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02/03/26 - Flying to Seattle

We flew to Seattle in the afternoon and had amazing views of the mountains and waters. We're off on an adventure.

The Olympic Mountains





Puget Sound


Mount Rainier - the ghost mountain

Seattle

Keywords: flying, seattle

02/01/26 - Flying Into Charleston

There aren't a lot of good flights to the southeast from Seattle. Usually, one has to change planes in Atlanta, but Alaska Air has a lone daily non-stop flight that leaves in the morning and arrives in the evening. This time of year, that meant we caught the sunset. We didn't see any mountains as we approached the city. The land was flat and the rivers meandered.









Keywords: flying, seattle

01/20/26 - Flying Home

We had booked a morning flight home to Port Angeles. We, our plane and pilot arrived at Boeing Field as scheduled. Unfortunately, so had a lot of fog arrived out on the peninsula. We checked our weather app. There wasn't much of a ceiling. Our pilot checked his weather app and called his home base. Things didn't look good.

So, we did what we usually do when things aren't looking good for travel and went and got lunch. We had cassoulet at Cafe Campagne which was as good as ever. We're sure they doubled up on the duck confit after hearing our sad tale of travelers delayed on the road.

Then, our pilot came up with a plan and a backup plan. We could make it to Port Angeles, but, if the weather worsened, we'd land at Diamond Point.

We left Boeing Field and flew west. Below, the problem was obvious. There was a lot of fog down there, and it was clinging to land. The sky was clear enough over water, but we had hopes of landing without having to swim to shore.

At some point over the peninsula we dropped below the clouds and followed the coast. It was clear flying though one couldn't see very far inland. We were heartened however when we flew over the Dungeness Spit Light House. We couldn't see Striped Peak or Hurricane Ridge, but we could see the Ediz Spit just fine. Then there was the Port Angeles airport probably wondering all the talk of fog was about.

We were home! (Actually, we still had to drive home, but we were really close.)


The problem down there is obvious.


Mount Baker



The Hood Canal Bridge, clear over water

Fog below

Keywords: flying, weather

08/27/25 - On To Australia - First Stop - Vancouver BC

We like to fly to Australia via Vancouver. The alternative is via Los Angeles, but that means flying down to LA and dealing with LAX in both directions. YVR in Vancouver is a much smaller, calmer airport, and, for us, it's easy to get to Vancouver.

We always spend an extra night so we get to eat dinner at Le Crocodile which was in top form as usual and to walk the loop along the shore in Stanley Park. One isn't really in Vancouver until one sees the bright yellow mound of sulfur across the water. It's one of the city landmarks. The featured bird on this walk was the heron. There were lots of them perched on rocks and enjoying the waterfront much as we were.


Flying in to Vancouver BC

We had no idea.

Nothing says welcome to Vancouver like its huge mound of sulfur.

One of many great blue herons

The Lion's Gate Bridge








Return to civilization

Keywords: australia, flying, vancouver

Keywords: australia, flying, vancouver

08/26/25 - Flying in to Sydney

It's a fifteen hour flight from Vancouver to Sydney. Australia is pretty far away. Mostly, we slept. The scenery over the Pacific is pretty dull especially at night. Dawn, however, was something else, and we did get a nice view of the city on our approach the airport. Excuse the poor image quality. Airplane windows are not as transparent as one might like.

Dawn light

Daylight

Sydney with the harbor bridge top right

Keywords: australia, flying, vancouver

Keywords: australia, flying, vancouver

05/08/25 - Seattle and the Flight Home

Our appointment in Seattle went well. Then, we flew home. It was a much cloudier day, but there's always something to see out of an airplane window.

View from our hotel window

View from an office

Closer view

The port without cargo traffic

Seattle

West Seattle

The Hood Canal Bridge

That darn bridge again

Discovery Bay

Sequim Bay

The Rayonier cleanup site

Keywords: flying, seattle

05/06/25 - Flight to Seattle

We recently flew to Seattle via Rite Brothers out of Fairchild, our local airport. The Hood Canal Bridge had gotten stuck open, and we had an important appointment in town. As it turned out, the bridge was repaired in time, but we really had to be there on time, so we flew.

