From Lovely Bremerton to Lovely Home

It was a great two days exploring Seattle. If you don’t believe me, you can read all about it yourself.

After I arrived back in Bremerton from the Seattle ferry, I decided to hit up my favorite eatery for a delicious dinner.

I passed part of the Bremerton Navy Shipyard while walking the four blocks to Toro Lounge.

Spring has definitely sprung in this part of the world. After a beautiful seventy-one degrees today, this flower was showing its beauty for all the world to see.

Or, at least the people in Bremerton. And the four people who read my blog.

Ah, the Toro Lounge. I love this place!

The inside is cute and quaint and modern. I usually grab a table to stay for my dinner, but I decided to get it to-go tonight.

My hotel is a whole two blocks away, and I can eat dinner, rest my feet, and watch some Food Network. You can’t beat that!

While waiting for my meal to arrive, I enjoyed the frequently-rotated art on the walls.

These are done by local artists and are actually for sale. I really liked this ski lift one, though I don’t ski.

When back in my room, I could hardly wait to unwrap my favorite food in Bremerton…

Truffle Oil Papas Frites with Curried Ketchup.

Yep, they are all that and a bag of chips fries.

These are pure heaven. They didn’t exactly go along with my healthy goals, but I walked off quite a few calories today, too. So we’re good.

And it’s worth it, anyway. I would never miss out on these beauties!

To counteract the papas frites, I also got an order of edamame.

That makes everything equal, right?

I thought so.

The next morning, it was time to head to church, then grab a quick lunch, then head to the airport to prep Gladys for our trip home.

This is our view of Bremerton after finishing the three-hour block at church. Isn’t this gorgeous?!

As much as I hate eating out like this on Sundays, sometimes it can’t be helped on a work day. We grabbed a lunch at Olive Garden before our 2.4-hour flight home later this afternoon.

I think it’s wonderful that healthier options are now available. It seems like a lot of the big chain restaurants are offering things like this for people who had papas frites for dinner the night before are watching what they eat.

Of course, I am not a fan of the prices. When on earth did Olive Garden get so ridiculously expensive?

They know that they’re just selling noodles and sauce, right?

I got the minestrone soup for my appetizer option. This whole bowl, of which I could only eat half, was only about ninety calories. Not too shabby!

I got the Capellini Pomodoro from the healthier menu. Again, just noodles and sauce. For $12.50.

It was OK, but I only had a few bites. I boxed up the rest for Hubby to eat when I got home. He wasn’t a fan.

Luckily, Gladys’ nose baggage compartment is a flying refrigerator! Since it isn’t pressurized, anything placed in there before a flight stays nice and sometimes frozen cold.

My extra pasta and some breadsticks when home in this manner.

Then we hit the road again to head back to the Bremerton National Airport about seven miles south of town.

And here we are!

With such gorgeous weather and it being a Sunday, this airport was hopping! Everyone wants to fly on a beautiful weekend!

Even little Cessnas with original 1970s paint!

As always, Avian Flight Center was just wonderful to us. We feel so spoiled when we come here.

Real stairs!

Man, I love this airplane!

Isn’t this a cute little terminal? I don’t even know what’s inside, since the solitary airport FBO is next door. And there is a little restaurant on the other side.

Who knows what happens in this blue building!

After our passengers arrived and we had the airplane loaded, it was time to make a call on the CTAF frequency to announce to the world that we were taxiing to the runway for departure.

Bremerton doesn’t have a tower, so we get to do a lot of stuff manually. Including calling Seattle Center on the ground to get our IFR clearance and release.

Soon, we were waving goodbye to sweet little Bremerton.

Can you see the runway down there just behind the wing?

And then we had to suffer through some gorgeous views of downtown Seattle.

Man, I feel like I was just there!

And we flew right over the tiny Tacoma Narrows Airport. Can you see it down there just to the right of the bridge to Tacoma?

Yep, it’s tiny.

There are all sorts of pockets of water around these parts. The Puget Sound is huge!

Mount St. Helens used to be huge, too, until she blew her top.

It was nice and cool, so Gladys has no trouble climbing high and fast. We were pretty heavy today!

We flew high and fast all the way home, actually.

Which put us above some of these developing storm clouds.

These would be buuuuumpy, so I’m glad that we are way above them!

Before we knew it, the descent into our home town had commenced. It had been such a wonderful nine days on the road.

Like we usually do from this direction, we flew the JCOBS2 Arrival into Phoenix. Here we are headed Direct to SWIRL, since it is highlighted in pink.

The little green noodle line just in front of us represents where we will be level for our descent.

We started to see signs of civilization once again. It feels great to be home!

We turned a right base-to-final leg for our runway. Isn’t this pretty? Cleared to land, Runway 21!

While on that turn, this is the view out the right-side of the window. Lots of green this time of year!

Since we’re already 103 degrees today, I think that some of this Spring green will wear off.

Hi, Tower! Thanks for welcoming us home!

There is the airport fire station, too.

I even wore my new shoes today! How fun!

Cute and comfortable…what more could you possibly need on your feet?

It was a gorgeous eighty degrees when we landed. We unloaded the airplane and loaded the car to get our passengers on their way home.

I’d say this airplane has earned her keep these past few months. What do you think?

One last shot to complete this looooong trip. We’ve done New York City and Seattle in less than two weeks. What more could a girl possibly want?

A week at Disneyland with her Mama and brother? Well, OK. There’s always that. And it’s next!