Return to West Seattle

Today was the penultimate good day.  Tuesday it starts raining, multiple systems will be moving through from the west.  Wednesday and Thursday promise to be gruesomely wet and windy.  More mall walking in our future. 

We went to the other end of Alki today.  It seemed like half of Seattle was there, celebrating the decent weather.  We started out walking through Jack Block Park.  It’s a nice park with good views of the city, the cranes and industrial stuff.  At one point this ramp was used to load rail cars on to barges.  Then they would barge elsewhere.  The other barge on the right appears to be used for gravel or sand.



Look how clear the water is.  We left West Seattle in 2006 and the water did not look like this.  It was murky and oily.  This is what can happen when various government agencies decide a thing needs to be done.  I’m going to miss clean water, now that the administration is repealing all of those horrible EPA regulations.



The city of Seattle. One of the stories the politicians told the populace when they were selling the idea of replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel, which would remove two lanes of traffic, is that the tunnel would “open up the city to the water.”  Examine the edge of the city, note that buildings spring up at the edge of the water.  There is not going to be any new water access, a complete load of poles was sold by the supporters of the tunnel.



We think an old dock is being removed here.  There’s no signage suggesting what might be occurring.



The state ferry system has had its problems lately.  Mid photo is a ferry in dry dock.  Two are down for repairs which just messes with the schedules something terrible.



That’s a Washington State Ferry on the left.  To the right, that blue and red striped boat is a bulk carrier.  She’s taking on grain at the grain terminal.  Behind the grain terminal, up the Queen Anne Hill, is an enclave of very wealthy people.  The grain terminal offends them.  About ten years or so ago they were agitating for art to be projected on to the terminal to make it more attractive.  They wanted the city to pay for it.  That idea got no where.



Dog heaven.  There is much smelly stuff on the beach for a dog to dig up and roll in.  Look at the wet sand clumped on his feet.



The water taxi.  I’m not sure why it’s not a ferry, but a taxi.  It’s a great thing.  People in West Seattle can take it in to Seattle for sporting events, restaurants, or even work.  It started out with a smaller boat that only ran in the summer, but now it’s part of the fleet and people use it for the commute.



The mountain (Mount Rainier) was sort of out today.  On a really clear day it’s a stunning sight from the I90 floating bridge.



So that was today.  Yesterday we put away the grill and some other stuff so that we wouldn’t have to do it in the rain.  Tomorrow is laundry and dumping the black tank.  Yay.