Bob & Lisa's Great Alaska Adventure

A Sunny Morning & a Rainy Afternoon in Sequim Sequim Farmers Market (I bought veggies from this stand-- but not a pumpkin) We woke bright and early to a sunny day in our Sequim Caboose. (For those of you who missed yesterday's post, that's pronounced "Skwim.")  We had to be early because breakfast is served in the Silver Eagle Dining Car at 8:30 AM sharp, and we didn't want to disappoint our hosts for whom breakfast is a really big deal and an integral part of the "experience" at their Getaway. Today we were the only diners-- though tomorrow morning there will apparently be several others--so we had the car to ourselves.  Even though we were not moving down the tracks, this breakfast was served in the finest fancy dining car tradition, as you can see from the menu provided on the table. Breakfast Menu from This Morning The menu this morning consisted fresh squeezed juice, Orange-marmalade pull apart bread, a baked banana with yogurt, ...

Submarines and Cabooses M Beside the Lavender Caboose on Track 5-- Our Home for the Next Two Nights We were sad to leave our house in Gig Harbor this morning, as it was probably the nicest and most upscale house we rented during the entire trip so far, but we were also excited for the next phase of our adventure-- the Washington and Oregon Coasts. Our destination tonight was Sequim, WA which is north west of Gig Harbor almost to the top of the State on its North Coast.  To get there, we retraced the route to Bremerton we had taken on Monday, and then made a stop in Keyport, WA (about 20 minutes from Bremerton) to see the Naval Undersea Museum . The museum is one of the 10 Navy museums that are operated by the Naval History & Heritage Command.  Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, WA The exhibits touched on naval warfare  from a number of different perspectives. There was a large exhibit devoted to submarines, including several which were displ...

Hanging Around on Our Last Day in Gig Harbor Sunrise from Our Gig Harbor House Balcony We woke this morning to the beautiful sunrise you see in the picture above. Well OK, Bob woke up with the sun and took those pictures while I was still fast asleep, but it was a beautiful morning. As today is our last day in this glorious house in Gig Harbor, we decided to stay in town and to enjoy as much of the town and the house as we could.  First we took care of a chore by dropping off a large FedEx box of art (remember back to the Owl sculpture, the Eagle print, and the two free book poster from former posts, plus a new small diptych we picked up here in Gig Harbor from a local artist-- no pictures of that one, but it is an Encaustic Painting , made from fused wax.). Bob finally got his haircut after weeks of complaining that it was too long.  He found himself in the hotbed of town gossip, seated in the chair next to a sitting city councilman in the midst of a very cont...

Glass, Seaports, and a Bit of History James Mongrain's homage to 19th Century Venetian Glass We headed back into downtown Tacoma today to take in the rest of the museums (well all except the Children's museum). Our first stop was the Chihuly Bridge which crosses the highway and connects the main street in Tacoma (and the Washington State History Museum-- more on that later) to the boardwalk and the Tacoma Glass Museum. The bridge contains three section of Chihuly glass-- an overhead scatter collection (where lots of individual pieces are arranged into a collage), two giant glass sculptures (pictured below), and a large wall with sections to display individual pieces. Lisa on the Chihuly Glass Bridge We couldn't imagine a display like this in NYC (or even Seattle, where there are miscreants with a penchant for smashing glass) as the art would be stolen almost as soon as the sun went down. Presumably they are alarmed (we saw the security cameras), ...