Great Market, and a Killer Host

After the great time we had in the Vancouver area, Colin and I began our journey south, making our first border crossing! It wasn't a huge deal obviously as we have been to the States many times before, but still a first on this trip. Colin had found a marine shop that carried the size of Pelican cases he wanted to replace his busted ones with so we made our first stop in Washington. In the parking lot we used a drill borrowed from the store and got his new cases all mounted up and carrying the load rather than his bags being tied on with rope.

From here the plan was to go take the Boeing factory tour in Everett but by the time we got there we had missed the last tour of the day. No worries, we'll come back and check it out tomorrow. We made our way into Seattle where we met our host for a couple nights, Rick, whom I got in touch with on MotoStays.com, a couch surfing-esque site for motorcyclists. We parked our bikes behind his building, had a beer on his rooftop patio, and then went out for Tapas. We had great food and drinks there, made our way to a bar next door and continued the great conversation. Rick has been all over and had so many great stories to share. He's also a pilot, so the three of us had common ground there, and him and Colin are history buffs, so the conversation was always interesting. Oh, and he's a great impressionist!

We woke the next day with the plan of going back to the Boeing factory and then heading downtown and checking out Pike's Place market among other things. The Boeing tour was really cool and definitely worth doing. They have the world's largest factory in Everett and the size really was unbelievable. We got to see the lines where they build 767s, the huge 747, and the brand spankin' new 787 Dreamliner. I wasn't allowed to bring my camera on the tour, unfortunately, so again I'll say it's worth checking out if you're around Seattle. After the tour was done, however, we got to see one of the Dream Lifters come in and unload, which was really neat. They modified a 747 to carry huge sized cargo, specifically the parts for the 787 which is assembled here. Airplanes are magic.

We rode back to Rick's, grabbed some coffees and amazing biscuits, and hopped on a bus downtown. Pike's Place was a really cool spot with such a variety of wares being sold. Tons of fresh seafood, vegetables, handmade leather items, killer electric guitars and basses, and everything else that can be made. I really dug this place and loved just wandering around taking photos and talking with the makers at various stands.

From the market we walked a couple miles to get to an REI where I wanted to pick up a footprint for my tent. It seemed every shop in Canada was sold out for my Copper Spur UL2, and so was this REI. I ended up buying one over the phone from the REI in Henderson, NV where I would be in a couple weeks' time to pick it up. With that out of the way we walked over to the Space Needle, which wasn't hard to find, and checked out the surrounding park. There were tons of neat sculptures and structures that were built for the World Fair in 1962.

Colin went and touched the huge fountain in the unknown duration of time it was off

The camera is sad...

These goats were for hire!

After walking around a while longer we hopped a bus back towards Rick's place where we grabbed some Pho and wine for the night. A huge thanks to Rick being such a gracious host to us! Seattle was great!