A visit to Seattle, Circa 1974

In 1974, my Great-Aunt and I took a road trip from Lake Tahoe to Washington state. The focus of the trip was a visit to the 1974 Spokane World's Fair, We hit the road sometime that summer and headed north out of Tahoe, up past Lassen, through Oregon and to Spokane.

The Fair itself was very fun. My sister Judy and her family had gone earlier in the year and had lots of great things to say about the exhibitions, especially the pavilion of the Soviet Union. The setting, on an island on the Columbia River was spectacular, and I enjoyed it all - including the USA pavilion of a geodesic dome.

After the Fair, we headed west to Seattle, site of the 1962 World's Fair. We went to the Fair site, the highlight, of course, being a visit to the top of the Space Needle, where we had a great lunch (as my memory serves). We visited a few other things (I recall an air and space museum and a rose garden). We stayed at the Hotel Roosevelt.

This was the first time, as far as I recalled, staying in a real hotel (as opposed to a motel or a casino hotel). The Roosevelt seemed old fashioned at the time and had some stationary and envelopes that I took and kept for many a year.



Finishing up the Washington portion of the trip, we headed south, I recall stops in Bend (Oregon) and Redding (California) where we stayed at a motel with a pool that I spent so much time at I ended up lobster red.


It would thirty-five years til I returned to Washington state, and then five more til this last visit.