2024-08-11: Planes and Towers

We woke up around 8:30am again this morning. We got cleaned up and headed to the lobby to find some breakfast. There is a Ruth’s Chris in the hotel that is supposed to serve breakfast. The doors were open but there was no one in the restaurant. We elected to go across the street to Spruce Cafe instead. We enjoyed our meals. Patrick was impressed with the design on his white chocolate mocha.

After breakfast we returned to the hotel to grab our gear for the day. We grabbed the car and headed North. About 30 minutes later we arrived at Boeing Future of Flight. We had tickets for the 1:00pm tour of Boeing’s Everett Factory where they build their 767 and 777 airplanes. We were a few minutes early so explored a couple of displays around the lobby. You aren’t allowed to take phones, cameras, bags, etc on the tour. They had some lockers in the lobby to store our gear in. We stored our gear and headed to the check-in for the tour.

The tour started with a video presentation explaining the history of the factory. It was built in 1967 to manufacture the 747 airplanes. The factory was originally built on about 800 acres of land with 3 construction bays. It has since grown to 6 bays and over 1000 acres. Over the years, the factory has built the 747, 767, 777, and 787 aircraft. It is now only building the 767 and 777 lines but will soon be building 737 aircraft as well.

After the video presentation, we boarded a bus that took us to the factory. We entered the building and went up an elevator to an observation platform that overlooks the 767 assembly line. There were 4 cargo planes in various stages of construction. We then walked over to the adjacent bay where they designed and built the first 787 Dreamliner jets. Dreamliner production moved to their North Carolina factory but the finished jets still fly to the Everett factory for final checks and verifications before being delivered to the customer. They are converting the bay to build 737 planes. They have 3 production lines for the 737 at their Renton, Washington factory. This will give them a 4th production line. They are also working on a passenger version of the 777 which is currently called the 777X. The “X” means “experimental”. Once it passes all the checks and certifications, they will rename it the 777-9. We could see several of the passenger versions around the factory. Depending on the plane configurations, they can complete between 3 and 7 planes on a production line each month.

Once the factory tour was finished, we boarded the bus again and they drove us around some of the other buildings at the factory. There are 3 paint buildings and a couple of other production buildings where they build components for the 777. There is also a testing and delivery building where they deliver the finished planes to the customers.

We were returned back to the Future of Flight Museum at the end of the tour. We grabbed a quick bite at the cafe in the museum and then explored the museum gallery. They had a tail section from a 747 which was huge! They had information about Boeing’s history and their future plans including space, drones, and automation. There is also a rooftop viewing platform where you can see the factory and the Paine Field airport.

After we explored the museum, we returned to the car and drove back to the hotel. We relaxed in the hotel for about an hour before heading out to grab some dinner. We saw a seafood restaurant at the harbor yesterday called The Crab Pot that we decided to check out. It was a fun experience. If you order crab, they just dump it on the table for you to dig into.

After dinner, we decided to go check out the Space Needle. There was a monorail station a couple of blocks from the hotel that takes you right to the Space Needle. We thought that sounded like fun so went for a ride. We got to the Space Needle and took the elevator up to the observation deck. It was pretty busy at the top. There were some amazing views over Seattle. We did a full circle around the observation deck and then took the stairs down one level to the rotating glass floor. It takes about an hour for it to complete a full rotation. You could look straight down to the base of the Space Needle. Amanda was not too impressed and took some convincing to step on the glass. We enjoyed the view for a few more minutes before taking the elevator back to ground level. We bought a couple of souvenirs at the gift shop before hopping back on the monorail and returning to the hotel.

After we returned to the hotel, we wound down and called it a night. We head to Anchorage tomorrow!