Seattle Wednesday 6th Sept. 2006

Well we're tired and weary after spending two and a half hours out on the Argosy Locks Cruise today. It was a great trip and there were some lovely views. I didn't take a lot of photos because the views were just toooooo distant. It was interesting going through the Locks though, I don't think I have ever been through one before. I found the floating houses interesting. They are different to Boat Homes in as much as they don't have a motor. The bloke who was doing the commentary said that one sold recently and fetched $1.300.000. He pointed it out to us and I must say it was very nice. The weather was extremely kind to us, it was a beautiful day to be out on the water. Even the Salmon did their best to entertain us by leaping out of the water. Helena repaid their performance by eating one for lunch when we returned to shore !! I did the right thing and had a Shrimp Cocktail.
Some of the homes built on the sides of the mountains overlooking the water look very precarious. The commentator pointed out the places where there had been landslides and homes had tumbled into the Sound. He said the owners had tried to sue the Council but it had been deemed an Act of Nature, so they lost everything. Except for one owner whose home had caught fire on the way down. He claimed on Fire Insurance and was paid out !!
On the way home to Helena's in the car I was able to see Mt. Rainier reasonably clearly for the first time since I've been here. By gee it's a big mountainous volcano. It seems to loom over the city. There has been to much haze around to see it until today, so I have seen snow from a distance again!
Tomorrow morning we leave for the Rockies, (if we hadn't done the cruise we would have left today) I won't be sorry to leave Seattle and I'm looking forward to seeing the Rockies so much. We are going to go out through the Cascade Range on Interstate 90 and follow the Highway up through Washington, Idaho and then across the border into British Columbia where we will continue onto Banff in Alberta. From there we will continue to Jasper where we hope to see a Glacier. On our return we will go to Lake Louise then follow Trans Canada Highway 1 back through Kamloops to Vancouver where Jackie awaits us......we hope.
So if I don't get back to this blog for awhile, you'll know where I am. Hopefully I will be able to add to this at one of the hotels/ motels we will be staying in. Bye for now.