19 - 25 August 1999 Trip to Seattle, WA
... outbound to the Great Northwest, and return to the comfortable Great Lakes Region ...

The Route:

Map of travels between Ann Arbor and the Seattle and Puget Sound area, more or less crossing 12 of the lower 48 states.
Map of Ann Arbor to Seattle trip
The red trace indicates the westbound track from my home in Ann Arbor, MI to the Puget Sound area; Fargo, ND, and Helena, MT, were my outbound overnight stops. Conversely, the overlying blue track represents my eastbound return trip. Missoula, MT, and Sioux Falls, SD, were the overnight stops on the return. Daily stages varied from 546 to 1097 miles in length.

My second visit to Whidbey Island and to Anacortes in 31 years; the first trip was in July 1968, in an underpowered, white 1967 Volkswagen Squareback 1.6L. This time I drove the white 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0L, carried a Garmin GPS-III and an Apple PowerBook 3400 for notes. On the 1968 trip I had a then fairly new Nikon F SLR 35 mm camera and now the 18 year old Nikon F3 came along.

  Puget Sound Map with Anacortes, WA
   White 86P911 at Anacortes, WA

When will I do it again?

The current plan is for the next NW-US trip to take place in the summer of 2001. It will be driven in a new car and photographed with a new, digital camera. Unless Garmin (or someone else) comes up with a much better GPS receiver, I'll probably still record it with my trusty G-III.


Reason 1:

The primary reason for this trip was to visit my uncle and cousins in Seattle, WA. He is the youngest of my deceased father's brothers. Uncle Ignaz is currently resident in Cordoba, Argentina. He was born in 1927, in Horna Stubna, Czechoslovakia. Displaced at the end of World War II into Germany, he emigrated to Argentina in 1949, the same year as our family came to the USA. In 1965 he and his family emigrated to Detroit, MI; in the early 70's he moved to Seattle, WA to work as a tool builder for Boeing Aircraft Co. He has four grown daughters, all living in the Puget Sound area.

Uncle Ignaz in Seattle
Uncle Ignaz, Patriarch in Seattle, WA. 		 
Uncle Ignaz in Dakar, then French West Africa,
now Senegal, 7 July 1949, on the route to Argentina
Uncle Ignaz in Dakar, 7Jul1949
Uncle Ignaz in White 86P911
My favorite uncle as a passenger in my favorite car ... 		Uncle Ignaz, me in bkgnd.
and roles reversed a long time ago ...


Reason 2:

Secondary reasons for this trip were to revisit some of the places I had traveled in my younger days and to 'wring-out' the 1986 Porsche 911.
The last time I had really experienced the 'Great Northwest' was in 1968, when I lived in Seattle for a month and drove around in the western regions of Washington State. Unfortunately this trip would not include one of my favorite areas, the Olympic Peninsula.
Seattle at night
1968, Seattle at night 		Deception Pass, Whidbey Island, Puget Sound
22 August 1999, a view from the bridge, Deception Pass, Whidbey Island, Puget Sound, WA. 		on Mount Rainier, WA
1968, on Mt. Rainier


Trip Information:

The trip took seven days and covered 5235 mile. Two and a half days were outbound, one and two half days in the Seattle area, and two and a half days were required for the return to Ann Arbor. There is much more detailed information available for those who want or need to know.

To return to the home page just press ... still some work to be done here (one more roll of film to process and scan).
Modified: 2 September 1999 by: Gottfried Hogh