As a reward, we got some beautiful views of the Olympic Mountains, Port Angeles, the countryside and even Mount Rainier.


Port Angeles from the air

Olympic Mountains and countryside





The Hood Canal and distant Cascades

Mount Rainier

There's all sorts of interesting stuff visible from the air. Is this an oyster facility?

Keywords: flying, mount rainier, port angeles, seattle

07/29/22 - Hazy Day Flight From Seattle

It was a hot hazy day. It seems like it is a hot hazy day every time we head into Seattle. This time we flew, and we took some pictures of the Olympic Mountains on our way back. Yes, they are hazy.









Keywords: flying, seattle

02/16/22 - Flight to Seattle

We had to take a quick flight into Seattle, so we took some pictures of our flight. We flew with Rite Brothers. They offer scenic flights with great views of the Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains and distant volcanoes. We just flew a charter into Boeing Field, but we got the scenery anyway.

Mountains and clouds

Mount Baker

The Olympic Mountains

Mount Rainier

One of the great mountains

More mountains and clouds

Our local mountains again

Hood Canal

Seattle

Flowers in bloom in Seattle

Seattle again

Keywords: flying, seattle, mount rainier

11/22/21 - The Flight to Charleston

There was some pretty impressive scenery on our flight from Seattle to Charleston. We flew other snow covered mountains, broad plains cut by river channels and then the flat lands. Most of the time the skies were clear, but as we neared the Atlantic coast, there were clouds below and perfect conditions for a glory. That's an anti-solar halo around one's plane's shadow. It was visible for much of our flight as we approached Charleston, but then, as the sun started to set and we had a beautiful sunset to watch. As with so many west to east flights, we started early in the day and arrived late in the day, but we had some great views en route.















Keywords: flying, georgia

05/11/21 - Yachats and the Road to Orick

We spent the morning exploring the coastal trail, part of the 804 Trail, that ran outside our hotel. There were sea birds and tide pools, wind blown trees and coastal forest. We had a long drive ahead of us. We had learned that Google Maps and the other mapping programs seriously underestimate the driving times along the coast, generally by 15%-25%. Of course, there was no way that the mapping programs could have predicted the hour and a half road closure south of Crescent City. What could we do? This kind of delay is common when flying, and our car was at least as comfy as any airport lounge.

When the road reopened, we headed down to Orick and checked into our Elk Meadow Cabin. We were really glad we had lots of left overs for dinner in our cooler. We just weren't up to another round of driving to the nearest restaurant.

The waterfront at the Overleaf Lodge

A tidepool

Tidepools and inlets

More dark rock

One of the plovers

Another plover

Inland tunnel

A view of our hotel

Another local bird

More to explore

Wind blown trees - krumholz

On the drive south

A brief stop

Seastacks

Stuff to worry about besides COVID

Keywords: birds, flying, oregon

11/04/19 - Why are we in Vancouver?

We are in Vancouver, BC, because it is our first stop on our way to Ethiopia. We arrived a day early so we don't have to worry about missing our flight.

There aren't a lot of flights to Addis Ababa from this hemisphere, and some of them only run every other day. We wanted a minimal number of stops and to avoid flying out of our way, for example, via Dubai. We chose Lufthansa which code shares its Ethiopian flights with Air Canada, United Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines and several others. It's ten plus hours to Frankfort via the polar route, then another seven hours or so to Addis Ababa, so stay tuned.

The view en route to Vancouver

Vancouver, BC

Some kind of steampunk festival? Eh?

Hotel window view

From Stanley Park, past the Lion's Gate Bridge

Another Stanley Park view

A cormorant

A wood duck

Great blue heron

Keywords: ethiopia, flying, vancouver

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