Delta to launch nonstop Seattle-London service in March

In anticipation of receiving antitrust immunity later this year for its joint venture with Virgin Atlantic Airways, Delta Air Lines say its will offer new daily nonstop service from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to London Heathrow Airport beginning March 29, 2014. Tickets will be available for purchase as of Saturday, July 27.

Delta announced last December that it planned to acquire a 49 percent stake in London-based Virgin Atlantic. The carriers last month obtained unconditional clearance from the European Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice to proceed with the investment transaction. Now both are awaiting expected U.S. Department of Transportation approval of antitrust immunity to implement their joint venture. 

Delta will operate Seattle-London Heathrow service using a 210-seat Boeing 767-300ER aircraft with 35 full flat-bed seats in BusinessElite, 32 seats in Economy Comfort and 143 Economy class seats. 

Flights will leave Seattle at 6:40 p.m. and arrive in London at 12:05 p.m. the following day. Departing London flights will leave at 12:20 p.m. and arrive in Seattle at 2:40 p.m. on the same day. 

The new service means competition for British Airways, presently the only carrier offering nonstop flights between Seattle and London.

And You Thought Couchsurfing was Only for People in Their 20s....

Our Couchsufing hosts in Greece

Scrolling though the profiles of people signed onto the home hospitality organization, Couchsurfing.org, it's easy to get the impression that all the hosts are single 20-somethings and all the guests are backpackers looking for free places to stay. 

Michalis Mathioulakis CQ CP and Pernille Busborg, both professionals in their 40s, don't fit the typical profile, and my husband, Tom, and I long ago traded in our backpacks for rolling carry-ons. 

Within minutes of arriving at their apartment in Thessaloniki, Greece, we were relaxing together on their porch, sharing stories and talking as if we were old friends.

So much for stereotypes. Couchsurfing and other types of  alternatives to traditional hotel stays, the subject of my recent Travel Wise column for the Seattle Times, are for travelers of any age. Don't like the idea of sleeping someone's sofa? No worries. The "couch'' part is mostly a figure of speech. Our Greek  hosts offered offered us a comfortable guest room in their roomy condo. We shared meals,  met the neighbors, and when it was time to leave, Michalis drove us to the airport. 

There's no charge, or obligation to host. Like a type of pay-it-forward blind date, the understanding is that you'll find a way down the line to repay the hospitality you receive, perhaps by inviting someone to stay with you, or just meeting for coffee and conversation.

"People are always surprised at what's out there for older travelers,'' says Joyce Major, the Seattle author of "Smiling at the World,'' an account of a year she spent as a traveling volunteer.

Major, 65, hosts travelers in her Capitol Hill apartment, and "surfs'' whenever she can, most recently on a 10-day trip to the East Coast.  Filtering the listings for people who have spare rooms, with real beds, not just couches, she looks for hosts with interests that match hers.

 "Everyone was 40 and up, and in all the places, I had my own bedroom. People insisted on making me dinner and making me breakfast, and just having these wonderful conversations."

With more than six million members worldwide and a large  "Fifty-Plus'' contingent, Couchsurfing is the biggest and loosest (anyone can join) hospitality exchange network, but other organizations offer similar ways for travelers to connect.

Servas International,  operating since 1949, is more structured, requiring hosts and travelers to be approved after personal interviews, and agree to stays of at least two days. 

BeWelcome includes a category for families. Europe-based Women Welcome Women connects women ages 18-80 in more than 80 countries.

Locally, the Affordable Travel Club in Washington State has been at this since 1992. The club offers those over 40 private home hospitality in the United States and 50 other countries, including many in Washington, Oregon and Vancouver B.C. Members pay annual dues of $65-$75, plus a nightly gratuity of $15 to $20. 

Hostel stays 

Many hostels have deleted the word "youth'' from their names and added private rooms, making it easier for older travelers to enjoy the camaraderie without having to sleep in a dorm room. 

In Kotor, Montenegro, my husband and I paid $60 a night for a newly-renovated private room with a kitchen and bathroom in a hotel within the walls of the Old Town.  

