School on a Dam and a Troll Under a Bridge

The best part about our visit to north west img_4140Washington was the family. It was great to see everyone we got to see during our short visit. Our hosts were great and we were able to stay a little longer without hook ups than we normally can by using their kitchen and bathroom. (I will refrain from mentioning names since this is a public website and no one gave me the OK to mention them.) Someone amazing brought a bunch of food and a bunch of beers for us to feast on for our visit. One night we were able to get with different family members for a great dinner. Our kids had a blast with the animals, fort building, and meeting their relatives. When it was time to go, everyone was sad we couldn’t stay longer. We had reservations in San Diego though and it was going to be close getting all the way down the coast in time.
We managed to visit North Cascades National Park while we were in the area.

When we visit places we always try to incorporate school/education into our plans, since the main purpose of our trip is to give the kids a unique education. North Cascades has several dams with a powerhouse at the bottom and they supply power to Seattle and the surrounding area. First we took the kids to Ross Dam and had a schoimg_4124ol session on top of the dam. We got lucky and there was workers cutting trees halfway down the front of the dam. It was cool to see how large the dam was with some perspective and the worker was a small speck by the time he had repelled half way down the face of the dam. After hiking back up to the car, we went back down the mountains to the powerhouse. After crossing a bridge people scared of heights won’t like, we checked out the small museum inside the power house. The kids got a kick out of the hands on displays detailing how hydroelectric power is generated. Between the Junior Ranger program and the powerhouse the kids learned some things which is always a bonus.

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Here are the workers, but you can barely even tell they are there even when you zoom in a bunch!

While in the Seattle area Journey troll-bridgewas insistent that she wanted to see the troll under the bridge. We survived the crazy traffic and found the troll, but parking was full and we only got to see it briefly. It was enough to please the kids though and everyone thought it was a neat sight to see. Since we only had enough time for a few things in the city we once again chose educational sites.

After visiting The Burke Museum, (The Burke is the Washington State Museum of Natural History and Culture) and learning a bunch of things, we took the kids to the Ballard Locks. We happened to go at the perfect time and were able to see a fancy yacht go img_3671through the locks while we were on them. Journey is dead set on us getting a yacht after we see all of America and continuing our adventure to other countries. Of course she doesn’t realize how much a yacht costs, but we didn’t smash her dreams. Instead we let her know if she makes millions of dollars or if we can get corporate sponsorship then we will gladly take our adventure to the high seas. Miles seemed to really like the salmon ladder and insists that next time we are in the area we do some fishing. And yes by this time we had decided as a family that we definitely had to visit Washington again, especially since we didn’t get to see so many things that we had wanted to see.

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Here are some links for the places we visited during our stay:

North Cascades National Park

https://www.nps.gov/noca/index.htm

The Fremont Troll under Aurora Bridge

https://fremont.com/explore/sights/troll/

Burke Museum

http://www.burkemuseum.org/

The Hiram M. Chittenden – Ballard Locks

http://www.ballardlocks.org/

Information on the Salmon Ladder at Ballard Locks

http://www.govlink.org/watersheds/8/action/salmon-seeson/ballard.aspx

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