Category: Seattle

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Sunday/ a little architecture 🏙

I took the No 8 bus to Westlake Avenue and walked from there to the Amazon Spheres, and back up to Capitol Hill.

It’s cold and gray outside, but summery and light inside the Spheres. I am on Lenora Street, looking towards the northeast.
This art installation off Westlake Avenue is called Kilroy Star and was put up by commercial real estate agency Kilroy Realty in June. (The colors in the star cycle continuously through reds, greens and blues).
If my research on the mathematics of polyhedrons is accurate, this is a Kepler-Poinsot polyhedron. This one is called a small stellated dodecahedron. It consists of twelve pyramids with pentagonal bases that are mounted on the faces of a regular dodecahedron.
The Seattle architect Louis Svarz (1886-1976) designed this building on Lenora Street for the Puget Sound Notion Company, a wholesaler of notions (sewing accessories).
Its construction was completed in 1930. Today the building belongs to Cornish College of the Arts. (The 1914 date in the window is the founding year of the Cornish College).
The Omni South Lake Union (also known as 1120 Denny Way) with its two 41-story towers boasts 827 apartments and 272 hotel rooms. It opened in May 2022. s
The balconies on the Denny Way side offers a list of historical events and their dates.
I’ve made my way up Denny Way to the junction with Stewart Street. In the distance is REN Seattle, a high-rise apartment tower at 1400 Fairview Avenue.
To my right is the 1200 Stewart Street apartment towers that are still under construction after six whole years (construction started in 2018).
Here is the 1200 Stewart Street apartment complex. The construction of the towers is complete but it seems that there is still a lot of finishing work on the inside and outside that remains. If I can believe what I read on Redditt, there are plans afoot to suspend a repurposed Boeing 747 fuselage above the residential project’s galleria as a centerpiece and a symbol of industrial innovation— on view as a sensational artifact for both pedestrians at street level and for residents in their dwellings overhead. Hmm.
Here’s a closer look at one of the posters in the window.
On May 10, 1968 The Jimi Hendrix Experience performed two shows at the Fillmore East in New York City, with support from Sly & the Family Stone and the Joshua Light Show.
(Jimi Hendrix is James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix, an American guitarist, songwriter and singer. He is widely regarded as the greatest guitarist in the history of popular music and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was born in Seattle on Nov. 27, 1942 and died tragically young at the age of 27 in September 1970 – from Wikipedia).
I’ve now made my way across I-5 on the Denny Way overpass, and I always turn around on Melrose Avenue, to take a picture of the Space Needle wedged between the towers of 1120 Denny Way.
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Saturday/ squares ⬜

Here’s a sneak preview of the public art installation at the junction of 14th Avenue and Madison Street on Capitol Hill.
(Is it a time machine? Can I enter the big square and emerge four years into the future at the far end?).

Even though it’s only 5:20 pm in the picture, night has already cast its inky blacks.

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Friday/ indoor pickleball 🥒

Five amigos played a little pickle ball at the Sandman’s Courts in Columbia City.
It was 52 °F (11 °C) outside when we started— not too frigid for playing outside, but we have come to like the indoor courts with their clean lines and bathrooms right by the courts.

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Monday/ voter turnout is key ❎

Happy Monday. So here we are, with Election Day tomorrow.
About 50% of likely American voters have already cast their ballots. The rest will all vote tomorrow.
(New Hampshire, Alabama and Mississippi do not allow general early voting—an eligible reason is required to vote early, by mail).

Only about 2/3 of eligible American voters vote in presidential election years, and only about 1/2 in mid-term elections.
The turnout percentages have gotten bigger in recent cycles, though.

From pewresearch.org under a page heading ‘1. Voter turnout, 2018-2022’:
The elections of 2018, 2020 and 2022 were three of the highest-turnout U.S. elections of their respective types in decades.
About two-thirds (66%) of the voting-eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election – the highest rate for any national election since 1900. The 2018 election (49% turnout) had the highest rate for a midterm since 1914.
Even the 2022 election’s turnout, with a slightly lower rate of 46%, exceeded that of all midterm elections since 1970.

While sizable shares of the public vote either consistently or not at all, many people vote intermittently. Given how closely divided the U.S. is politically, these intermittent voters often determine the outcome of elections and how the balance of support for the two major political parties swings between elections.

Overall, 70% of U.S. adult citizens who were eligible to participate in all three elections between 2018 and 2022 voted in at least one of them, with about half that share (37%) voting in all three.

Public Service Announcement
Make sure you drop your ballot in an official ballot box. 😆
(Garbage can on Capitol Hill’s 15th Avenue East relabeled by graffiti sticker prankster).
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Sunday/ back to Standard Time 🌇

We set our clocks back one hour last night. Daylight Saving Time that had started in March, ended.
So all of the United States is now back on Standard Time, and the sun sets a whole hour earlier than it did on Saturday.

