Day: May 28, 2026

Last day in Seattle.

/ brisbanefrannie / 4 Comments

The weather in Seattle has been great. A little light rain the first day but stunning blue skies and warm now.

I’ve always wanted to visit Bainbridge Is. an island about 30 mins ferry from Seattle. People live on the island and commute by the ferry – service is every 40 mins till midnight.

We caught the 7.55 ferry so we were there for breakfast. Crossing to the island was clear so we could see Mt Rainier where we spent the day yesterday.

Lisa and John are great to travel with. They research everything so we had no problem getting around and finding great places to visit & eat.

Breakfast was in an old carriage. A regular American diner with a waitress who was under 5’ and could have been straight out of a comedy tv series.

I had a beautiful omelette with vegetables. Delicious.

John loved the waffles!

We drove up to see Pia – a peace maker troll. Entirely made of wood she sits in a peaceful meadow and invites calmness.

Following up on the museum we saw at Gibson , Vancouver we went to I the Japanese memorial. It was so tastefully fine – telling the story of the Japanese who had lived and ran businesses on Bainbridge only to be rounded up during the war and sent to internment camps in a desert in Southern California. It’s heartbreaking to read their stories.

Many returned to nothing and had to start again.

Next stop was the museum. A little gem. Manned by a very friendly tanned man who spends winters in Palm Springs, he made us very welcome and told us the Pickle Ball mania was started right here in Bainbridge!

So many beautiful shop displays.
One of a few bookshops in Bainbridge.

There are quite a few local authors including Kristen Hannah a favourite of mine. This week they are hosting a book crawl through the town Wine and books. What would be better. So sorry we’re missing it.

One shelf of local authors. Anyone read Jonathon Evison?
I want to go

After several hours of wandering the lovely shopping street. Walking and driving around the picturesque parts of the island and visiting museums we caught the ferry back.

A great view of Mt Rainier

We arrived back to the busy waterfront and got ready for our Harbourside cruise. A one hour tour in perfect weather with a narration pointing out the buildings and local attractions. It was perfect.

View from our harbour tour
Interesting Seattle skyline

Seattle is getting ready for the World Cup soccer starting in July. It will be great. The city is clean , covered with flower boxes , friendly and lots of great eating and drinking spots.

Our last dinner was Oysters with margaritas!

Tomorrow we move up Vancouver for our Air NZ flight home.

Paradise at Mt Rainier

/ brisbanefrannie / 2 Comments

The 5th National Park in the US. Mt Rainier has 25 glaciers and is an active volcano. Eruptions of hot lava molded by glacier ice formed the mountain.

The first building in Paradise was in 1917. First national park to allow cars.

We were up in the snow again. Mt Rainier is 14,400 …….so very tall.

We had a Ranger chat and heard all about how the road was put in , who was the first to climb the mountain, when the lodge was built and how US troops used it up train for endurance during the war.

The lodge is lovely. A typical ski lodge. Lots of timber and open spaces.

A pianist was playing in the open area and the dining room was closed!

I gathered another Junior Park Ranger badge for Leo. The first Ranger ( with an unfortunate comb over ) wouldn’t give us one but later the Ranger who gave the park talk came on duty and he kindly gave me one for Leo.

Deciding to explore a little we drove down the mountain and stopped at two waterfalls. The forest is lush and green, the paths a little muddy with the rain from the morning. People might actually need the walking poles they were carrying.

It was too slippery for me so I waited at the top of the waterfall and took photos as the other climbed down.

The second one was not so far and definitely not muddy.

We stopped at the Longmire on the way down the mountain. Lunch was in the lodge dining room followed by a visit to the tiny museum.

Longmire. Reminds me of Binna Burra

Heading down the mountain we stopped at a sculpture park and then a general store with many versions of Big Foot.

One of my favourite sculptures
Big foot. Scary.

Such a day of contrast, people, weather and we finished with seafood and margaritas by the water.