Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Settling in at Mt. Vernon

Monday we did the normal things everyone has to do.  We cleaned the coach, and Linda caught up on the wash.  I went grocery shopping at a very nice store, Haggen.

At 4:00 pm we met Bob & Maggie Lawlor, our friends that live near here in Sudden Valley.  That’s a suburb of Bellingham, WA.  We met the Skagit Casino which is located right by our campground.  We joined the player’s club, which gave us $5 in free slot play and 25% off of meals.  They have a nice restaurant called The Five Onions Grill.  Bob & I had the prime rib special at $14, Linda had an Asian noodle dish, & Maggie Seafood Trio special.  Everything but Linda’s was very good.  After dinner we all used our free play.  My time was very short, as I played video poker and lost.  But Bob & Maggie won BIG, and Linda won.  It was a great night with great conversations, and a cash prize!

On Tuesday I got to go somewhere I’ve been wanting to go for a long time, the Boeing Plant tour in Everett, WA.  There’s no photography allowed in the plant, so I took these pictures off of the website.

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The building is the largest in the world by cubit volume.

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That’s a 787 next to the building.  The camera compresses some of the size.  Our first stop on the tour was the 747 assembly area.  There was 8 different planes in various stages of being built.  It takes about 13 months to complete a 747 from start to finish.

The next area built 777 and the new 787 Dreamliner.  It only takes 3 weeks to build a 777, and the new 787 comes in sections and only takes 3 days to assemble.  Here’s the plane they use to transport the sections of the plane.

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That use to be a regular 747! It must be fun to fly.

After our tour we were ready for some lunch.  After our good experience at the Skagit Casino yesterday, we thought we try the Tulalip Resort & Casino we had passed on our way to Boeing.  It’s really fancy.

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We ate in the Cedar’s Café, which is in the hotel and away from the smoke.  With our player’s club card we got a 10% discount.  Linda had a great cheeseburger with Tillamook cheese.  I had steamed clams that were very fresh, steamed with herbs and garlic.  Needless to say it was lunch & dinner.

The casino was very large, but we didn’t try any games.  We’re just not into gambling.  But it was very beautiful.  This is from the website.

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On our way back, we took a drive down the Chuckanut Rd., a designated scenic drive.  The road started out in Burlington, rolling through farm country until it met the bay.

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We passed a beautiful little creek that was next to a farm that raised mussels for restaurants.

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The road ended up in Fairhaven, near Bellingham.  At the very end Linda saw a house that was unbelievable.

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It was right on the water, and had a guest house, a 6 car garage, and views of the water from every room.

It was a full day, but we enjoyed every minute of it.

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