First Lady Jill Biden arrives in Seattle for a two-day set of events in the Pacific Northwest

The First Lady of the Unit­ed States has touched down in the Pacif­ic Northwest!

Dr. Jill Biden’s C‑32 Air Force trans­port land­ed at 2:46 PM Pacif­ic Time at King Coun­ty Inter­na­tion­al Air­port after an unevent­ful flight from California.

The First Lady was greet­ed by Seat­tle May­or Bruce Har­rell, King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine, Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee, and oth­er dignitaries.

Dr. Biden is in the region to tour Bates Tech­ni­cal Col­lege in Taco­ma, speak at a fundrais­er for Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray’s reelec­tion cam­paign, and par­tic­i­pate in a Hid­den Helpers Coali­tion Event with the Eliz­a­beth Dole Foun­da­tion and Wound­ed War­rior Project at the Pacif­ic Sci­ence Center.

This last event is part of the White House’s Join­ing Forces ini­tia­tive and will cel­e­brate chil­dren in mil­i­tary and vet­er­an care­giv­ing fam­i­lies. Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, Sec­re­tary of the U.S. Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs Denis McDo­nough, and CEO of the Eliz­a­beth Dole Foun­da­tion Steve Schwab will also be there.

On behalf of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute, Seth and I joined oth­er media rep­re­sen­ta­tives at Boe­ing Field to observe the brief arrival ceremonies.

I reached the air­port over an hour before the First Lady’s touch­down and checked in with White House Secu­ri­ty and the Secret Ser­vice. As I drove up I could see bomb-sniff­ing dogs being lift­ed into near­by dump­sters to check for threats.

After being screened, I was escort­ed to the coned off press area on the tar­mac. Reporters from many Seat­tle-based news orga­ni­za­tions had set up cam­eras on tri-pods and micro­phones as they await­ed Dr. Biden’s arrival.

In the unusu­al­ly warm and hazy Seat­tle after­noon, secu­ri­ty vehi­cles crossed the tar­mac and secu­ri­ty per­son­nel paced in and out of a near­by hangar as every­one pre­pared for the First Lady’s immi­nent landing.

At 2:35 PM, every­one turned their cam­era towards the sky behind the press pool as the C‑32 descend­ed. After eleven min­utes, the plane fin­ished taxi­ing and parked a mere one hun­dred meters from the press pool.

As the plane came to a stop, the First Lady’s motor­cade of black SUVs and press vans pulled up and await­ed Dr. Biden’s departure.

Sev­er­al min­utes lat­er, May­or Har­rell and oth­er local dig­ni­taries moved to the bot­tom of the airstairs to greet the First Lady. Dr. Biden descend­ed the airstairs at 2:55 PM, speak­ing with May­or Har­rell and the oth­er offi­cials before tak­ing photos.

By 3:06 PM, the First Lady, her staff, and the trav­el­ing press had loaded into the motor­cade, and by 3:08 PM the last vehi­cles in the con­voy were leav­ing the air­port. By 3:16 PM, the press rep­re­sen­ta­tives had packed up and were escort­ed from the tar­mac through a pri­vate hang­er. The well-exe­cut­ed dis­em­bark­ment, with every staffer and reporter know­ing where to go, sug­gest­ed a smooth begin­ning to this leg of Dr. Biden’s trip to the West Coast.