Jet Planes, Ferries, and More Motorcycles

On Sunday, June 29th, we woke to a mostly cloudy day, with a 50% chance of rain.  This is apparently the norm for the Seattle/Tacoma area.  We stayed in Tacoma, so we got on the bike and headed north on the I-5 to the Boeing plant for their tour.  Boeing employs over 40,000 people at this plant, and with Microsoft is the areas largest employer.  The scale and size of the building is mind-boggling.  Once again, NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES!  Also no purses, bags, or back packs.  Security is a big deal here.  Their only competition is AirBus, so they make the big planes for almost every airline in the world right here.  We saw a 777 being put together for delivery to China.  The 'parking lot' of new planes ready for delivery held icons for airlines I've never seen before.  We could only take pics from the visitor center.

plane parking lot

Assembly building for 737, 777, and 787

The assembly building is 1/3 of a mile by 2/3 of a mile, and about 6 stories tall.  There are three separate assembly areas for each of the big planes.  They can work on 4-6 planes at a time in each area.  Each plane sells for 200-300 million dollars.  The scale and scope of this operation was incredible.  The tour takes you through underground tunnels, then up elevators to viewing decks that look down on the assembly floor.  Too bad the we couldn't take any pictures on the inside.

Waiting to board the ferry

     After the Boeing tour, we decided to try out the famous ferry system and see some of the islands west of the city.  We waited patiently in line at the toll booth, and when it was our turn, the women in the booth told us that motorcycles don't have to wait in line, and always get priority boarding!

Motorcycles in front. We are behind the red Harley

Crossing the Pugett Sound to Whidby Island

After crossing over to Whidby Island we road across to the next ferry, which took us to the Olympia peninsula.  From there we went south back to Tacoma.  The islands have lots of woods, small towns and small homes.  It is not very scenic, so I didn't take any pictures!  It took us about 90 minutes to get back to the hotel.  We were pretty beat, but it was an interesting day with lots of new sights.