#17 - CHECK!

Number 17 on my list of 101 things to do in 1,001 days was to visit my friends Lauren and Garrett in Seattle, WA. This was my first time to visit Seattle and I was so excited to finally be able to see Lauren in her city! Justin and I took an early flight at 5:30am on Thursday morning (we had to wake up at 3:30am) and we got into Seattle at about 10:30am. As soon as we got there, we headed about 45 minutes north of Seattle to go to the Boeing plant. This plant in Washington makes all the Boeing airplanes that fly all over the world. The newest plane is in the process of being finalized and it's the 787. Justin and I got to see this 787 in an assembly line at the plant. Yes, you heard me right, the plane is in an assembly line. Just like a car or any other mass produced product. Given the size of planes, you know that plant is HUGE! It's the largest building in the world by volume. 29,000 people work there in numerous shifts making these planes. Interesting picture...



This is actually a 747 that is slightly modified. You'll notice that the middle section of the plane is much bigger than the rest. That is because this is the plane (one of four) that ships the parts of the 787 to Washington. This plane, as small as it may look in the picture, can carry the fuselage of the 787 planes. It's crazy! The 787 plane series is called Dreamliner. So it's fitting that these four planes that ship the parts of the 787 are called Dreamlifters. are called Another interesting fact about the 787's is that it only takes 3-5 days to make them. Not sure about you, but I don't feel safe flying in something that takes less than a woman's monthly cycle to build. I'm just saying.

After leaving the Boeing plant, we drove back to the Space Needle to take the world famous "Duck Tour". We boarded this bad boy...



And drove all over Seattle learning the historical facts of the city as well as having some fun. By the way, apparently people in Germany and South Africa all know the steps to the Cha Cha Slide. We took the "duck" into Lake Union and passed this house...



Look familiar? It should, well, at least to the ladies it should. It's the house Tom Hanks' character lived at in Sleepless in Seattle. Garrett also showed us the restaurant in Pike Place where Tom Hanks had dinner with the girl he dated before Meg Ryan's character. I heart Tom and Mel in movies :) After finishing up doing the duck tour, Justin and I drove to Garrett and Lauren's house to meet them. They both had to work that day so Justin and I just kept ourselves occupied doing the things above until they got home.

We refreshed for a minute and then left again to have dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory downtown. Dinner was fabulous and we stayed there for hours just talking. It's been so long since I was able to have some friend time with Lauren because she lives so far away and can only come home so much and when she does, she usually has an itinerary of things to do everyday when she's here. I know how it is. When I lived in Nashville and only came home once every couple of months it seemed like everyone wanted to do something and I only had so much time, so I pretty much had a schedule to meet every time I was home. You're lucky to get a lunch or dinner in with your friends before you have to leave again.

The next morning we woke up and traveled about 2 hours to Rainier National Park. This day rocked! We got to the Jackson Visitor Center trailhead, which is the same trailhead you take to the summit of Rainier, and hiked about 4 miles roundtrip. Four miles doesn't sound too bad does it? Well, there was a little factor that made it slightly harder that I like to call STAIRCASE! The views were unbelievable though.



This is Lauren pointing at the awful staircase. Trust us, it is way steeper than it looks.













We took the Skyline trail to Panorama Point. Aren't the mountains gorgeous? I mean, Justin and I saw mountains like this when we hiked to the summit of Mount Elbert in Colorado. But that was at 14,500 feet. Panorama Point is only at about 7,000 feet. To see these views at only 7,000 feet is incredible! Lauren was our trail leader. She was in front and hauled some tail up the mountain leading the rest of us to the top. Here's a video of the views we were looking at.



Coming down was a different story though. The steepness made us all pretty nervous about coming down. Justin and I didn't really want to walk down, so we slid down. Yep, we SLID down the staircase. After leaving Garrett and Lauren at the top, they finally decided to do the same. Luckily, I got them on video...



After leaving the park, by the way, a woman fell 20 feet through the snow while on the exact same trail we were on. She fell through a warm spot in the snow 10 feet down where she hit a transformer and then fell another 10 feet until she stopped. She was there for 2 hours until she was airlifted to a hospital. This happened a mere 4 hours after we left. CRAZY!

We headed home to change and get ready for the Mariner's game that night. We had so much fun and the views were so AWESOME!



Like Meredith Grey, I also have a thing for ferry boats :)



Me and Justin with the Olympic Mountains in the background. We intend to go climb those when we make it out there again.



Justin took this picture. We watched the sun set over the space needle from our seats!!

The next morning, we did several of the fun touristy things around Seattle...



Had lunch at Pike's Place Market



Took a ferry to Bainbridge Island



Went to the top of the Space Needle

Justin and I had a blast in Seattle and we didn't even make it to the airport before we started planning all the things we're going to do next time we get to come out there. Lauren and Garrett were such amazing hosts and I was so glad to get to hang out with them. Lauren, Justin still talks about those pillows. He wants to know if they came from Polo or Costco. He can't remember :)