Hamilton, Missouri and Missouri Star Quilters

On our way to the family reunion we had to stop in Hamilton, Missouri. This is the new center of attraction for many quilters currently. As we announced the destination of our trip, many women in Minnesota said "you must stop at Missouri Star Quilters in Hamilton".

So here is our model, Susan, showing off her trophy for the visit.

This is downtown Hamilton. Buildings like these were built all over the Midwest in the 1880s and 1890s. Many downtown areas have fallen into disrepair.

On this mural we can see the bragging points about Hamilton. It is the self proclaimed Quilt Town, USA and is the birthplace of JC Penney.

  Across the street we see similar buildings with a huge quilt mural. Most of the buildings on this street are owned by the proprietor of Missouri Star Quilters.

This is the inside of the original Penney's store. Each shop on the street has a different theme.

 What a bargain!

What do guys do when wives are shopping?  Here you see Mans-Land with the chairs, TVs and all kinds of relaxing methods.

 Here is Ariel with perhaps a dream of success. 

Look this up for a great story:
http://www.npr.org/2015/05/21/408452759/one-family-revitalizes-a-small-town-with-yes-quilts

The Tacoma Glass Museum

We visited the Glass Museum in downtown Tacoma.

The location of the Glass Museum is in an old manufacturing area with this building used for milling and now converted to lofts with a newer section in the back.  

This is is a view of the glass museum and this serves as a chimney for the "Hot Zone" where glass blowing demonstrations are given.

The glass blowing demonstration area.

Drawing glass from the furnace.  As a result of watching this demonstration, Al has signed up for a class in glass blowing near his home in Minnesota.

Samples of glass work by various artists done from the earliest years of the 20th century until present.

Examples of what can be done by artisans.  

A necklace of glass and gold.

Al will have to work many years to approach this level of craftsmanship.

A detail and the complete work of art.

Bremerton Naval Shipyard

We went to Bremerton for our "Naval" visit to the Seattle area.  

We visited the Navy Museum which has free admittance.

We found a hat in the store that commemorates the carrier that Al served on from 1955 to 1957.  Al had just graduated from the 26 week Navy "A" school for Electronics Technicians when he went aboard for recommissioning after a complete work-over in a shipyard in San Francisco. 

They had a display of the USS Nimitz with lots of photos.  This is pretty much what he looked like as he joined ship's company as a nineteen year old. By comparison, we had about 2500 Sailors on board and no females.

This is a generous display of a breakfast with eggs and pancakes.  We would have wished for such a meal.

When Sue and Al arrive at a restaurant with a full lobby and a 20 minute wait, Al votes for leaving for another venue.  Here is an example of why Al hates lines for in addition to the chow line wait, we waited for pay, sickbay attendance and other events.  We did not however feel that our time to eat was limited to any time but what we needed to rest and have a bit of a chat with shipmates.

After his time in the Navy, Al received and engineering degree from the University of Illinois.  At that time we used slide rules for calculation but he never saw a calculator like this one.

The USS Yorktown was sunk at the Battle of Midway.   Initially to have been named Bon Homme Richard, she was renamed Yorktown while under construction to commemorate USS Yorktown (CV-5), lost at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. [And to confuse the Japanese Naval Fleet] See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Yorktown_(CV-10)

The USS Bon Homme Richard (CVA 31) was built in 1944 and fought in three wars, WW2, Korea and Vietnam. 

Al was transferred to the USS Pascagoula (PCE 874) in New Orleans in 1957 and served aboard until 1958 when he was released from active duty.  Perhaps the Bon Homme Richard was two thirds the length of the Nimitz shown here but it was quite a change to serve aboard a ship of 180 feet in length. 

Olympic National Park

We waited a day to go up to Hurricane Ridge, a driving trip of fifteen miles or so to an elevation of 5242 feet.  From Port Angeles, the day before was so cloudy we could see nothing of the peaks nearby.  

 So we began our journey up to the ridge.  It was a twisting and curving road but wide and well maintained. In the model above taken at the visitors center our road cam be made out as the one that curves left around the mountain. 

We parked at the visitor's center and here is a shout out to Alexis who we met and chatted with for a while.

Sue took this iPhoto near the visitor's center.

Clouds began to appear as we went down the road.

We did make it to the Lavender Festival.

Some talented musicians doing bluegrass written by the woman herself.

Everything about the lavender plant that both grows wild and is cultivated in this area. 

What do you think Sue is doing?  We also bought two plants for Anna's front yard, purchasing the the type that Anna had commented on.  After showing the vendor the lavender photo taken in Coupeville a few days before, he identified it immediately and we hope they are as beautiful for Anna and the photo. 

Visiting Port Townsend, WA

We left the island, crossing to the Olympic peninsula via ferry.  However, research did not reveal the extent of historical interest of Ft. Casey near the ferry terminal.  
See http://parks.state.wa.us/505/Fort-Casey

We did see some of the buildings as we passed by onto the ferry landing.  

Two thoughts: First, sorry we missed some of the things discussed in link above. Second, the dreary architecture so typical of military installations, like Al's bootcamp experience.

Next we waited for our ferry.  Now there is a science to this using a ferry.  You cannot come earlier than 45 minutes before sailing and if you come later than 30 minutes before sailing, you move to stand-by, even if you have a reservation.

We had read the book and we are in the white car in row 2.

Here comes our ferry.

When all the east-bound travelers exit the ferry, we can get on.

A view of a later ferry arrival in Port Townsend and mountains in the background.

We wanted to see the downtown of Port Townsend based on some buildings seen from the ferry as we approached.  Here is a view of many impressive buildings there.

The folks that paid for buildings in that era loved to put their name and the date of construction on most buildings.

Al did some research on these buildings and how they came to be in a town with such small population.  Today about 9000 but far less in the years after construction.  
This is an example of the motto, "If you build it, they will come."  They did in the hope that Port Townsend, based on its harbor location, would be the largest port on the West Coast.  One little problem was that the expected railroad did not come due to an economic panic in the early 1890's.  So the buildings were left relatively undisturbed and now serve as locations for artisans and merchants serving the tourist trade. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Townsend,_Washington

This view reminds us of Hendersonville, NC, where Sue's brother Mark and family live.

As we are driven around Seattle by Chris and Anna, buildings similar to these are squeezed in between much larger more modern buildings so at this time in history, Seattle looked much like this.

Visiting Whidbey Island

 Our first stop of the day was at the massive Boeing plant where we saw, from an overlook, the types 747, 767, 777, and 787 being manufactured.  Quite impressive. 

But since they will not allow any type of camera or cell phone, these planes awaiting their test flights prior to customer acceptance were all we could photograph.  They did comment, or brag, that 70% of all commercial flights use Boeing airplanes.

This was our home in Coupeville, WA, on Whidbey Island.  The owner said that the building was only 26 years old, contrary to appearances.  Coupeville has strong building codes and this site was commercial.  So the first owners built this B&B in a Victorian mode since the city will not allow "new" buildings.

Here we are at the B&B.

Jumping ahead a bit, here is the breakfast setting. 

Beautiful tableware.

We had an early morning visit from these deer.  Can you spot the others?

A view from "downtown" Coupeville.

This is "downtown" Coupeville.

Lavender is big in this area.  These all are lavender plants of various colors.

This weekend in Sequim, [pronounced Squim, rhymes with prim] is the Lavender festival.  People have told us that it is really crowded then so maybe this is as close as we will come to lavender.