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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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