Let’s Ferry Over to Seattle!

Good morning, Bremerton!

I arrived last night and now have a whole day to spend in Seattle. One of my favorite cities is just a short, hour-long ferry ride away!

Today is going to be good.

So let’s walk to the ferry terminal! It’s only a few blocks away from the Fairfield Inn in which I’m staying.

I really, really, really love this town. I feel like Bremerton has become a second home for me. I always love coming here.

This is the courtyard between the Hampton Inn, where I’ve also stayed several times, and the Kitsap Conference Center. The fountain is really pretty and always attracts a crowd.

In fact, this area was where Hubby and I entered the Blackberry Festival last Labor Day. Do you remember? What a fun weekend!

I cut through the pass-through between the Cold Stone Creamery and Subway to get to the terminal today. Walking clear around the Starbucks Coffee is just too much to ask!

Hello, Ferry Terminal!

I’m so happy to see you. It’s been months and months!

Two, to be exact.

There was already a line waiting to enter the ferry when I arrived. The ferry coming from Seattle was just entering the harbor, and then those passengers disembarked. Then it was our turn to get on for the trip back east across the Puget Sound!

While boarding, I stepped to the side to take a fun picture of the Bremerton Shipyard.

(I’m that lady!)

They still work on submarines and renovations to battleships and carriers here. It’s a neat place.

Holy smokes. This is so cool!

This is my favorite picture of the day. Can you see the reflections in the windows of the captain’s deck? They are so clean and crisp and clear! I love that Bremerton can be seen through this reflection.

People aren’t the only passengers going to Seattle today. Lots of cars, motorcycles, and bicycles come onto the ferry as well.

I walked to the front of the ferry and picked a spot inside that would afford a nice view of the city while protecting me from the chilly wind. It isn’t too cold when stationary, but the ferry moves pretty fast!

Wind = wimpy me.

Goodbye, beautiful Bremerton! I’ll see you tonight.

Seattle is calling my name. I can’t help myself.

This is the bridge that connects Bremerton to Manette, where we attend church when in town.

It almost feels like a second home to me there, too! They are so friendly and welcoming!

Manette is a cute little town, too. I just like this whole part of the world, if you must know. You can’t be too picky.

And, as you can see from the blue skies and puffy white clouds, we are in for a gorgeous day in Seattle today! The temperature is supposed to get all the way up to sixty-eight degrees!

My first glance of Seattle made me so happy.

Man, I love this town.

So we got closer.

And I narrowed my camera lens onto the Space Needle. I will be there later!

And beautiful Downtown Seattle. I will be there later, too.

I’m a walking foo on trips like these!

The wind won the chicken fight, so I went back inside to wait until we docked at the Seattle Ferry Terminal.

I didn’t bring a jacket, since I didn’t want to pack it most of the day. If I can just get to where the ferry isn’t moving to make wind, the temperature will be great!

This cracked me up. This kid was crazy-hopped up on sugar or Wheaties or something. He kept running circles around his dad, and then he would randomly jump down for twenty push-ups.

It was all quite admirable…and funny.

You can see some stadiums behind the shipping harbor’s cranes. Seattle is an important trading port, for sure. And they have a few sports teams, too.

There are ferries galore in and out of this place all day long! It’s free for me to ride to Seattle and just $7.25 to ride back to Bremerton.

Pretty cheap transportation for a day of fun in this wonderful city!

The ferry terminal can house two ferries as a time. The arrivals and departures are timed to allow for the spots to be filled constantly.

Ah, there’s the ferris wheel!

It is new. I don’t remember it being there last year!

Once we were docked, the gate descended and locked into place. Then we disembarked into the Seattle Ferry Terminal.

You can stay on the catwalk around the terminal if you don’t want to go inside. That’s what I did to take some fun pictures of the city while looking back at the ferry that was just my ride.

We were right next to the shipping yard! Aren’t those cranes massive?!

You can see the cars lined up on the tarmac to board the ferry back to Bremerton. At $25, it’s not cheap. I hope people don’t do it every day for work!

I can see the clock tower near the train station to the far right! King’s Station! Do you remember when I caught a train to Vancouver there last spring?

So many memories in this town already!

You can descend some steps and get on the harbor level with all of the shops. But I usually cross this skywalk to the city. Who wants to climb more hills than necessary!

And I got plenty of climbing later, that’s for dang sure!

While on the skywalk to the city, I took a picture of the road and harbor shops below. We’ll explore that more later on!

Can you see the ferris wheel peeking through?

How about the harder-to-see but newly-painted Space Needle?

I’m coming, Needle! I’m coming to see you!

Ah, level, paved sidewalk is always nice in this town. We’ll get plenty of elevation changes later.

I knew exactly where to head first-thing today.

Lunch!

This is my second-favorite shot of the day. I love how the lights have been strung between these two city buildings. I love lights like these!

My first glance of downtown from 1st Avenue. I only have a few blocks to walk to my favorite Seattle eatery!

Delicatus! I’m coming, Delicatus!

I found this advertisement interesting. The cop and his horse don’t have faces.

