Sorry to lead with a crooked horizon line. Oh, horizon line, my old foe.
The horizon line is pretty bad in all these pictures. Amateurish!
Freshwater Lake Union has Lake Washington to its east and Puget Sound to its west, by way of the Ballard Locks.
In California, I think we'd call it "the Puget Sound".
The name of this little boat delighted me. Chemists and physicists perform ab initio calculations ("from first principles") to solve the Schrodinger equation in order to ascertain the physical properties of molecules. Cute!
Sleepless in Seattle, anyone?
We have some pretty awesome houseboats in Sausalito. We should go there together sometime.
Seattle emerges from a bleak winter into luxuriant spring and endless summer. On July 4, they have to wait until ~10pm for it to get dark enough for fireworks.
By climatic necessity, they do go a little overboard with the rhododendrons. Guy can no longer bear the sight of them. Me, I'm easy. I do think the best color for a rhodie is white or the palest possible pink. Maybe a pale, creamy yellow as a focal point. The fuchsia-pinks and reds are hard to take after awhile. The flowers are just too big and too numerous to bear those colors with dignity and grace for long periods of time. Maybe if they were also fragrant... Hey, Seattle. Plant some lilacs why don't you?
As you may know, Seattle has great wealth. Boeing moved headquarters to Chicago, but they still employ 10s of thousands of people here. Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Costco, REI, Nintendo--companies that play a part in the daily lives of millions of people--are all based here. (REI--tens of thousands?)
Have I told you how Seattle is the west coast's most masculine city? I can annoy everyone carrying on about this. It can't be fey, hippie-dippy San Francisco with its pastel painted ladies. Trendy, image-obsessed Los Angeles? Definitely not a contender. San Jose and San Diego are both way too vague and nebulous... What are those places, anyway? Portland is Seattle's little sister and Seattle is all steel construction, jet engines, lumberjacks, hot coffee and craft beer. You sense it from the moment you drive in from the airport with the shipyards on your left and the big conifers everywhere.
That's the Aurora Bridge, carrying Hwy 99.
We're crossing the pedestrian-friendly Fremont Bridge.
Well, we're going to in a minute.
I was amazed how quietly it lifted. I'd expect there to be some creaking. Some engine noise. I mean, you know, there's tons of steel and concrete being pushed up into the air. But there was only silence.
We had to wait for the Queen of Seattle to pass.
Turns out the Queen of Seattle is a Californian transplant, from Sacramento!
Isn't she lovely?
I almost committed a faux-pas by attempting to cross before the bicyclists (who knows, it might be a moving violation), but I sensed something was wrong and stopped after just a couple steps. Whew!
On the other side we passed by the Adobe gardens,
No trespassing.
And got to our destination a few minutes later.
I should have taken some pictures in Gas Works Park, but I was ready to set down and cool my heels. Come back soon and we'll go to the library.
2 comments:
Growing up I thought it might be fun to be a bridge tender. Not much to do, maybe get some reading done, have a nice view of the water and occasionally have to push some buttons.
Your photos are stunning as always!!! Seattle looks great through your lens. I saw your newer post - wow, congratulations. I liked your Question about six years from now, I'm going to think about that. Will you post library pics :~)
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