The Pacific Northwest, an Evergreen Jewel in the US’s West Coast Crown

The best way to sneak in a visit to a decommissioned nuclear site in Washington’s Columbia Basin was to disguise the expedition as a husband and wife vacation to the Pacific Northwest …

With Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer again bringing the Manhattan Project to the fore, a visit to the Hanford site was not only long overdue, but timely. A decommissioned nuclear production complex, Hanford was established in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project. I had previously made one aborted trip to photograph the site back in 2018, but the front left suspension of my rental car had an abrupt encounter with the crumbling shoulder of a mountain road ending the expedition before it really began. Having since immigrated to Western Australia, a recent return to the US provided the first opportunity for me to try again.

There are few descents in America to rival that of the approach to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. As our late-night flight from Los Angeles looped around Puget Sound while on its northerly approach, downtown Seattle’s skyline put on a glowing spectacle. Towering over downtown’s northern high-rise was the Space Needle, so close you could almost reach out and touch it. And with a squeal of rubber and a jolt or two we officially arrived in the Emerald City for a week-long sojourn through the evergreen northwest.

Deciding what to do in Seattle is a little like throwing a dart at a map. After grabbing breakfast at Fremont’s colorful Roxy’s Diner, we headed for a rendezvous with the Chihuly Garden and Glass. Located at the foot of the Space Needle (a vista we chose to skip in favor of the equally impressive and less expensive lookout at Kerry Park) the museum showcases the colorful glasswork of Dale Chihuly. Featuring an outdoor sculpture garden, glasshouse, and interior exhibition spaces, the facility is brimming with Chihuly’s complex yet whimsical large-scale, blown-glass sculptures. Captivatingly surreal, the work is as enchanting as it is sensorially overwhelming.

Next door to Chihuly Garden and Glass sits the Museum of Pop Culture. In true Seattle spirt, Frank Gehry’s chaotic building design was inspired by a smashed electric guitar. The museum embraces all facets of pop culture, from the art of fantasy and horror cinema to video games and contemporary music. Among the many highlights is IF VI WAS IX, a gigantic sculpture consisting of more than 500 musical instruments, one of the world’s largest indoor LED screens playing selected performances from local NPR affiliate, KEXP’s, exceptional “Live on KEXP” program, and an extensive collection of artifacts, hand-written lyrics, personal instruments, and photographs celebrating the life and times of Nirvana.

Founded in 1907, Pike Place Market is Seattle’s original farmer’s market and amongst the plethora of retail and craft outlets you’ll still find fishmongers, fresh produce stalls, and flower vendors all plying their trade. Spanning nine waterfront acres and attracting more than 10 million visitors a year, the markets are one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. But don’t let that stop you from visiting, especially when the “almost classy” Lowell’s Restaurant has been immaculately serving up fresh seafood since 1957 or Ghost Alley Espresso will pour you one of the best cups of coffee you’re ever likely to find. But, if it’s a truly unique culinary experience you’re seeking, head across to Fremont and The Seattle Biscuit Company where you’ll be served some of the finest southern-style biscuits and gravy west of the Mississippi.

It was only fitting our flight into Seattle was onboard a 737-800. Built right here in Renton, Washington, you can find the remnants of The Boeing Company’s original airplane production facility in the nearby city of Tukwila. Now part of Seattle’s The Museum of Flight, an impressive air and space museum, the museum’s collection also includes more than 150 aircraft including civilian icons such as a Boeing 747 and Concorde 214 as well as military aircraft like the Lockheed Martin SR-71 Blackbird and a Boeing 707-120 that served as the first presidential jet plane and carried Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

From Seattle we made the much anticipated trip to eastern Washington to explore the nuclear legacy of Hanford. The decommissioned nuclear production complex sites on the banks of the Columbia River, sprawling across an almost 700 square miles and was home to nine nuclear reactors, including B Reactor, the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world. Plutonium manufactured at the facility was used in the first atomic bomb, which was tested in New Mexico’s 1945 Trinity nuclear test, and subsequently deployed in the Fat Man bomb used in the bombing of Nagasaki.

The reactor produced plutonium-239 by irradiating uranium-238 with neutrons generated by the nuclear reaction. The reactor stands 41 feet tall with the core itself consisting of a 36 feet tall graphite box with 2,004 horizontal aluminium tubes used to feed the uranium into the core. The tubes were cooled by water pumped from the Columbia River at the astonishing rate of 75,000 gallons per minute. The B Reactor was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992 and in 2014 became part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park.

Fuelled up on Cold war history, our next stop was Portland, Oregon, where folks have turned eating while wearing vintage clothes into a lifestyle, or so the plethora of fine eateries and vintage clothing stores seem to suggest. Our first port-of-call was Fremont Street’s eco-focused and ultra-cool Spin Laundry Lounge – owned by arguably Portland’s coolest couple – Morgan & Anthony – who gave us a heads up on the best places to hike around the city, even if one of mountain locations had us stalked by a sniffling and growling bear. An safer city vista was ironically found from the swinging cabin of the Portland Aerial Tram as it glided slowly up Marquam Hill.

Gravy is not only a Portland institution, it’s hands down the best darn breakfast place in America. Serving up delicious, made-from-scratch comfort food, the diner’s freshly baked biscuits and homemade gravy are to die for. So too are its hash browns, corned beef hash, oatmeal brûlée, and challah french toast. Another local institution is Powell’s City of Books. Occupying an entire city block, it’s the largest new and used bookstore in the world. Not only does it have around one million titles on its shelves, it hosts a variety of literary events including a recent talk by Mexican-American poet, novelist, and essayist, Luis Alberto Urrea about his latest release, Good Night, Irene. A sublimely enchanting historical novel based on his mother’s experiences in WWII, Urrea’s talk was as empathically engaging as his writings.

From Portland we meandered back to Seattle for our return flight to Los Angeles, but not before we joined picnickers celebrating Independence Day on the Point Ruston foreshore. Against a backdrop of the imposing Mt Rainer with the scent of barbeque filling the air, a bevy of 4th of July revellers lined the Tacoma coast, lazing under a gorgeous north-western summer sky. One of the highlights of our visit to the region came a few days prior when we caught an awe-inspiring outdoor performance by The Indigo Girls and Neko Case at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. A Tacoma local, Case’s performance was nothing short of breath-taking. And damn it if the local NPR station – KEXP – we were listening to as we checked the rental car into the airport didn’t play Thrice All American, Case’s sublime hometown ode, just for us.

* By Brett Leigh Dicks, a Fremantle-based, Australian/American photographer and writer. Brett is currently Artist-in-Residence at the Museum of the Goldfields, Western Australia. Here’s his fab website.

** Don’t miss our earlier Fine Photography podcast with Brett Leigh Dicks right here.

*** And here’s more Fremantle Shipping News articles with photographs by Brett Leigh Dicks.

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