Racing, Growth and Displacement, Classic Cars

Happy Sunday!  We are much happier today than during the past two days because it was so steenking hot.  Heat advisories abounded in the GPNW.  Today is 20 degrees cooler than yesterday.  Given that it was so hot, more time than was good was spent indoors, leading to excessive web surfing.  Jim found this on the Vic-Maui website.  Vic-Maui is a sailboat race that leaves from Victoria and finishes in Maui.  Jim did it four times before we were married.  We were married 15 years before we spent a Memorial Day weekend together because he was always racing Swiftsure, which is a Canadian race.  See the two guys on the right side of the boat?  Jim has his back to the camera, wearing the red and white rain gear.  That was taken in 1984.  It was kind of cool to see that.

There has been walking and biking.  This was taken out in Carnation Valley.  The heron stood motionless for quite awhile.  There was probably one less frog that day.

We were in Bellevue to see the dermatologist.  It's amazing what a difference spending most of the winter indoors made in Jim's development of actinic keratosis.  Generally he gets zapped with liquid nitrogen in many places, there was only one this time.  Anyway, the building continues at an astounding pace.

This street is turning into a canyon.  Soon no sunlight will reach the ground except at high noon.

Growth continues unabated in Seattle, as well.  This is Yesler Terrace.  It was built in the 1950s as low income housing.  It's been sold to developers, one of which is Vulcan (owned by Paul Allen).  The poor have been relocated, the buildings will be torn down and replaced by a mix of market rate and subsidized housing.  There is controversy regarding whether or not the original inhabitants will have "right of return" and whether the same number of units will be available to the economically challenged.  What is astonishing is the number of apartments that will be added.  My reading suggests it will be somewhere around 3,000, where previously there were 500.  As always, no new roads are being built.

Here is a new tent city.  I think this is not officially sanctioned, but is rather a pop up encampment.  They're on a west facing hill in Seattle, it must have been hotter than the seventh circle of hell during the recent heat wave.

We walked through Issaquah today.  We kept seeing old vehicles on the road, so we knew there was a car show somewhere.  It was at the XXX drive in.  This is a 1957 Chevy Nomad.  Look at that paint.

They were handing out trophies to the best restored cars.  We were being gassed by the cars' exhaust.  People may rail against regulations, but standing there breathing car exhaust suggested some of the "good old days" really weren't, in terms of air quality.

This is a beautifully restored 1957 Chevy Bel Air hardtop.  It was a good show.

On the way home we walked by a mass fruiting.  Issaquah is full of fruit trees.  These are apples that have dropped and are in the process of fermenting.

My back is better.  Apparently I have some looseness in my sacroiliac joints.  It's way better than it was.  I'm not yipping anymore.  There were a couple of days where it was just unbearable.  Now, we're down to a dull roar. 
We're supposed to be out of here on September 7, on our way to Ashland.   One wonders just how hot it will be there.  Alternative plans may have to be put in place.