Category: Seattle

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Sunday/ Dick’s Drive-in is back 🍔

Dick’s Drive-in burger joint on Broadway is open after its remodel .. has been open for a few weeks already, actually.

We had a very mild 20 °C (68 °F) here in the city today.
Whoah at the first-ever red-alert temps of 40 °C (104 °F) forecast for London for Monday.

 

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Friday/ helping to pay for the bridge

I took my notebook computer in to the repair shop in Redmond today.
The right (built in) speaker is crackling badly.
I could bypass the little built-in speakers with external ones, but it’s a cheap fix to fix to install a new speaker, and then the machine would be good to go as-is.

I’m westbound to Seattle, crossing Lake Washington via the State Route 520 toll bridge. It was $2.70 to cross eastbound, and $3.40 for this crossing, so $6.10 total. That’s OK, it’s nice to have a new bridge. (It opened in 2016 at a cost of $4.6 billion). Way out in the distance cloud cover is rolling in from the coast⁠— a weak front that will bring the highs for the weekend down to the low 70s (low 20s °C). We’ve had pleasant, mild summer weather so far.
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Sunday/ clear skies

It was a lovely day here in the Pacific Northwest, and not too warm: 77 °F (25°C).
The 6 o’clock Nightmare Show (NBC’s Nightly News) reported that the Yosemite wildfire threatens a grove of giant sequoias.
We have been blessed with clear skies here so far.

The sun is setting as I stroll by Jamjuree’s, the Thai restaurant on 15th Avenue. Four young people had just crowded into Liberty Bar behind me, and Hopvine Pub ahead is hopping as well. The street block up ahead is still in rough shape with Coastal Kitchen still closed. The empty building in the distance on the left (old QFC store) is clean again after the latest round of graffiti had been scrubbed from it.
That little white blob in the sky is the moon, on its way to becoming 2022’s largest supermoon, this Wednesday July 13th (it will be at its closest point to Earth for the year).
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Tuesday/ blue is a hard color

Seattle photographer Tim Durkan took these spectacular photos of last night’s fireworks⁠— the first Seafair fireworks show on Lake Union in 3 years.
He uses slightly longer exposures that make the fiery blooms look even better than in real life, I suspect.

Facebook: Tim Durkan Photography
Instagram: @TimDurkan
Twitter: @TimDurkan

 

The colors in fireworks come from the salt compounds of barium, copper and strontium.
Blue is hard to create:  the copper compounds for the blues do not hold up well in high heat. The search is still on for other compounds after all this time!

CompoundFormulaFunctionColors
Barium ChlorideBaCl₂Color AgentGreens
Barium NitrateBa(NO₃)₂OxidizerGreens
Copper Carbonate CH₂Cu₂O₅Color AgentBlues
Copper Chloride CuCl₂Color AgentBlues
MagnaliumMg-Al alloyHeat & lightNeutral
Potassium Perchlorate KClO₄OxidizerStars & flashes
Sodium OxalateC₂Na₂O₄Color AgentYellows, Gold
Strontium CarbonateSrCO₃Color AgentReds
Strontium Chloride SrCl₂Color AgentReds
Strontium NitrateSr(NO₃)₂OxidizerReds
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Saturday/ at the Park 🌿

I wandered over to Volunteer Park after dinner and took a few pictures.

The renovation project at the Seattle Asian Art Museum has been completed, but the museum is open only Friday-Sunday for now.
Here is the Museum’s sleek new brick-and-glass exterior, seen from the back.
Lots of green (and a ‘green’ car—the black Tesla).
I missed the little concert that celebrated the unveiling of the new stage at the Volunteer Park Amphitheater lawn. A technician was just loading the last few pieces of equipment onto a truck. It’s been a long road to get the project completed. Per Seattle Met magazine: ‘Volunteer Park Trust hired architects for the project in 2015 and persisted through a concrete worker strike, exceedingly rainy weather, and pandemic-related supply chain holdups’.
An obligatory picture of the greenhouse of the Volunteer Park Conservatory (constructed 1912).
A food truck sporting the letter sequence 314 PIE with the characters morphed into shapes that make it into a palindrome. I like it. In addition, the truck has a custom Washington State license plate ‘PIE’.
Picknickers enjoying the last of the daylight. The truck in the background is called ‘The Concert Truck’ and belongs to the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
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Friday/ in the twilight zone 🌃

A diagram that shows civil, nautical and astronomical twilight. Only when the sun has sunk 18° below the horizon at night, is it completely dark.

