Karen and Ian picked us up from our apartment at 6 this morning and then we headed south. We are on our way to Seattle for tonight snd tomorrow night and then on to Portland for the next couple of days. We went over the Canada/US Border, where it cost Deb and I nothing but cost Karen and Ian US $6 each. We were through there at about 6.45 am so there wasn't a hold up. Went in and answered some questions. Out in 10 minutes.
Highway Exit to the Border
Peace Arch at the Canada/US Border
Our first stop was in a town called Everett. For those who don't know, this is where Boeing aircraft are made. We stopped at the Boeing Factory and had a guided tour. Before we went in we were searched because we weren't allowed to take phones, cameras or guns into the factory. Unfortunately there are no photographs,
Some truly useless information:
Building area 399, 480 square metres
Building volume 13,385,378 cubic metres
There are 6 Coffee Shops on the factory floor.
We had a look at the production lines of the 747 and the 787 aircraft. The factory is absolutely amazing. When you are looking down onto the factory floor you do not realise how many people are working at one time. The factory has 3 shifts, 6.00 am to 2.00 pm, 2.00 pm to 10.00 pm and 10.00 pm to 6.00 am. There are over 30,000 people who work at the factory. We were going through on the 9.30 am tour and we hardly saw anyone. There were people there of course, and if I was asked to put a figure on the number I would have said not much over 500. In fact there were over 10,000 people on the 6.00 am to 2.00 pm shift.
Although we weren't able to take photographs I have downloaded some from the Internet. I just did a Google search on Boeing Factory Everett.
The green is a protective coating which is washed off prior to painting
White coating is protection against UV light. These aircraft are constructed of Carbon Fibre which is susceptable to UV light. Notice that the pilots windows are covered as well. This is to prevent UV light getting inside. When complete the aircraft will be completely protected.
I think this is the 767 line. We did not see this as they were producing the tanker version for the US Air Force and we weren't allowed to see it.
We were able to get one photograph that was taken at the end of the tour. It didn't have a background. The background was selected by us at a kiosk and then the completed image was emailed to us.
After the boeing factory we headed off to the Museum of Flight. This is an amazing collection of aircraft. Outside near the entrance there is a B47 and alongside this was an aircraft I think was a B29. I couldn't tell because the whole aircraft appeared to be wrapped in plastic and shrink wrapped. Everything was wrapped in plastic including the propellors.
Inside was a large hall where aircraft from all eras where displayed. There were aircraft that had contributed to the advancement of aviation and aviation records. There was a Lockheed Blackbird, a 1930's vintage Lockheed Electra, a Mcdonald Douglas Skyhawk just to name a few.
There were displays specifically for space, WW I and WW II. Outside on the tarmac was a Concord and a Boeing 707 version of Air Fiorce One which were open to the public,
B 47 Outside Museum of Flight - White tail behind is the shrink wrapped aircraft
As you can see from the above photograph the weather was a little inclement at the time so we headed off to our hotel. The hotel was within a short walk of the light rail system that they have in Seattle. We used this to get us to and from our next adventure. A game of baseball between the Seattle Mariners and the Kansas City Royals. Although it was raining outside, in the stadium it was dry. They just shut the roof.
We went into the stadium well before the game in order to watch them practice. Any balls that are hit out are kept by the spectators. Karen got a ball that was hit out during practice.
There is a lot of hype going on throughout the lead up to the game. While walking through the stadium Deb and I got our photograph taken with the Mariners mascot, a moose.
Karen introduced us (probably more me) to a local delicacy called a Funnel Cake. It is like a donut. The batter is drizzled into very hot oil and when cooked comes out as big as a plate and is sprinkled with powdered sugar. It was delicious. Much lighter than a donut.
It was a low scoring game. I was told by Ian at the start of the game that we were supporting the Mariners so it was good that they won one nil. The run was scored in the 5th innings if my memory serves me correctly.
Deb had her camera there and got some good shots.
As mentioned earlier, all the balls that are hit into the crowd are kept by the spectators. We had a foul ball come very close to us and Ian was able to retrieve it. When it hit the seat in front of us it sounded like a gunshot I'm glad I wasn't in the way.
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