The Amazon Spheres

As I previously mentioned, we had reservations to go in the Amazon Spheres today.  Due to the iffy weather, two freeway closures, and my current gastric distress we were debating on whether we really wanted to go, but go we did.  It’s totally worth doing if you’re in the area.  It’s an amazing structure, here it is shining in the sun last time we saw it.

This is a model of the spheres. 

Those metal segments were welded together.  Here is a youtube of building the structure.  Pay attention to how often the building is in shadow because of the surrounding high rises.  Stick it out to the end (four minutes) and you can see how the giant tree was installed in the building.  To keep the plants alive there are very bright grow lights everywhere.  The lights make photography difficult because there’s always one washing out your picture.

Two eco-systems are in the spheres.  The first floor is South American rain forest.  The second floor is Asian rain forest.  These were chosen because the year round temperatures don’t vary much.  Plants who live in a four season environment expect cold and hot temperatures.  People would not enjoy working in those conditions.  These plants are adapted for a constant 75 degrees with very high humidity.  We asked why the windows don’t fog up when it’s cold, it’s because of the amount of air movement.  The floors don’t reach the walls, so there is good air flow next to the glass.

Note the grow light on the left as well as the mister.

Giant fern.

No idea.

Tulip orchids from Ecuador.

Pitcher plants.  These are so cool.  They’re carnivorous.  The soil where they grow is so poor they supplement their diets by trapping bugs.  They don’t have to feed them bugs in the spheres because their conditions are good.  The botanists did say that when he finds slugs he feeds them to the pitcher plants.

This is a pitcher plant tree.  You can’t see it but there is a horizontal branch with these things dangling from it.

An observation point.

That’s Rubi the tree.  She’s from Somis, CA and was shipped here on a flat bed truck.

We really enjoyed it.  If you are going to Seattle, sign up for the tour.  It’s free and self guided.

More Life in the GPNW

Not much has been happening in our corner of the GPNW.  There has been walking in the woods.



There has been going in to Bellevue for new tires for the truck.  We walked out of Costco the other day and Jim glanced down at the tires and noticed that little chunks of rubber were coming off.  It was fairly disconcerting.  We went home and figured out how many miles we’d towed, plus driven and realized it was time.

This is a drill in use in the light rail project.  It’s a huge thing.



While waiting for tires we walked up the street, expecting to find a Pacific Fabrics store.  Nope, they’re gone.  Joann Fabrics is just the evil empire.  They’re put almost all of the local fabric stores out of business.  The fabric store has been replaced by an upscale pet supply store.

How often do we see kangaroo and venison dog food?  For me, this is a first.  At the top of the package, in very large letters, it’s labelled “grain free.”  The FDA has recently determined that grain free dog food is linked to cardiomyopathy in dogs.  You can read more at the NYT.



This is a 15 pound bag of turkey and sweet potato dog food, which is also grain free.  It’s $37.99.  Does that seem like a lot of money to you?  It does to me.



And for the urban chicken we have freeze dried grub snacks.  This tickles me some what.



Later we walked over the Issaquah creek.  Lower right corner is a very happy dog with a big stick.



A new stick has been thrown into the creek.



Stick retrieved, the dog returns to his owner – soaking wet.



This came off the internet.  It’s the last photo taken by the Cassini spacecraft before crashing into Saturn.  It’s a lovely image.

Confirmation Hearings

On the first day of Kavanaugh’s hearings for the Supreme Court, Fred Guttenburg wanted a word to discuss guns in America.  Mr. Guttenburg’s daughter was killed in the Parkland shooting.  Kavanaugh listened briefly, turned on his heel and walked away, refusing the hand shake.  Would it have killed him to shake the hand and say sorry for your loss before retreating?



To quote Maya Angelou: When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

As Seen in Seattle

It was a lovely day today.  I'm tired of doing the three mile walk through Issaquah, so we decided to drive into downtown Seattle and see what we would see.  Being unhooked from our culture, we completely forgot that it's Labor Day weekend and that Bumbershoot would be in process.  Bumbershoot is an annual festival with multiple music stages, foods, and crowds.  What we did not know was that PAX 2018 was in town.  PAX is a huge gaming conference.

When we turned right off the freeway, we saw her.  We wondered what the heck?

Then we saw this person.  Realization dawned that something was going on other than Bumbershoot.

Parking was very painful.  The garage we always go to was full!  Totally full!  That never happens.  After getting out of the garage, we valet parked and walked over to Westlake Center.  This was happening there.  People stood in line to get on the bus and I guess play video games.

Then there were more costumes.  At this point we were all in the queue for hotdogs.  Look closely at her left hand.  She's wearing black gloves with long blue tips.  She did not take these off to eat the hotdog.  Also notice her shoes.  I don't know how she walked in those things.  It's unfortunate that I did not get her face, the make up was really well done.

Here we have a shoulder mounted shark laser fired projectile weapon of some sort.  Look at the front of the weapon, it's an open shark's mouth.

