Large Dogs and Blue Angels

These are our new neighbors.  The dog with her head in the coach is a French Mastiff.  They were bred to guard the wineries in France.

 

This is a Bull Mastiff, his name is Cujo.  The predominant color of these dogs is brindle, they were bred to protect the game on the large estates.  The game keeper would station the dogs around the property, hiding in the weeds, waiting for poachers.  When the poacher would come, the dog would bite them and hold them down.  The dogs spend hours loitering, the lady that owns them says they require about 10 minutes of exercise a day, and then they're done.

 

I have to tell you, the dogs make me nervous.  The female has lunged at Jim on two occasions, fortunately she is on a short lead.  Many RV parks forbid breeds that large.

Today was the first day of the Blue Angels' practice over Lake Washington for Seafair weekend.  It's amazing to me that every year the I90 floating bridge is closed twice a day for 2 days of practice, and then on Saturday and Sunday for the shows.  We were able to ride down on to the eastern end of the bridge to watch them fly.

 

There it is, an empty bridge.

 

A very young airshow fan.

 

Look out on the water, many boaters out watching the show.

 

The F18 is a better airshow plane than the F16, in my humble opinion.  They're louder, they make your chest vibrate.

 

This is the most amazing thing the Blues do.  They're flying really slowly, going forward with the nose up.  One of them flew out level, and the other one went straight up then rolled it.  Very impressive.

 

It was a good day for an airshow.

A Book Recommendation

I normally do not read non-fiction, I'm more of a British murder mystery reader.  However, this book has really resonated with me.  The writing is very good, and it has opened a window into war that is generally not available to civilians.  It's written by soldiers on the ground.  This is a good book, you should read it.

 

Ride & Replacement LEDs

We had a return of summer today.  Jim and I rode around Lake Sammamish.  It's a good urban ride, with the exception of about one mile with no shoulder, but today the drivers were kind and did not run over us with their cars.  The route takes us through Marymoor, which is a gem of a park in Redmond.  It's huge.  There are cricket fields, radio controlled airplane fields and much more, including a velodrome.  How cool is that?

 

That's an older gentleman on the bike and he was moving out smartly.

 

Jim has replaced some of our halogen lights with LEDs.  The under cabinet lights are so hot, they cook the items on the bottom shelf.  This is the back of a light.

 

This is the front.  They are unbelievably bright.

 

If you're interested in swapping some halogens for LEDs, we like this company.  Very fast shipping.  The LED will last for 100,000 hours.  We'll probably be dead by then.

 

Other than that, maties, there is zippity doo-dah all to report.

Riding, Dinner, Riding

This was last Friday, the 27th.  We did an out and back on Mercer Island, so we were able to ride both sides of all of the hills.  Without referencing ambient temperatures, and incurring the wrath of people in the mid west who are melting, I would like draw your attention to what Jim is wearing.  In July.

 

Issaquah has a good sized Farmer's Market on Saturdays.  In addition to vegetables, they have some good food vendors.  These are Golden Beets.  We walked over to the market, that day's key learning was to bring a good bag for carrying food.  Beets are heavy!

 

Walla Walla Sweets.

 

Mainly radishes.

 

Saturday night the COs had three couples over for dinner.  Kim brought this bottle of wine she acquired in Spain.  It was really good.

 

Eggplant and zucchini brought by Chris and Roseann. Look at the beauty of that huge copper tray.  Vicki made a magnificent leg of lamb stuffed with feta and garlic, but none of my pictures of it were attractive.

 

Which brings us to today and a bike ride in the Carnation Valley.  We saw these hanging in a huge pile of black berry vines.  I'm not sure whose fruit these are.

 

Jake Groeneweg is selling out his 93 acres.  He used to run a lot of dairy cattle, but they're all gone.  I think he might be, too.  We wonder what will become of the land.  Much of it floods every year, so we're hoping the evil developers don't cover it in new houses.

 

When we got back to the truck, we saw more horses in the river.  We think it's a class.  Notice the light colored horse on the left, he was very comfortable in the water, and at times appeared to be swimming.

 

The horse on the far right seemed to have grave doubts about the wisdom of going in the water.

 

Eventually he was convinced to get wet.  The two in the back mainly stood there with people splashing them with water.

 

We saw the water buffalo in their field on the way back to the car, so we're happy to see them again.

The New Grandchild

We had dinner at Brittany and Justin's last night.  Tyler is now 8 weeks old.  He is a strong little boy.  That's Tyler on Britt's shoulder.

 

This is me, holding Tyler.

 

This is Jim, holding Tyler.  I got to hold him longer before fussing ensued.

 

Here he is in the vibrating chair.

 

Is he cute or what?

 

Fourth Week of July in Seattle

Tuesday we rode out in the Carnation Valley.  It was a spectacular day for a ride.  We saw these riders coming out of the water.

 

Here you can see the source of the extra legs behind the brown horse.

 

These posters are up everywhere.  The farms in the Snoqualmie valley are just being hammered by flooding.  That's why they're wearing snorkeling gear.

 

This is sad.  This is the road into the Tall Chief golf course.  It's closed now.

 

This is why.  I do not understand the economics of this.  191 acres and they're building 18 houses.  How is money to be made on so few houses?  It's out in the middle of nowhere.  We're very happy that they're not putting 191 houses out there, but I will miss the vast sweeps of green that were once there.

 

Flowers along the road side.

 

I have recently learned that if one changes a return flight, or if the airline changes your flight, there is a strong probability that they did not ensure that you have a seat assignment on the new flight.  We spent about 40 minutes on the phone standing out in the corn fields Tuesday talking to Travelocity.  Our return flight to Seattle from Marseilles was cancelled, and they rebooked us on an earlier flight.  The young woman on the phone assured us we had seat assignments.  After coming home and checking the Delta page, we discovered that we did not.  So that's my new airlines learning.

Yesterday we took the hiking boots in for work.  This guy comes highly recommended.  We both took in a pair for new soles, I really hope he's as good as they say.

 

The shop.

 

He's in Fremont, which is the center of the known world.  This is the bridge into Fremont.  For years it was a unique funky area of the city.  Unfortunately, it became popular, and the buildings that made it special began to be replaced with new, souless architecture.

However, there is still a rocket attached to a pub.  Every urban area needs their own rocket.

 

I left this big so you can read it, it's funny.

 

This is the back of the Waiting for the Interurban Statue.  They've been dressed for the wait.

 

I borrowed the next two photos from Rosemary's blog.  This is the front of the statue at Easter.

 

More costuming for the Interurban riders.

 

A view of the ship canal bridge.

 

This is from the Queen Anne Tower cam this morning.  The south sound was having fog, enough so that flights were delayed at Seatac.  In July.

 

So that's the news from the GPNW.