Day nine started early with our tour around the Boing Factory. Unfortunately the Boeing factory doesn’t allow cameras (or any electronics) to be carried while on the tour. As a result you’ll just have to imagine what it looks like from my vague descriptions.
The tour started at our hotel where we were picked up by a crazy New Yorker who gave us a brief background of the Boeing company and kept us entertained until we reached the Boeing ‘Future of Aviation’ facility. Boeing are quite proud of their history and this facility is their way to show their achievements especially those connected with their next aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner.
The factory tour itself started at 11am and after a short introductory video promoting Boeing’s past achievements and future developments, we were lead to the factory building. The factory building is the largest building, by volume, in the world. Many comparisons are drawn between it’s area and what it could contain, such as it is large enough to hold the entire Disneyland theme park and parking area within itself.
Within it’s walls the 747, 777 and 787 aircraft are produced. All three plane models appear to have at least six aircraft each in various stages of completion being worked on simultaneously on rolling production lines that move while the aircraft are being built. The building is divided up into bays which are all capable of making a 747, which is a huge aeroplane, look small.
The tour is guided and the guide herself was or is a Boeing tech who worked on the 777, and gave an interesting commentary on the workings of the factory.
After the tour we were given a choice of where we wanted to be dropped off, and we chose Pike Place Market in the Seattle downtown. Pike place market is full of good food, interesting stalls and shops and is a good place to people watch. We had a late lunch, we explored the area, took part in taste tests and generally relaxed. Unfortunately I still didn’t have my camera and as such I have no photos, however being unconstrained by linear time I do have have a photo from tomorrow which I’ll substitute. Just imagine it as a heavily overcast day, instead of being bright and sunny.
Day 10 started with a simple quest; to go out to nearby lands and eat a burger from Red Mill. We headed out for an early lunch to try to beat the legendary queues that this place inevitably attracts.
When we got there, the place was reasonably full but there was only a handful of people waiting on their orders and no queue. I decided to order a Blue Cheese and Bacon burger, a tasty combination of Beef, Blue Cheese, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato and their Mill Sauce on a Kaiser Bun; and Ricci got a Cheese Burger which is Beef, American Cheese, Lettuce and Mill Sauce again on a Kaiser Bun. We also order a side of Onion rings and Fries to share, as well as chocolate shakes each.
After a small wait we got our food, and then we got to discover if it was worth the wait. It was definitely worth it, everything about my burger was tasty. The combination of flavours was delicious, from the salty and perfectly crisp bacon, to the sharp blue cheese, the smokey mill sauce, the fresh lettuce and tomato, the slightly toasted Kaiser roll. To top it off the onion rings really were quite tasty, nice and chunky with crispy batter that had good flavour and the slightly sweet onion.
While we were waiting I couldn’t help but notice the huge stack of bacon sitting in wait to be consumed. I knew, from watching Man v Food, that it would be large but much like the Boeing Factory tour only experience can actually show you.
Another thing I couldn’t help but notice is that this store, and there are a two in Seattle, is also the one operated by Babe Shepherd who also appeared in the Man v Food episode to guide Adam Richman around the Red Mill shop.
I mentioned earlier that there was no queue on the way in. During our lunch, however, the story had changed dramatically. There now was a queue that stretched out the door and halfway across the shopfront. I thanked our luck with timing as we headed out and back to Downtown.
Our next stop was the Underground tour, a tour that takes a look at parts of the old city and journeys through the cities real ground level one level below street level. As the tour explains after the city was burned to the ground in an accidental fire, in order to solve the various drainage problems the city had they decided to build all of their buildings with entrances and roads one level above ground. This is why many of the buildings in Seattle start on the second floor, where the first floor is the basement.
While chatting to the guide, appearing in the photograph above we got a recommendation for a place to have dinner, an Italian restaurant that we may have even walked right past without even noticing called the Pink Door. First, as it wasn’t nearly late enough, we decided to head to the Smith tower observation deck.
The Smith Tower was once the 4th tallest building in the world upon it’s construction, and for 50 years it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. It has an observation level on the 35th floor complete with an outdoors observation balcony that wraps around the building giving an unobstructed 360 degree view, save for the safety cage.
By this stage it was getting late, almost time for dinner, so we headed to the restaurant recommended. It was located in Post Alley, right near Pike Place Market. This restaurant doesn’t even have a sign and it’s only identifier is it’s Pink Door. Fortunately I was told where to find it, opposite Kells Irish Pub. We ended our day with good food, wine and even by Australian standards, good Espresso.
And that basically wraps up our last two days in Seattle, a great city with lots of places to explore and good food to eat.
Tomorrow we fly down to Dallas, Texas where we begin our Quakecon 2010 adventure.