 

 

The days are long here in the north, and the twilight lingers.
It takes until midnight before the sky is completely dark.

Looking west to the Space Needle from 14th Avenue on Capitol Hill at 9.58 pm last night, during nautical twilight (see below).
Civil Twilight is from 9:10 pm to 9:50 pm
Nautical Twilight is from 9:50 pm to 10:46 pm
Astronomical Twilight is from 10:46 pm to 12:00 am
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Wednesday/ a new platform for the bus 🚍

The No 10 bus stop at 15th Avenue & Republican St has gotten a new platform— one that makes it wheel-chair accessible.
The platform is also sporting rainbow colors and a ‘butt bench’ (for pressing one’s derriere against, whilst waiting for the bus).

The platform for the stop for the northbound No 10 bus, at 15th Avenue and Republican St. The bus stop used to be at the entrance of the (now-shuttered) QFC grocery store a little further down.
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Sunday/ Happy Pride! 🌈

The Seattle Pride parade in downtown was back this year.
It was toasty outside, as was expected.

Seattle Kraken team pooch ‘Davy Jones’ with his Pride bandana, during today’s Seattle Pride Parade.
Picture posted by Seattle Kraken @SeattleKraken on Twitter.
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Saturday/ the heat is here 🌟

We are having a little heat wave here in the city.
(Heat wave for us, anyway). It feels as if we went from early spring weather to the summer highs in three days flat.
The highs look like this:
Saturday 88°F 31°C
Sunday 87°F 31°C
Monday 91°F 33°C
Tuesday 68°F 20°C

A few panels from my Adventures of Tintin book called Der Geheimnisvolle Stern/ Eng. The Shooting Star*/ Fr. L’Étoile Mystérieuse.
*The English-language publisher’s translation from the French is scandalously inaccurate: it should have been The Mysterious Star.
Anyway: part of the plot of the book is that a giant meteoroid appears in the sky, and heats up the surface of Earth in a big way. (Kind of like the ‘Don’t Look Up’ movie on Netflix). 
Translation of the text in the bottom panels:
Poor Snowy! He is perishing of thirst .. and the plants also look pitiful.
The end of the world, Snowy! The end of the world- do you understand that, Snowy? (Evidently not, he is only too happy to have some water).
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Tuesday/ hello summer ☀

It’s summer solstice here in the North, with the North pole at its maximum tilt towards the sun for the year.

It was a lovely day outside. We had 75°F (24°C) which makes it the warmest day of the year for Seattle, so far.

These lovely cosmos plants (Cosmos bipinnatus) and their flowers are from City People’s Garden Store on Madison Avenue.
The Imperfect Foods truck swing by on Tuesdays in my neighborhood; their mission is reduce food waste by saving (selling) ‘ugly’ produce and surplus items from local farmers, and delivering it to buyers.
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Wednesday/ Seattle downtown 🏢

I made a run into downtown today with the No 10 bus to pick up an item at Walgreens.
The one here on 15th Avenue closer to me is has lots of empty spaces on the shelves!

