We were a little sad to leave Seattle this morning, maybe if it had rained the whole time the parting wouldn't be so bad. Even though we both grew up in the suburbs, there's something attractive about urban living. Seattle just seems like a really fun place to live. We never even moved the motorcycle for the entire time we were there, We actually were able to walk to wherever we wanted to go, though in some cases we probably could have taken public transportation. The people who lived there that we met seemed to be happy and enjoyed their lives, and there was always something to do.
     Since it was Sunday, we hadn't been on the bike for a while, and we were out late for fireworks last night, we decided to sleep in a little and take it easy today . It was after 10:00 when we finally hit the road, with the first stop being The LeMay - America's Car Museum only about 35 miles away in Tacoma.
     The car museum was fun, they had a good collection, mostly restored, but a number of hot rods also. They were showcasing Ford pickup trucks in a special exhibit and they were nice. Not as nice as Chevy pickups would have been, but nice all the same. They also had a section on Route 66 and the station wagon that was fun. Some of the early luxury cars were unusual, and there were people from the museum standing around to answer questions about the cars. They were really knowledgeable both about the history and the technical innovations of each car. There was also a complimentary photo in a 1932 Buick, so Jody and I climbed in so we would have a Facebook picture to post.
     The wildest car they had was a 1960 Rambler station wagon that had been stripped off the frame, and the entire running gear had been replaced with running gear from a Ferrari. It was very well done, painted Ferrari red, with tan leather interior, and even the classic matching tan leather luggage .
     When we finished with the car museum, I had checked online and found that there was a Museum of Glass about three quarters of a mile away downtown. Since we were already parked at the car museum, rather than risk the downtown parking situation at the Museum of Glass, we just walked. The steps would do us good.
     The Museum of Glass was a rather large, teepee shaped building, and would typically have exhibits from multiple artists, along with the Chihuly Bridge of Glass outdoor exhibit. It turned out that they were right in the middle of changing out most of the artwork in the main gallery, so there wasn't that much on display. They even had a reduced ticket price. But the center of the museum was the Hot Shop, a fully operating glass blowing shop with furnaces and shaping tools and everything. They also had a program where kids as young as 4 would submit drawings for glasswork, the winner would be chosen and the Hot Shop would make the actual piece under the supervision of the child artist . They would make two copies, one for the child, and one for the museum. There were many examples of the "Kid Art" on display and they were fabulous.
     We took a bunch of pictures, visited the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, and took some pictures there. The Hot Shop gave demonstrations, and we stuck around to see how it was done. In addition, there was a nice lady tourguide that took us around, explained some of the artwork, explained the technical aspects of how it was done, and answered questions. It was really a great tour. An since the gift shop was mostly artwork from the various artists, it was almost a gallery in itself. We left the Museum of Glass fully entertained, even with the main gallery closed.
     At the end of our cultural visit to Tacoma, we headed another 35 miles down the road to our hotel on the outskirts of Mt Rainier National Park in a town called Enumclaw. We timed it just perfectly, because between Tacoma and Enumclaw is an Indian Reservation that was setting up for an outdoor Van Halen concert . Luckily it was 5:00 when we passed the sign saying parking lot opens at 5:00. Any later and we would have been in a traffic nightmare. I don't know what the deal is with Enumclaw, but it is a fairly small town, with cows grazing along side the road. It only has a couple of hotels, but there are a lot of restaurants.
     We asked the lady at the hotel desk, and she recommended the Rainier Bar & Grille in town. Since TripAdvisor agreed, we headed over about 6:00 and the place was packed and noisy, and people were just having a lot of fun watching Women's Soccer. We didn't have to wait too long for a table, and the food was great!
     Tomorrow we head to Mt Rainier National Park in the morning. The mountain looms over us in the hotel in the distance. It should be great fun to ride up there. Hopefully we can get in a little hiking also.

69.3 miles today
8576.8 miles total

4.497 gallons today
206.730 gallons total