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JULY 2018. Eighteen Rosmini College student toured university campuses, engineering and scientific facilities and took in the amasing physical and cultural attributes of this amasing region.
DAY 0-1: Late night arrival at the University Washington campus in Seattle, Washington, after long flight from New Zealand. Up early and heading north to the Boeing aircraft assembly factory in Everett. Next downtown Seattle and ended with a Mariner (vs Los Angeles) baseball game.
DAY 2: Today was about exploring the huge University of Washington campus and catching up on some sleep.
DAY 3: Heading east across the Cascade Mountain range to Gingo State Park and the preserved forest remains. We were now on the vast ancient lava plateau heading north to Grand Coulee Dam enroute to Washington State University i(WSU) n the SE corner of the State.
DAY 4: Exploring the Palouse region where windblown soils have accumulated to the west of the Idaho Mountains
DAY 5: Early morning visit to modern Pullman High School and then on to Sweitzer Engineering Laboratories to see where power protection systems are designed and manufactured for a world-wide use. Next stop was the Student Recreation Center at WSU, Ferdinands (icecream and cheese making) and the WSU Nuclear Radiation Center.
DAY 6: Was all about physical sciences. We spent most of the day at shockwave, laser physics, geology, astronomy facilities. A grand tour of the WSU sports facilities suggested that NZ facilities had a way to go.
DAY 7: This was anticipated as a long drive across North Idaho via Coeur d'Alene and the Silver Valley and over Lookout Pass into Montana. We 'shot' through Missoula, Butte and arrived in Bozeman to enjoy a fabulous dinner at Montana State University. A visit to the American Museum of Computers and Robotics filled the evening, along with laundry.
DAY 8: After breakfast we headed over to the Museum of the Rockies and fell in love with all things dinosaur... wow!! Next stop West Yellowstone, check in at the West Yellowstone Education Center and a visit to the wolf and bear center.
DAY 9: The northern circuit in Yellowstone was fabulous. We decided to head to the north of the Park to avoid the traffic, and 'yes', everything does come to a standstill when wildlife are spotted alongside the road.
DAY 10: Heading west again, but south and wast across the vast Snake River valley. The Yellowstone hotspot moved slowly east (or the land above it moved west) creating volcanic features such as Hell's Half Acre and the Craters of the Moon. We eventually made it all the way across to stay at Ontario, Oregon.
DAY 11: World Football Cup Day, so a mandatory stop beside the old Oregon migration trial in Baker, Oregon, to watch the Final. We now had a mad dash for a dinner date in Richland, Washington with some very special engineers and scientists.
DAY 12: LIGO was the first visit of the day looking into deEP space. We then continued west via Yakima, recrossing the Cascade Mountains at Chinook Pass to be greeted by one heck of a big volcano -- Mt. Rainer. A quick check into our chalets and off to the top of Crystal Mountain for dinner. A two hour walk down from the top gave dinner time to settle. JS was getting us up at 3:00 am to head up Mt. Rainer to greet the sun at Sunrise. Back into the van and downhill to Tacoma (how we got there no-one seems to know) because some of the group had to back track to a shop (4 hours later) to a shop just 30 min's from Sunrise. Anyway, someone said shops and that's how we ended our last night in the US.
Mt. Rainer from summit of Crystal Mountain
DAY 13-14: Early rise, get out of the vans for the last time and off to Honolulu stop over before final leg back to NZ.
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