Hey! I made it to the Seattle waterfront this afternoon. I took the G Line bus down to 1st Avenue, and the light rail back, from Westlake to Capitol Hill station. 
This is 3.46 pm, and there is just an hour of sunlight left (sunset is now at 4.47 pm).
Here comes Marine Vessel Puyallup, arriving at the Seattle Ferry Terminal, in from Bainbridge Island.
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Sunday/ 19th Avenue 🌳

It rained for most of the day here in Seattle, but there was a break right before sunset (now at 5.58 pm).
The trees lining Capitol Hill’s 19th Avenue East still have most of their leaves.
Nice yard sign (also from 19th Avenue East).
No doubt: there are many millions of girls and women (and men) across the United States hoping that the country elects its first Madam President.

 

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Friday/ Halloween is coming 🦇

Happy Friday.
I was out and about in U-District as night was falling, and saw several people dressed up for Halloween parties.

Here comes my train, rolling into the U-District station.
As I settled in and looked around, I found myself sitting next to a mouse 🖱, a cow 🐮, a tiger 🐯 and a leopard🐆 in the train (young people in their Halloween costumes).
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Monday 🍂

Fall colors, and a scooter, on the corner of 16th Avenue East and Republican Street in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.

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Friday/ sunset 🌇

Happy Friday.
Sunset was at 6.27 pm today here in Seattle.

Looking west from 14th Avenue East and East Thomas Street, at 6.20 pm.
The setting sun is peering through the tree foliage. With the fall equinox here in the Northern hemisphere now long gone (at which time the sun set at due west), it will now appear to set further and further to the south every night— until the winter solstice in December.
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Thursday/ gold 🍂

It was a beautiful fall day here in Seattle (63° F / 17°C), with a blue sky and sun this afternoon.

This time of year there is gold in the leaves of the trees that line Martin Luther King Boulevard in Seattle’s Central District.
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Sunday 🍂

The leaves are turning, and the days are getting shorter.

On 17th Avenue here on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.
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Saturday/ a new waterfront park 🏙️

The new elevated Waterfront Park here in the city opened yesterday.
The park is on the central waterfront by downtown Seattle and connects Pike Place Market and  downtown neighborhoods with the waterfront.
A few public art installations and a concessions area are still to be added, by early 2025.

This picture is from Friday, and from the Seattle Times. People wait to take to the Overlook Walk before the grand opening on the Seattle waterfront.
[Photograph by Kevin Clark / The Seattle Times]
The view from the uppermost deck across from Pike Place Market today, and I am looking more or less south to the Seattle Ferry Terminal in the distance, on the left and behind the Ferris wheel.
There are several winding staircases down to the lowest level where the piers are. The blue building is the old part of the Seattle Aquarium, and the structure clad with the wooden slats outside is the new extension of the Aquarium.
Looking up from one the decks halfway down. The newly routed Alaskan Way and Elliot Way meet here. The elevated Alaskan Way viaduct that used to run along here is now long gone (demolished in 2019).
Looking north towards the Port of Seattle Cruise Terminal (Pier 66). The Norwegian Bliss is about to depart for Alaska.
In the foreground Palestinian flags are being waved by anti-war protesters. Some signs read ‘No War in Iran’, as well.
This structure houses the new pavilion of the Seattle Aquarium. The wood-clad outside is meant to weather to a gray color, I believe.
At the entrance to the aquarium, prospective visitors get a glimpse into one of the large tanks.
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Thursday/ on the RapidRide G Line 🚌

It was a spectacular fall day here in the city (a high of 65°F /18°C).
I made a quick stop at the dentist’s office on Olive Way, and then walked along Fifth Avenue to the Seattle Public Library.

The No 12 bus no longer runs along its old route up to Capitol Hill, and I hopped on the new RapidRide G Line stop by the library to get me to 17th Avenue and Madison.

Zooming in on a the upper section of the Seattle Public Library (on the right), using the 5x telephoto lens on my new phone.
This map posted by the bus stop at Fifth Avenue and Madison Street by the library shows thee ways to get Capitol Hill from downtown:
1. Maroon: the RapidRide G Line bus;
2. Green: the Link light Rail train;
3. Orange: Seattle Streetcar, First Hill Line.
Here comes the RapidRide G Line. The stop here has a side platform. Other stops are at a center platform. That’s why the buses for the G line have doors on both sides. I had a freebie ride: the Orca card reader at the front was out of service and the driver waved me to the back.
The stop at 12th Ave/ 13th Ave/ Union Street has a center platform.
‘Don’t run for buses, another will be here soon!’ says the electronic sign.
Down below the sandwich board says ‘Project Funded by President Joe Biden’s American Recovery Plan’.
The stop at 17th Avenue and Madison St by Trader Joe’s grocery store. Here comes a bus with another one on its heels, headed for the city.
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Tuesday/ sunset 🌇

I have a lot to learn when it comes to using my phone’s camera.
There is a plenitude of settings and defaults to choose from, and once the picture is taken, all kinds of adjustments can be made to the image that was captured.

