My daughter is retiring from the Army after spending 20 years in the service of our country. Two tours to the sandbox, she has been there done that! The wife and I are traveling out to WA in a couple of days to spend a week. Grandkids will be in school during the day so I am wanting to find something interesting to do.
We've been out there a couple of times and have been to Mount St.Helens, visited a german themed town, and saw house form the movie "Harry and the Hendersons", the Fish Market, Space needle, and a couple other touristy places.
What say the WA guys/gals? Any small type airports that are visitor friendly?

Might go see Point Defiance park & zoo on the tip of Tacoma, or see Tacoma waterfront park with lots of Restraunts, see the state capitol in Olympia also has a nice airport, take a drive down to the Pacific Ocean Beaches at Ocean Shores, drive across the Narrows Bridge onto the Kitsap Penninsula with restraunts at both the Narrows airport TIW or the Bremerton airport PWT or visit the Bremerton Naval Shipyard, or if willing to drive a bit further the Spruce Goose restraunt at Port Townsend they also have a neat general aviation museum or go see the Olympic game farm if traveling with kids, The Boeing Museum of flight at Boeing Field attracts visitors worldwide, The Lemay Car museum in Tacoma is a good draw. Could drive up to Snoqualmie pass for sking & sleding or Sunrise or Paradise on Mt. Raineer. Lot's to do if willing to drive a little and use your imagination. All the location are within a 2 hour drive from Lakewood. Feel free to ask about any specific destinations & will try to answer your questions.

Vaughans WN13

I can't give you any ideas about Washington and you don't know me from Adam, but would you please thank your daughter for her service to our country from me.

Regards, Rich

Short drive out to Puyallup's Thun Field for breakfast or lunch and look at some airplanes is a good time. Nice pilot shop there and the home of the good folks at NW Propeller.

That's what I'D do....

akaviator wrote:Short drive out to Puyallup's Thun Field for breakfast or lunch and look at some airplanes is a good time. Nice pilot shop there and the home of the good folks at NW Propeller. ....

Yeah, Thun Field is the closest cool airport. Good eats, a big pilot shop, and lots of airplanes based there including a bunch parked outside. As for museums, we have them in spades:
Museum of Flight at Boeing Field KBFI in Seattle is probably the biggest & best, with a little (or a lot!) of everything. A must see since you're gonna be so close.
Warbirds:
Flying Heritage Collection and Historic Flight Foundation at Paine Field KPAE in Everett north of Seattle.
Heritage Flight Museum at Skagit airport KBVS in Burlington between Seattle & Bellingham.
Olympic Flight Museum at Olympia airport KOLM.
Plus some smaller vintage GA museums /collections:
North Cascades Vintage Aircraft Museum at Concrete WA 3W5 east of Burlington.
Port Townsend Aero Museum at Jefferson County 0S9 near Port Townsend.
It's a bit of a drive, but the Western Antique Aeroplane & Automobile Museum at Hood River 4S2 east of Portland is pretty awesome. A shitload of antique / vintage GA airplanes, cars, motorcycles, etc. Not many warbirds, mainly 1930's era GA stuff.
Some of the smaller places may be by appointment only or have limited days / hours, so doing a little research would be a good idea before making a long drive.

I sorta recall that McChord AFB (part of JBLM) has some sort of museum, not sure though.
Ft Lewis has Gray Army Airfield (a big helo base) so may have some interesting aviation stuff also.

Thanks everyone! Lots of ideas and suggestions. Headed out in the morning, arriving tomorrow evening.

In regards to the museum on the base, I think I tried to go to it the last time I was in WA. and it was closed/open only for special appointment or some such crap.

Hope the weather improves. It's been pretty wet lately.

Flying ideas:
Hood river is a nice destination 4S2 with a flight museum and courtesy car.
Copalis for beach landing
Eastsound (ORS) Orcas Island. Easy walk into town.

A couple non-flying suggestions:
Outdoor activities... skiing, hiking, biking to name a few.
A winery tour. there's some good ones in Woodinville and elsewhere, I'm sure. they pop up all over as well as brewpubs.

If you come to the Museum of Flight, try to make it on a Tuesday morning and ask for me, Tom Donnelly. I am a docent there and would be happy to show you around with some advance notice. I will send you contact info in a PM.

Tom

Tom,
Wow! Thank you sir, I will contact you and try to arrange a visit. I am busy this weekend and tuesday sounds perfect.
Keith

You can easily spend a whole day at the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. I just did so recently. Lots of new stuff since my last visit which was seven or eight years ago. Plan a day.....

The Lemay Automobile Museum is right next to the Tacoma Dome....don't miss it!! Nothing to do with aviation, but it is an AMAZING collection of automobiles. Takes at least a half day to go through it....or more if you're a junkie.

MTV

Thanks Mike! I'm planning on going to the MOF if possible. Being an old gearhead, the Lemay museum sounds like a great place also. May try to go tomorrow or monday. Thank you!

Thanks everyone for the suggestions on what to see in WA. I was able to meet TomD at the Boeing museum and get a tour. I was very impressed with the museum and Tom's knowledge of early aircraft history. He gave a well informed tour of the various planes on display. Thaks Tom!! The WWI and WWII displays were my absolute favorites and on par with the Udar-Hazy/Smithsonian museums, at least in my opinion. I think I could have easily spent two days at this museum. A do not miss if you are in the area.

Also took Mike V's advice and went to the Lemay America's Cars Museum.. Outstanding automotive collection for any gearhead. I spent the entire day drooling over the many of the cars on display. I would love to have an old Duesenberg or boattailed Auburn! Dream on....poor guy!

While driving through the back streets, I spotted an old Studbaker Avanti siting outside in someone's yard. It looked driveable, other than it was partially covered with the green moss crap that is on most everything in the area. What a shame to have a collectible sitting outside in the elements.

The Glass Museum in Tacoma is worth a look.
Also there are 2 different LeMay car museums, one in Spanaway and one near the Tacoma dome. The one in Spanaway has far more cars. I will leave it to them to explain the difference with the similar names.