Travel Diary – Day Seven

 Aug. 29, 7:30 AM – Now this is the kind of day we were expecting up here: heavily overcast. That’s what you always hear about Seattle, right? Gray and rainy. I promised the home folks I’d return with bottles of rain, proof that the stuff still exists somewhere on the planet. But until this morning it’s been bright and sunny. Nary a drop of rain in sight. And there still isn’t. Nevertheless, we got what we really came for: blissfully cool, blessedly sane, weather!

Aug. 29, noon – Toured the Boeing plant today! The factory here in Everett is the largest building by volume in the United States. I can’t remember the exact figure, but the square footage runs into the millions. The place is gratifyingly busy with over 3000 employees working 24/7. If you were to order a 787-8 right now, you wouldn’t get it until 2020. So it seems Boeing ain’t hurtin’ as much as the rest of the economy.

No cameras, purses, fanny packs, cell phones, or electronics of any kind are allowed on the tour. (You have to rent a locker to stash your stuff.) So I can’t show you the monstrous 747s being assembled on the cavernous factory floor. Or the luxurious interior of the 787 Dreamliner commissioned by Korean Air.

Positioning pics in this blog is terribly tricky. That’s why I resorted to PowerPoint to position them en masse. But that’s not great, either. Bear with me, folks. I’ll figure it out sooner or later.

Aug. 29, 4:00 PM – We moved from Everett back to Seattle before our flight tomorrow. As I’ve mentioned, traffic around here is even worse than Houston’s. This motel is just a few miles from the airport.

Husband is eager to get home. He’s got fall tomatoes planted. Me, I can’t imagine returning to the fiery, unrelenting heat of Texas after this brisk, exhilarating evergreen air. But we can’t have it all, can we?