We had a great brunch this morning at a local joint the hotel recommended...all organic and vegan of course! It was yummy though. Then it was off for the seaplane ride! I was not too excited about this one but, I have to admit it was pretty fun.
Grace wasn't too excited about it either....
It was LOUD!! So, we all wore headphones which cancelled out the noise and told us what we were looking at...
The views were simply amazing...
We had about an hour between our plane ride and our cruise of the lakes. There was a Starbucks at the harbor so we sat on the patio drinking coffee and soaking up the scenery. It was a beautiful, perfect day. The tour guide on the boat was great. Taught us a ton about what we were seeing and about Seattle. He was a young guy, 20 something, that grew up here.
I love these floating houses!! They are built completely on barges that float in the water. There are a very limited number of them, therefore they are around $1-2 million.
The weather since we've been here has apparently been unusual. It's been cloudless blue skies, sunny with a high of 81 both days. Mount Ranier is visible in the picture above. However, we learned today that even though it's right there it is only able to be seen from Seattle an average of 60 days a year. And, that people here don't say "The sun is out today," instead they say "The mountain is out today."
As our boat took us from Lake Union to Lake Washington the houses got bigger and bigger. The highlight of them is visible through the trees here...
This is the home of Bill & Melinda Gates. It's much bigger than you can make out here. It has 26 bathrooms, 6 kitchens and an indoor/outdoor swim thru pool. It is also the smartest house on the planet. It has so many kitchens and bathrooms because they like to have frequent guests. If you are a frequent visitor, you receive a lapel pin that is actually a computer chip that is programmed with all your favorites...sports teams, colors, food etc. So, if you walk into a room certain things in the room change to meet your preferences. If the phone in that room rings, you answer it because it's for you. The chip tracks what room you are in. He owns the longest stretch of coastline on the lake, which actually isn't as long as you think given his net worth. However, it does have a beach which is not natural to the lake. He had it put in and the sand was flown in from Hawaii from the beach where he married his wife. The house is valued at $124 million.
Just a few minutes away from this house is the swanky, golf course community he grew up in. The tour guide told us that his "rags to riches" story isn't really "rags." He may have started in his father's garage, but he had to move some really nice cars to work in there! More of a "rich to richer" story...
We also saw the "Sleepless in Seattle" house...
It is soooo pretty here. Seattle from the water is breath-taking. It has a fun, funky vibe and reminds me of Austin in some ways. Live music everywhere, tree huggers, lots of water sports.
Mandy is "driving" the boat...
After all this sightseeing fun, everyone was worn out. We asked the kids what they wanted to do for dinner and they all asked if we could go back to the room, order pizza and watch a movie!
So that's exactly what we did!!
Tomorrow we are off to explore Mount Ranier and will spend the night in Tacoma.
Seattle Blessings,
Leslie
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