The Walgreens that I went to is in Melbourne Tower on 3rd Avenue. It is a 10-floor, reinforced-concrete office tower that was completed in 1927. It is not fully occupied right now, with available office space on the 5th and 6th floors.
Third Avenue in downtown had been in bad shape at times the last few years, but is finally looking much cleaner. New public art has been installed, adding a little color to the beiges and grays all around. This is one of five such pieces, called The Five Creations (2022) by artist Angie Hiojos. The motifs depict traditional Aztec beliefs.
Nordstrom’s flagship store and headquarters across from Westlake Center still looks nice and clean after the renovation of its exterior, some years ago.
A sign of the times? Look up! and Look right! from texting on your phone! A scooter rider or cyclist might be careening towards you in the new bike lane.
The Washington State Convention Center is now called Arch | Seattle Convention Center.
Is the coin and stamp store still there? I wondered. Yes, but with only one employee, instead of the 4 or 5 that used to sit inside. You have to knock on the glass door to get in.
I thought for a moment to buy this First Day of Issue envelope featuring Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair (just $5) but didn’t. Maybe I’ll go back tomorrow and get it. 🙂
Here’s the Summit | Seattle Convention Center, nearing its final exterior form. This is the extension of what was called Washington State Convention Center, and what in now called Arch | Seattle Convention Center.
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Sunday/ at the bookstore 📙

I needed a bookstore ‘fix’ and so off I went to U District today.
I got a little wet while walking back in the rain from the Capitol Hill train station, but it was all well worth it.

A postcard in Magus Books in U District with two characters from the famous Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Inspector Lestrade is a determined but conventional Scotland Yard detective who consults Sherlock Holmes on many cases. Professor Moriarty is an evil mastermind, providing criminals with strategies for their exploits and sometimes even protection from the law, all in exchange for a fee or a cut of profit. That must be detective Sherlock Holmes himself, and Dr. Watson, in the main picture. 
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Monday/ happy Pride month 🌈

There is a nice new Pride flag on the Uncle Ike’s building on 15th Ave. here on Capitol Hill.

LGBT Pride is celebrated in June every year to coincide with the month in which the Stonewall Riots occurred (Jun 28, 1969 – Jul 3, 1969 in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood in New York City).

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Saturday/ the U District Street Fair is back

Here are a few scenes from the U District Street Fair, back this year after three-year hiatus because of Covid.

I had just exited the U District Light rail station, and rounded the corner of Brooklyn Ave NE and 45th Street. The red markings, for the newly designated bus lane on 45th Avenue, are a recent addition.
The Fair had the usual assortment of vendors selling art, clothing and trinkets (and soap for blowing bubbles). This is University Way NE (closed to traffic, of course).
The band was playing Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon. The singer delivered a decent interpretation of the lyrics of the 1975 song (written and originally sung by Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac’s lead vocalist). Nicks is said to have introduced the song in concerts by saying ‘This is a song about an old Welsh witch’.
The food trucks seemed to be very well supported, with some having lines of 20, 30 people. The sign in the window of this truck serving up Alaska weathervane scallops says ‘We are the Fishermen’.
Gyros and falafel on the left, and pirozhki across the street, the baked or fried boat-shaped buns with different kinds of fillings.
And here comes my south-bound train at U District station to take me two stops down to Capitol Hill station. Some 75% of the passengers still wear masks, and I was one of those. 
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Saturday/ apartments with art 🎨

I frequently drive by the newly completed Midtown apartments on (23rd Ave. in Central District) with its colorful exterior and artwork.
Today I checked it out a little closer, on foot.

The Midtown Square apartment building has 7 floors with 428 apartments, from studio ($1,800 pm) to 2-bed, 2-bath (about $3,200 pm). So expensive, as expected for a new development, I guess ⁠—although a 130 apartments are offered as affordable housing units through Seattle’s MFTE and MHA housing programs.
The images on the panels were created by photographer/ artist Adam Jabari Jefferson.
The entrance to the public square on the inside, from the Union Street sidewalk.
The colorful exterior panels on the corner of Union Street and 23rd Avenue.
The artist is Barry Johnson.
Public art on the Union Street/ 23rd Avenue corner. I couldn’t find the artist’s name.
I would like one of these for my backyard. Beautiful.
Central .. the first of a series of murals facing 23rd Avenue.
Edwin T. Pratt (1930 – 1969) was an American activist during the Civil Rights Movement. He was assassinated at his home in Shoreline, WA in Jan. 1969. At the time of his assassination in 1969, he was Executive Director of the Seattle Urban League. His murder is still unsolved.
DeCharlene Willians (1942-2018) was a legendary owner of a Central Area boutique, who also founded the Seattle neighborhood’s chamber of commerce. 
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.
District.. the second of a series of murals facing 23rd Avenue.
Langston Hughes (1901-1968) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. (The Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute is a cultural, community, and artistic center in the Central District). 
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.

