Alaskan Adventure 2017. Manchester to Seattle.Museum of Flight. Boeing Factory Tour

Alaska

When I began my research into a holiday in Alaska I knew very little about this North American state.  

I knew it was largest of the USA states and, if asked I would have said Anchorage was the capital. 

I also knew that most people who visited Alaska do it as a Cruising holiday. Our only experience of Cruising was in 2016 when I booked a last minute Cruise with Royal Caribbean, on Vision of the Seas, it visited Venice, Dubrovnik, Greece and Turkey. Whilst we did enjoy the destinations we did not really like the Cruising itself and didn’t really want to do it again. However, I soon found that if you had a lot of time then renting an RV and driving around the state and using the Alaska Marine Highway would be the perfect. But if, like us, your time limited then a Cruise, combined with a land tour would have to do.
So I booked a Cruise, this time with Celebrity and worked the rest of the holiday around that date. The Cruise started in Seward, Alaska and finished in Vancouver, Canada.

Getting to Alaska from Manchester.

There were a few options, via Iceland with Icelandair, via many North American Hubs like Chicago. But after many internet searches, the most direct was with BA. London Heathrow to Seattle then return from Vancouver to London Heathrow.

Seattle

July 2^nd 2017

We checked in to Terminal 5 at LHR to get BA 53 at 09.20 to Seattle. Although this was the first day of the BA strike, the flight went on time and the crew – Mixed Fleet were very good and attentive.

BA Club World 

Arriving into Seattle’s modern Tacoma airport on time we collected a car from Alamo and drove to the accommodation. Hotel Five a Staypineapple hotel.

Hotel Staypineapple, Seattle

The Hotel was really fun and quirky. It was also in a great location. Next to the monorail and within walking distance of all Seattle’s attractions. 
The Hotel also had some yellow bikes that we used to ride on one of Seattle’s cycle tracks.

Despite its rainy reputation, whilst we were in Seattle it did not rain once. We had glorious sunshine and Mount Rainer was visible each of our 3 day stay.

You don’t need a car if you are just exploring the city, but I rented one as I wanted to visit the Boeing factory at Plain field in Everett. It took us under an hour to get to the Boeing factory- a very easy drive- our tour was pre booked for 13.00.

The factory tour was amazing; sadly you cannot take photos. We saw Dreamliners being assembled and rolling off the production line. The factory space is so large that the aircraft look small. It was a fascinating tour and one I would highly recommend.

That evening we went to the top of Smith Tower; it’s sort of like a small Empire state Building. We went up to the Temperance Bar. There was a Balboa dance night going on; I had never heard of this dance, but it was fun to watch the ‘regulars’ dancing the night away.

The next day we visited the Museum of Flight. This Museum, with its display of at least 150 aircraft was – for an Aviation lover- heaven! The photos say it all.

As it was July 4^th there were fireworks around the lake that evening. But the celebrations were not as exuberant as I would have expected.

In the short time we were in the city we did all of the ‘attractions’ and really enjoyed our short stay. I was glad that we had stopped over and experienced sunny Seattle.

 


Our next destination was Fairbanks, Alaska. We flew from Seattle to Fairbanks with Delta, on an aircraft that was so new looked like it had just come from the Boeing Factory. Again the flight was good, with a good crew.