Sunset was at 7.47 pm tonight.
I captured this image in Apple’s RAW format, which saves it as a .DNG (digital negative) image, size ’48 MP’ or 6048×8064 ‘pixels’. 
(Note: These are quad-pixels, really the equivalent of 12 MP when compared to my Canon digital camera).
I cropped the image to 9:16 in Adobe Photoshop, and reduced the pixel count to 1350×2400 to upload it to this blog.
It’s a perennial dilemma: how much processing to allow the camera (photo app software) to do by default, and how much to leave standard (‘RAW’) to keep all options open for manual adjustments before the picture is sent or posted somewhere?
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Friday/ beers at Chuck’s 🍻

Happy Friday.
The five amigos got together at Chuck’s Hop Shop in Central District for a beer and a bite to eat from the food truck outside.

I’m in line inside to procure a beverage from the 50 or so listed on the screens by the counter. The non-alcohol Bitburger pilsner they had last time was not listed tonight, and I got the ‘Ladd & Lass : *Fresh Hop* West Coast IPA’ instead, even though it has 6.5% alc/vol.
It was Friday night after all, so why not have a *real* beer? 
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Saturday/ a spectacular night sky 🔭

Summer is officially over.
The fall equinox here in the Northern Hemisphere is at Sun, Sep 22, 2024, 5:43 AM Pacific Time.

Here’s a gorgeous aurora borealis picture taken near Near Magnuson Park, Seattle around midnight or in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
[Posted by NWS Seattle @NWSSeattle at 1.35 am on Tuesday. I reduced the pixel size of the original picture]
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Thursday/ a walk in the city 🏙

I had business downtown and missed the No 10 bus on the way back.
Oh well, I thought, it’s such a beautiful day— let’s just walk back up to Capitol Hill.

Top to bottom:
The monorail station at Westlake Center.
The Summit Convention Center, the addition to the original Seattle Convention Center. (The Arch + Summit Convention Centers hosted 160 events in 2023, up from 114 in 2022, but still came in with an operating loss of $23 million for 2023).
Fall leaves at East Pike Street and Boren Avenue.
The Starbucks Roastery at East Pike Street and Melrose Avenue.
The pooch is wearing booties.
Beer truck from Ninkasi Brewing Company in Eugene, Oregon.
Korean Restaurant on Denny Way. (And now you know how to write Korean Restaurant in Korean!).
Hey! And here’s the Google Street View car at work. Maybe an image of me will make it onto the next update for Capitol Hill. 😆

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Sunday/ electrify your ride⚡

Three amigos went to the Electrify Expo 2024 here in Seattle today: an electric vehicle festival that visits different cities to showcase EVs of all kinds.

Visitors to the expo could look at, and drive, electric cars and trucks, and ride e-bikes, e-motorcycles, e-scooters and e-skateboards.

This Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum starts at $85,000. Range is 300 mile-range and horsepower is 580.
The 2025 BMW iX (it’s an SUV; ignore the camera angle), offers up to 324 miles per charge and up to 610 horsepower.
It’s going to gobble up $100,000 of your cash.
I believe this is a 2025 BMW i4 M50. I could not find this outrageous deep turquoise(?) color on the BMW website, though.  MSRP starts at about $70,000.
BMW X4 Sports Activity Coupe.
2024 Tesla Model Y Performance in quicksilver. Starts at $52,000; range is 279 miles and the electric motors put out 455 horsepower.
We’ve seen the Tesla Cybertruck before, but today we got to clamber into it and see what it’s like inside. The frunk (front trunk 😁 ) is open.
The Cybertruck Foundation Series All-Wheel Drive starts at $94,000. The tires on this beast are 33.5″ in diameter.
A view from the inside. The windshield is enormous, of course, as is the glass roof. The steering wheel and rear-view mirror are smaller than I guess I had expected them to be.
Here’s another Cybertruck, displayed by an enthusiastic private owner. (She owns this Cybertruck with its custom rainbow metallic wrap, a Tesla Model S Plaid, and a Tesla Model 3 Performance). She loves the truck’s steer-by-wire and its tight turning radius.
E-motorbike offering by BMW, the BMW CE 02. It goes about 55 miles on a full charge, and costs around $8,000.
Check out this Honda Motocompacto E-Scooter. This folding scooter weighs all of 42 pounds and can fit into the back of a conventional hatchback.
It tops out at 15 mph, with a 12-mile range, and riders over 265 pounds need not apply. Cost: about $1,000.
A souped up Tesla Model 3. I’m not sure what’s going on in the frunk!
Whoah— three Cybertrucks coming in from their test drives. The wait for a Cybertruck test drive was more than 2 hours. We were in line to take a Tesla Model X for a spin, but there was a little confusion and we ended up hopping into a Model S Plaid instead.
Lucid Air at the back (512 miles range), then left to right Tesla Model 3, Tesla Model S, Tesla Model Y.
Inside the Model S Plaid for a test drive.
(No, we did not do anything crazy such as trying out ludicrous mode*— just a little circuit around University Village. We had a Tesla representative in the passenger seat. He is actually a Tesla service technician at the Bellevue service center).
*A performance mode on Tesla vehicles that increases peak torque by about 60%, catapulting the car forward from 0 to 60 miles per hour in as little as 2.5 seconds.