 

Community .. the third mural facing 23rd Avenue.
Jimi Hendrix (1942-1970) was a musician, singer, and songwriter and a Seattle native.
Ernestine Anderson (1928-2016) was an American jazz and blues singer. Her family moved to Seattle when she was 16.
The artist is Central District native Myron Curry.
The entrance to the public square from 23rd Avenue. The lamp sconces feature performance and recording artists. The installation was made by Henry Jackson-Spieker in collaboration with KT Hancock studios.
I believe this is Duke Ellington (1899-1974), composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra for most of his life. He gained a national profile through his orchestra’s appearances at the Cotton Club in Harlem, New York City. Duke Ellington’s The 1952 Seattle Concert was his first legitimate live performance release.
The public square inside the apartment complex. The picture shows part of a 120-ft mural with historic scenes and lettering that says C E N T R A L  D I S T R I C T.
The artist is Takiyah Ward.
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Wednesday/ the Sounders make history

Seattle Sounders FC made history tonight by becoming the first Major League Soccer team (team from the United States or Canada, that is) to win a Concacaf* Champions League title.

*The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, founded in 1961, one of FIFA’s six continental governing bodies for association football (soccer).

The Sounders beat the Pumas UNAM (based in Mexico City) by 3-0 in front of a record home-crowd of 67,000 at Lumen Field.  The weather played along, as well:  a high of 65 °F/  18 °C today before it starts raining on and off for the next several days.

Seattle Sounders players celebrate after winning the CONCACAF Champions League title over the Pumas UNAM from Mexico City.
[Picture Credit: Getty Images]
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Saturday/ it’s not orange; it’s galaxy gold 💫

My mission for the afternoon was to get a few pictures of the Space Needle. It is again painted in galaxy gold for its 60th anniversary⁠— the way it had been for its debut at the Seattle World’s Fair in April 1962.
I even drove up Queen Anne Hill to Kerry Park, to get the classic skyline-with-Space Needle picture.

The Davenport Apartments building is posted here as a ‘Find the Space Needle’ puzzle. (Part of the Space Needle appears in the picture). The Davenport was designed by architect Herbert Bittman in 1925, and has an unusual courtyard entrance to its 14-car garage.

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Friday/ you look nice today

These pictures are from my walk back home from the Bartell pharmacy on First Hill.

This is Hofius House at 1104 Spring Street, First Hill. Designed by German-born architects Spalding and Umbrecht and constructed in 1902. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese began housing the Seattle Archbishop in this residence in 1920.
The Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church at Harvard and Howell held a last service in June 2018, and then closed its doors for good, it seems. The church was built just about 100 years ago, in 1923.
Hey! The tourists are back, even if just a handful. I waved at them. (Maybe I shouldn’t have. I could the city’s reputation for stand-offishness to neighbors and visitors alike, called ‘The Seattle Freeze’).
Spring leaves on the trees by Seattle Central College on Broadway.
I hate graffiti, but hey⁠— if the graffiti complements me, it makes it a little better. Maybe.
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Friday/ Earth Day 🌎

Mariette (looking at a picture of a tree) : What’s that?
‘K’ (the Blade Runner) : A tree.
Mariette : I’ve never seen a tree. It’s pretty.
– from the 2017 movie about a dystopian Earth, ‘Blade Runner 2049’

The Prez was here in Seattle today. He talked about legislation to help the U.S. Forest Service plant 1.2 billion trees on national forest lands.

These pansies (genus Viola) are in the flower beds by the greenhouse in Volunteer Park.
Here is President Biden, speaking in Seward Park.
Writes Katie Rogers for the NYT: ‘He unveiled a plan to restore national forests devastated by wildfires. He promoted a climate agenda that has largely gone unfulfilled.  .. The trip granted him a bit of a respite from Washington and returned him to the campaign-trail style of schmoozing that energizes him. In Seattle, Mr. Biden appeared before a group of big-ticket donors that included Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft.