Jim and Lyndi's 2018 ZR-1 Road Trip to Glacier NP, Western Canada and the Rocky Mtns

[QB93Z]

Day 16 - July 4th, 2018 Happy Birthday America!


We are in Tacoma, Washington and will be participating in the Tacoma Freedom Fair. The Freedom Fair is a celebration of the freedom and liberty that we enjoy in America and a festival to honor the men and women who serve in our military.


Jim

[PhillipsLT5]

Wow, as always great pics, thank you for your service


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[Jagdpanzer]

Jim,
If you have time Lyndi and you should try the Cliff House restaurant. Great view of Tacoma harbor and Puget sound.
Might even see some bald eagles flying overhead looking for their next meal.
cliffhousetacoma.com



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[QB93Z]

Image1530726214.822122.jpg

We are at the Freedom Fair Car Show.

It is a beautiful day.


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[We Gone]

Another outstanding trip.

[QB93Z]

Day 16 continued - We won the award for the Longest Distance Driven to the car show. The second place guy was bummed because we beat him by about 2600 miles.





To celebrate, we had dinner at one of the 35 food trucks at the event and enjoyed the view of the harbor while we waited for the fireworks:








Jim

[XfireZ51]

Jim,

Absolutely love the last shot of the sunset over the water.

[QB93Z]

Day 17 - Driving from Tacoma to Mount Rainier and beyond. We drove through Tacoma to get to the road out to Mt Rainier and were very impressed by Union Station:





The station was built by the Northern Pacific Railroad and is now a court house. The lobby is decorated with Chihuly glass sculptures and is a stunning space:



After an easy drive south east, we reached the entrance to Mt Rainier National Park:





We entered the park from the northeast side called Sunrise Point:





There is still a lot of snow on the mountain. The sky was very clear and except for a small cloud near the peak, the views of the mountain were wonderful:














We left the Park and drove to a nearby ski resort called Crystal Mountain. We road the Gondola to the peak:





From the top, we had a good view of Mt Rainier and the Cascade Mountain Range. Unfortunately we had a data card failure and did not get the pictures we took. This is the first time this has happened in 8 years of Road Trips.


We drove south on WA-410 across the mountains and down to the Yakima Valley. The road is in good condition and the scenery was fabulous. We stopped at Whistlin' Jacks Lodge, which was a very rustic lodge that was very nice.


Jim

[QB93Z]

Day 18 - We drove from the Mt Rainier area to Richland, Washington.


The drive southeast from Mt Rainier to Richland was interesting because the change in terrain and land use. We followed the Natchez River through the forested hilly landscape











As we got to the Yakima Valley, the land became flatter and the area is a desert and the only agriculture was in irrigated fields. There are more than 30 wineries in the Richland area:





to be continued...….

[QB93Z]

The reason for our stop in Richland, WA was to visit the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Hanford Reactor.


The B-Reactor in Hanford, WA is one part of the Manhattan Project. The B-Reactor was designed, built and operated from 1943 to 1968 to manufacture Plutonium. The Plutonium was used to build Atomic Bombs. Most of the buildings and facilities from the Manhattan Project era have been removed. The B-Reactor was saved following a dedicated effort by a non-profit group that worked to preserve the site of a significant accomplishment of Twentieth Century.


The B-Reactor used a massive carbon-pile, uranium-fueled , water-cooled reactor that allowed nuclear fission to convert Uranium 238 to Plutonium 239 which was needed to build one of the atomic bombs that ended the war in the Pacific in 1945.


The B-Reactor enclosure building:





The front Face of the reactor pile:





Part of the control system used to monitor and control the reactor. There were direct reading pressure gauges for each of the ~2000 fuel production tubes:





The Control Panel where an operator moved boron control rods to adjust reactor power:





After visiting the B-Reactor, we drove to the Port of Benton area of Richland to see the Sail of the USS Triton SSN-586 nuclear submarine:





The USS Triton was built in 1956 and had two pressurized water reactors. It made history by circumnavigating the earth submerged:





Jim