City by the Bay...Seattle

It's been a quiet two week's blog wise, and this will be more of a pictorial after a short couple of paragraphs of things that seem odd to me.

 The title is even in question because Seattle is really on the Puget Sound, not a bay. What is the difference between a sound and bay, you ask?. I found one definition that states a "sound" is a large inlet from the ocean or sea, whereas a bay is just smaller and not as deep. A sound is also deeper than a bight and wider than a fjord... in case anyone was wondering.

Well this just keeps on getting better...what's a bight? Yeah, well I've never heard of it before, so here...

A bight is a recess of the coast, bay or other curved feature.

I'm embarrassed because I had a number of upper level geography courses in college and have never seen or heard the word before. 

Maybe it's like some of the new words we get thrown at us every year, like hashtag? For all my life, it was the "pound" sign on the phone and calculator, but it was hijacked a few years ago by nerds for their benefit.

While I'm at it...why after the year 2009, did everyone start calling 2010 "twenty-ten"? Why not two thousand-ten?  We didn't call the year 2000 "twenty-nought-nought" or 2001 "twenty-nought-one"...did we?

Ok, back to blogging.

Downtown Seattle is a beautiful setting, on Puget Sound.

The fog is rolling in from Seattle on a rare day with light traffic.

This is more typical of the bumper to bumper traffic that I encounter daily. The cracked windshield was a gift from a Seattle freeway the very first day in town.

As a car guy (I've never owned an exotic car) who loves looking at any car... that I can't afford! Seattle is also home to more Audi and Beamers than I have ever seen in one place. There are more of those two vehicles whizzing by than VW Beetles on an LA freeway in 1970. There was an article in the local paper about a "Personal Finance Manager" in Bellevue, Washington who leased two Ferrari while owning another. I'm not too sure I'd trust this guy with what little money I have?

I have never seen a sign on a road like this before. Could it be that the WSDOT  installed them after marijuana was legalized?

Ok, back to the Sound. Here the current leaves the Whidbey Island area and into the Northern Pacific.

Just inside the sound is Lake Union, a body of fresh water. Just from my prospective it looks like Lake Union is the industrial body of water for shipyards and repair marinas. 

Here is a shot of Lake Union from the 6th floor of SCCA. From this vantage point we can see tour boats, float planes and large merchant ships being repaired along the shoreline.

Here I am looking at the entrance of the Lake Washington Ship Canal, west into Portage Bay. In the distance are the famous houseboats of Seattle and above them, a long elevated portion of the Hwy 5 bridge.

I was looking on Zillow at some prices of these floating homes. Even small ones ran a million plus.

The Montlake Draw Bridge, built in 1925, and since I go across it four times a day to visit Donna I can tell you first hand that it is a very cool bridge. I'm looking east into Lake Washington.

Lake Washington Ship Canal was a project developed in 1891 to connect Lake Washington with Puget Sound. The project wasn't actually completed until 1934.

My question as a former saltwater boat owner is...when your boat is in fresh water and you go out to the salt water for a day or so, does it kill any fresh water algae that might of accumulated at the dock?

Only one block from the Montlake Draw Bridge is this view of Lake Washington from Donna's 8th floor at the University of Washington Medical Center. Donna's room looks out over some construction to the west, but as she walks laps there are many windows with this view.

       Odds N Ends

This is the Kirkland Costco...Kirkland, as in their brand name. Not  the original store but the 8th Costco built.

Speaking of Costco...I haven't seen gas this low in a few years.

Judy and our family have been dear friends for over thirty years. Her daughter works in Seattle and Judy was visiting so I got to have lunch with the both of them this week...great people.

That's about it for now. I am anticipating Donna will be coming back to the motorhome next week and then maybe I'll be able do some real blogging.