Love that hat.

This is a great costume.  There's skull on the head.  The platform shoes are really tall.  There were two kids who were really taken by the look.  They spent a fair amount of time discussing the clothes.

He's carrying a helmet in his left hand.

She's looking at him, trying not to stare.  Where do you buy these things?  I'm certain there is a cottage industry for character costumes.  Jim and I do not play video games, so we don't know who any of these costumes are supposed to represent.  I'm amazed that people will dress up this much.

 In 2011 70,000 people attended PAX.  It's been going since 2004.  I couldn't find more recent attendance numbers.  This line went around the block.  They're also in the Convention Center.  There were A LOT of people on the streets. PAX runs from 10 am to midnight, Friday through Monday.  There are also after parties into the wee hours.

After leaving the downtown core, we headed over to South Lake Union.  This is ground zero for all the new high rises that have been built to house the tech workers.  Amazon alone employs 40,000 people. 

These are Amazon's The Spheres. Seattle is one of NYT's 52 places to go in 2018, and there was a write up about the Spheres.

The most arresting glass structure in the city, though, may well be the Amazon Spheres (technically titled Amazon’s The Spheres), three conjoined, bulbous conservatories filled with more than 40,000 plants from nearly 700 different species, that opened this January as part of the online behemoth’s downtown Seattle headquarters. Made up of 2,643 triangles and rhomboids, the Spheres’ reflective surface, which reflects off the surfaces of adjacent Amazon skyscrapers, has become an instantly recognizable part of Seattle’s architectural landscape. It’s also just a monumental feat of vision and money and will. 

We signed up to tour the spheres September 15.  Amazon opens them to the public two Saturdays a month.  You must sign up on their website to get in.

This has been here forever.  One wonders how long until it's bull dozed and turned into another high rise.


Walking back to the truck we saw this at the Bell Street Cruise terminal.  It's NCL Norwegian Bliss.  She's a new boat, specifically built for cruising to Alaska and back.  It's one of those structures that's too large to be photographed from the ground. At 1,049 feet, she's almost as long as a Nimitz class carrier.

I got this off the internet.  Bliss was delivered in May.  If you look at the Space Needle you can see the scaffolding in place during its renovation. 

Transient moorage by the cruise terminal.

It was a good day.  My feet cooperated with extended walking.  There were hot dogs and really excellent people watching.

Go Big or Stay Home

This 5th wheel is currently in the RV park.  We think it's 44 feet long.  It’s made by Space Craft.  They’re a custom manufacturer that sells directly to the consumer.



They’re using this to tow it.



Notice that the tow vehicle has a sleeper cab.



You really have to want to tow something this big.

More Life in the GPNW and a Tiny Politics

Greetings Earthlings!  How go the things in your part of the world?  Things are better here.  A strong southerly wind yesterday cleaned out the atmosphere and brought us a very pleasant air mass.



We’re in to the fruiting season.  The sidewalks in Issaquah are covered in apples that have dropped to the ground.  The geese love them and are there en masse to eat apples.  Next door to us we have a pear tree that is dropping fruit.  I think racoons are eating them.  There is poop that is not rabbit poop, but looks like it could be an appropriate size for raccoons.



The sun angle is dropping, so the woods are getting more light in than when it was over head.  It’s nice to have the additional light.



This I do not understand.  It hasn’t rained, there have been no wind storms, and yet the trees fall over on to the trail.  Why does this happen?



The bumper sticker on this car made us laugh.



Today we drove into Bellevue to return to the Macy’s Labor Day weekend sale.  When we took off in the RV, we did not keep any bed linens and now we need some.  The mark downs are substantial.  Anyway, there was a loud Boom! and the air was full of dust in front of us.  Look on the right side of the truck, the tire exploded.  Something is wrong with the axle, as well.  Also observe the car in the oncoming lane.  It’s a Maserati.  I think I would rather have a mini van - more cargo space.



A close up of the blown tire.  It really was a spectacular noise and raising of dust.



Isn’t that pretty?  That building always looks so nice against a cloudy sky.



Meanwhile, our president is accusing Lester Holt (NBC) of “faking” his interview.  What the man is now trying to sell is that any coverage of him that is not favorable is fake.  If there are tapes or recordings, they’ve been altered.  This is not good, he’s getting more Orwellian by the day.  Today’s twitter feed is just littered with delusional crap; it started just after four in the morning.

Apparently he’s going to be dispatched to Camp David for the weekend.  I guess the optics of flying to play golf while Senator McCain is buried are too awful, even for him.  WAPO wrote an interesting article about the planning of it all.

By the weekend, when virtually all of official Washington — Democrats and Republicans alike — gathers at the National Cathedral for a nationally televised farewell, Mr. Trump is expected to have retreated to Camp David, where White House aides hope he will contain his anger at the attention being lavished on Mr. McCain.

Is that not tragic?  A sitting president was told to not attend a senator’s funeral.