We had our privacy plus all the benefits that come with a hostel stay, in this case, travel tips shared by young, English-speaking managers over shots of homemade plum brandy. 

The Road to Mount Rainier: Getting There is Half the Fun

Dan Klennert at his Recycled Spirits of Iron

Climb aboard a vintage steam train as it chugs through the foothills of Mount Rainer.

Sleep in a treehouse, a "beach" cabin with a floor covered in sand or a bright yellow caboose.

Lunch on a "Scale Burger" prepared inside a former roadside weigh station.

Getting there really is half the fun for those who take the time to stop along the Road to Paradise, a 14-mile stretch of two-lane highway leading to the entrance of Mount Rainier National Park. Here's my report for NBC News.com and the Portland Oregonian.

Glacier-fed lakes, hiking trails and fields of wildflowers reward summer visitors who continue another 17 miles to the Paradise visitor center, elevation 5,400 feet.

Down below, the wonders are man-made, the work of artists and entrepreneurs who depend on the mountain for their livelihood.

The journey begins in the blink-or-you'll-miss-it the town of Elbe at the junction of Washington State Routes 7 and 706.

First stop: Scale Burgers, 54106 Mountain Highway East (Route 706).

Scale Burgers

Cora Adams, hair pulled back in a waistlong braid and American-flag bandanna, can be found most days working the grill inside a 9-by-11-foot former Washington State weigh station.

She and her husband, Gayle, first used the little green and white building to weigh logging trucks that stopped at their gas station. Later, they turned the building into a takeout burger bar, specializing in thick shakes and huge burgers with names such as "Overload' and "Legal Limit."

Outdoor seating is simple -- green picnic tables and old truck tires. Adams credits their success with "being on the right side of the road," meaning many of her customers are hungry hikers or skiers traveling home on their way back from Mount Rainier.


Railroads played an important role during Washington State's logging heydays.
Sightseeing trains pulled by restored steam locomotives take visitors back in time on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad, the longest continuously operating steam train railroad in the Pacific Northwest.

Tim Daubert, an engineer for the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad

The engines pull passenger cars along seven miles of reclaimed track, rocking and rolling through forests and over wooden trestles to the town of Mineral, where volunteers have opened a new museum filled with historic logging and railroad equipment.

Next door to the railroad depot is a collection of vintage railcars and cabooses, home to the Mount Rainier Railroad Dining Company; Pizza Express, a takeout pizza restaurant; and the Hobo Inn at 54106 Mountain Highway East (rrdiner.com). Prices start at $115 per night for refurbished cabooses furnished with jetted tubs, kitchens, bathrooms and double beds.

Three miles east of Elbe, artist and former Seattle mechanic Dan Klennert, 62, invites visitors to wander through his Recycled Spirits of Iron,  an outdoor sculpture park filled with life-size horses, locomotives, dinosaurs and other figures fashioned from scrap iron, car parts and found objects.

The park is free, but Klennert accepts donations in canisters marked "Democrat," "Republican" and "Independent."


Among the 50 pieces on display is a 17-foot-tall giraffe with hoofs made from the teeth of a backhoe and horns fashioned from the drive line of a Model A. An appaloosa stud has a backside fashioned from horseshoes, feet made from the tops of oxygen tanks and hair from the brushes of a street sweeper.

Klennert can usually be found working in his studio or his "Field of Dreams," a junkyard filled with rusty mattress springs, engine valves and salvaged parts. His pieces sell for thousands of dollars to individuals and commercial clients including a local McDonald's.

Unique among the many cabins, B&Bs and other types of lodging surrounding Mount Rainier is Wellspring, four miles from the park's Nisqually entrance at 54922 Kernahan Road East.

Owner Sunny Thompson started Wellspring 30 years ago as a spa with a single hot tub for rent by the hour. Over the years, she added cabins, a yurt and walking trails on 10 acres of pristine forestland.

Wellspring's "Beach'' Cabin

Stop by for a quick soak or massage, or spend the night inside a log cabin decked out with river-rock fireplace, a treehouse built for two, or a tropical-themed canvas-walled tent furnished with a water bed, faux palm trees and floor made of sand.