Category: Seattle

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Wednesday 🌇

Sunset is now at 4.21 pm.

Looking out west from my usual perch on the corner of 14th Avenue East and Thomas Street. This is 4 pm, on the nose. The sun made a brief appearance before the clouds obscured it again. Its setting appears further to the south on the horizon this time of year (to the left, outside of the picture frame). 
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Tuesday/ a lot of gray 🌥

The rainy weather has stopped, and the forecast for the next week or so can be described as ‘morning fog, and partly sunny the rest of the day’.
The lows will be mid- to high 30s (3 °C) and the highs 46°F (8 °C) or so.

Looking south along 19th Avenue East by Stevens Elementary School, just as the light was fading today.
(Stevens Elementary School was on a list of schools to be closed, but Seattle Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones announced just yesterday that he and the school board will no longer pursue school closures and consolidations to solve the Seattle school district’s multi-million dollar budget shortfall.)
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Tuesday/ going home 🛫

The time came to bid Beantown goodbye on Tuesday afternoon, and fly back to the Pacific Northwest.
There was a rainstorm with strong winds as we made our final approach into SeaTac Airport, which made for a rough landing, but once we started taxiing on the runway, everything was OK.

Pictures:
Looking up while waiting for my Uber driver on Main Street across from the MIT campus in Cambridge; in Uber car in the Ted Williams Tunnel again; at the gate at Boston Logan airport (dry and calm); arriving at the gate at Seattle-Tacoma airport (wet and stormy); restaurant PF Chang’s dragon at Seattle-Tacoma airport’s North Terminal.

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Friday/ arrival into Boston 🛬

It was a direct flight to Boston, just over 5 hours of flying.

At Boston Logan airport, the Silver Line bus took me to South Station on the MTBA’s* Red Line. I went four stops to Central Station, close enough to walk to my hotel.

*Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

Departing for Boston from Seattle-Tacoma airport’s North Terminal.
A little bit of New England coastline— a minute or two before touchdown at Boston’s Logan international airport. That’s a water tower in the middle of the picture, and in the far right in the shallow waters are five barriers called The Five Sisters.
On the Sliver Line bus now (using Google Maps to make sure I go more or less in the right direction!). We are 1. on Interstate 90, the interstate highway that runs across the northern United States and into Seattle, 2. in the Ted Williams Tunnel running under the waterway called Boston Main Channel in Boston harbor.
The Ted Williams Tunnel (TWT) was the first major link constructed as part of Boston’s Big Dig. When the TWT opened in 1995 it was only available to authorized commercial traffic. Later, non-commercial traffic was allowed to access the tunnel on weekends and holidays. In 2003, with the substantial completion of the I-90 portion of the Big Dig, the tunnel was opened to all traffic at all times.
[Source: Wikipedia]
Inside the Sliver Line bus, in the Ted Williams Tunnel under Boston Harbor.
At South Station. Here comes the Red Line train. These trains have been running a long, long time. The downtown portions of what are now the Green, Orange, Blue, and Red line tunnels and rails were all in service by 1912.
The sun sets early, as it does in Seattle: at 4.20 pm here. There was just enough light left for me to walk to the hotel from Central station. This cute hole-in-the-wall place is on River Street in Cambridge.
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Wednesday/ mushrooms 🍄

Herewith the 2024 fall edition of the mushrooms in my yard.

These are in the grass in the front yard: the Scotch bonnet (Marasmius oreades), also known as the fairy ring mushroom or fairy ring champignon.
The bright red fly agarics (Amanita muscaria) are not so plentiful this year. About six inches across, this one.
The squirrels like to nibble on the cap, but not much more than that.
I believe these are brown fly agarics (Amanita regalis).

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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.