Good thing the graffiti was artfully added later.

It’s our parting shot for now! Tomorrow, we’ll have the most incredible sandwich in Seattle!

Bremerton…A Nice Finish to a Long Day

Soon we were off again.

Wait, did I start too soon? I’ve already flown from Teterboro near New York City this morning. We landed in Denver for a quick fuel stop before continuing on our journey home. With not enough time to run home to see Hubby, I just stayed at the airport for our next flight an hour later.

We were headed to Bremerton for a long weekend, and I couldn’t wait to spend a few days in Seattle!

Wow, New York and Seattle in the same week. Can it possibly get any better than that?! They are definitely my favorite two cities to explore!

So…now we’re off again.

We waited for this Citation to land on our runway before we were cleared for takeoff.

What a gorgeous view just after we were airborne!

Ah, Spring in the Valley of the Sun. Things are green and nice this time of year. I’m pretty sure that it was seventy-four degrees when we took off.

Perfection!

Do you want to know what isn’t perfection? Nightmares about work…

I just woke up from a terrible dream this morning. I was back in my old job and had just found out that we were headed to Belgium. The real kicker was that I had been attending a day conference out of town and had no luggage with me. And all of a sudden I had to go to Belgium for three weeks. Instead of being thrilled to finally go to Europe, I was worrying about how expensive it would be to buy a toothbrush while there!

No warning. No clothes. No communication. I think this pretty much sums up how I always worried about that old job!

I don’t miss it one bit, in case you’re wondering!

Anyway, back to the wonderful flight…

This was a late Thursday afternoon of the Easter weekend when we were trucking north towards the Seattle area. The skies were packed with airplanes, and we saw lots go over and under us on their flights.

My window was facing away from the setting sun, so a little frost started to develop on the inside to my right.

We were waaaaaaaay above the clouds down there, and thankfully, they were not convective.

I’ve been up since 3:00 AM local time, so I don’t really think that any more challenges during this flight would work out for me!

It’s going to be great to land in Bremerton in a few hours!

Another blessing? Almost no headwind at all. Usually, flying northwest like we were, we have a nice little headwind around eighty knots keeping us from zooming along even faster.

Tonight? It was from 005 degrees at three knots. Can you believe it?! What a blessing!

Another airplane flying over a pretty mountain as we got closer to Bremerton tonight.

Airplanes in a picture just make everything better. Don’t you agree?

Well, OK…this picture is pretty, too. But it would be way better with an airplane in the shot.

I’m just sayin’…

We descended just over Tacoma and came up to Bremerton almost from the south. Seattle Center does this to keep us away from their busy airspace. We are just across the Puget Sound from them!

It was a pretty gorgeous flight…especially admiring the sunset for almost our entire evening!

That’s Tacoma directly underneath us, and Seattle is in the distance by that pretty cloud.

Are you as excited as me to have two whole days off to explore Seattle?!

Man, I love my job.

There were clouds all over as we began our final descent into Bremerton tonight. They were painted purple, orange, and pink with the setting sun working its magic.

This is a terrible shot of the Bremerton airport as we flew on a forty-five degree angle to enter the traffic pattern.

There were a few other airplanes in the pattern tonight, so we had to play dodge ball to make sure that we could fit in for our landing.

As we turned for our base leg of the approach, I could see the town of Bremerton just north of us. Those beautiful lights were welcoming me home!

I love this place. I’ve probably already told you that a thousand times.

But it’s still true.

We landed and taxied to the ramp. We always get spoiled rotten at Avian Flight Center, and this evening was no different!

We got our passengers and their luggage loaded up into the car and on their way. Then I got to enjoy the gorgeous evening at the airport while prepping Gladys for three nights on the ramp in Bremerton.

Is she smiling?!

Yes, she is.

We all love coming here.

Goodbye, pretty girl! I’ll see you in a few days! On Easter Sunday, to be exact!

Once in the parking lot to borrow the crew car, I took a parting shot of the FBO hangar.

These trees always remind me of something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. Don’t you think so?

They are all over in this part of the world.

A surreal shot of forest blur as we made our seven-mile journey from the airport to town.

I can’t wait to get to that hotel room. It’s been a very long and fun day, but I’m definitely ready for some rest!

We eventually made the final corner before coming into view of the Bremerton Harbor.

Ah, Bremerton. You have no idea how much I love you!

I stayed at the lovely Fairfield Inn by Marriott. I had a goal to get a certain amount of nights at Marriott so I could use some points to get free rooms while at Disneyland.

It worked! We got four out of five nights paid for by Marriott points. So stinkin’ awesome!

Thank goodness that I’ve stayed in a hotel room almost constantly for the past three months, huh?

I was grateful for the microwave, too. I still had some healthy food in my bag, in case it was needed.

And this was the beautiful view that greeted me from my hotel window. Through these two apartment buildings, you can see the Puget Sound.

I am so happy to be here for this entire weekend! But, more importantly at the moment, I am so happy to fall asleep!

Prepare for lots of Seattle. I couldn’t help myself!