Category: Seattle

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Friday ☀️

Happy Friday.
It was a lovely spring day around the city.
Everyone seemed to be out on the streets.
I colorized the photo that I took while I was stuck at the University Bridge while it was opened to ship canal traffic.
Look for the little float plane up in the air.

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Wednesday/ a cleaner downtown 🏙️

I was in Seattle downtown yesterday, and took a few pictures.
There is still a surprising number of empty storefronts along 4th and 5th Avenue, but at least the streets are clean (of trash), which is great.

There’s a giant heron on the wall in this parking lot off 6th Avenue.
McGraw Square, the downtown stop and terminal station for the South Lake Union Streetcar.
The big Bartell drug store on the corner of the Medical Dental Building on the left has closed down, and there is nothing in its place.
There goes the monorail train, on its way to the Space Needle.
Boarded-up storefronts all along 5th Avenue. The GAP clothing store on the corner behind me is long gone (now occupied by a Ben Bridges watch and jewelry store), as is the Banana Republic clothing store on the far corner ahead of me.
Built in 1973, the 19-story Hilton Motif Seattle holds more than 250,000 square feet, including 36,000 square feet of event space. Originally a Red Lion hotel, the property’s branding and ownership has changed multiple times over the last decade.
[Source: bizjournals.com]
Close by, are the 1977 Rainier Tower (far) and the 2020 Rainier Square Tower. Presumably the Ranier Square Tower has been mostly filled up with residents, but the PCC grocery store in its basement closed down in January, less than two year after opening.
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Monday/ pinks and blues 🌞

Here is a view of the pastel colors out east, and the setting sun reflecting off the buildings in downtown Bellevue.
I am on 17th Avenue on Seattle’s Capitol Hill.

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Saturday/ sunset 🌇

We had more sun today, with the highs of the day bumping up to 71 °F (22 °C).
There was a party going at the entrance of the flagship REI store this morning, (camping gear and outdoors equipment), celebrating the imminent start of spring.

Here’s 18th Avenue E on Capitol Hill.
It’s 6.43 pm, and there is still some 30 minutes of sun left in the day.
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Wednesday/ twilight ✨

There was sun today, but it does not feel like spring yet here in the city.
It was only 47 °F (8 °C) as I went for a quick walk after dinner.

Sunset is now at 7.13 pm.
I am standing on my usual spot at 14th Avenue East and East Thomas Street.
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Sunday/ a U-district run 🚉

It was time for a U-district/ bookstore run this afternoon, and off I went to Capitol Hill light rail station.

The 13-story University of Washington office block building on top of the U-district light rail station is taking shape.
On the street below, first responders were picking up someone that had experienced a crisis of some kind.
A nod to the Year of the Dragon in the UW bookstore’s window.
The luxury student apartment building (on the right) called The Standard is complete.
It has studios, one, two and three bedroom apartments.
Students can double up in the bedrooms.
Even so, the cheapest that the rent per student will come to is $1,200 to $1,300 per month. The studio apartments would actually be the most expensive, at some $2,400 per month for the renter.
A closer look at the artwork on the side of the building.
It was another gray winter day here, but bright storefronts and mural art helps to lift the spirits.
I always try to stop at Magus Books, the second-hand bookstore.
The cart has some John Updike books (Odd Jobs, Picked-up Pieces) but I didn’t pick one up. Maybe I should have.
Updike’s writing career started early. At Harvard he soon became well known among his classmates as a talented and prolific contributor to The Harvard Lampoon, of which he was president. [From Wikipedia]
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Friday/ at the carwash 🧽

Happy Friday.
A clean car is a happy car.

At the Brown Bear Car Wash on Leary Way in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood.
All washed and dried. All that remains is to suck up the dust and debris inside (from Wednesday’s recycle run) with the giant vacuum cleaner.
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Monday/ on the ferry ⛴

I took these pictures from the Tacoma ferry today, during her 2.05 pm crossing from Bainbridge Island to Seattle.

Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) at the Bainbridge ferry terminal.
Here we go .. departure from the Bainbridge ferry terminal on the Marine Vessel Tacoma. Her maiden voyage was in October 1997.
Plying the waters of Puget Sound on the way to Colman Dock, also called Pier 52, the primary ferry terminal in Seattle.
Here’s the Marine Vessel Suquamish, the other ferry servicing the Seattle-Bainbridge Island route. She started service in 2018 and is Washington State’s newest ferry, capable of carrying 144 cars and 1,500 passengers.
The first of five new hybrid ferries was supposed to roll off the line in 2022, but the contract with long-time ferry builder Vigor, previously Todd Shipyard, fell through. Why? The bid to build the boats was double what the state had expected. The ferry system is now about to put out the bid for these five vessels again, but it will be at least 4 years before any new ferry will go into service.
[Reported by Chris Sullivan on mynorthwest.com]
The Seattle city skyline, in shades of gray.
The Brant geese (Branta bernicla) skimming the waters of Puget Sound are migratory birds that spend winters in lower latitudes such as the Pacific Northwest, and nest in summer in the high Arctic (the north of Canada).
The new pedestrian bridge to Colman Dock looks great. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will stay graffiti-free the way it is right now.
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Monday/ a very mild day 🌥

The 62 °F (16 °C) high of today here in the city was the highest recorded so far for January 29.
Maybe there will be several such days in a row, fifty Januaries from now.

Here’s 4.40 pm at Republican and 11th Avenue. I’m walking down to the QFC grocery store on Broadway. I was so focused on the new construction that had mushroomed up from the ground during the time I was away, that I hardly noticed the new white Ford F-150 Lightning parked across it. (I was also in a hurry, knowing sunset is at 5 pm, and not wanting to walk back in the dark. Maybe I will go look for the Ford again tomorrow).
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Tuesday/ glacier white 🗻

I marched down to Capitol Hill Library at sunset (now 4.30 pm, as the days are slowly getting longer) to return a book. There was a little rain on the way back.

At Republican Steet and 15th Avenue I spotted a Rivian truck (model R1T, it’s fully electric). As the light turned green, I pretended to take a picture of the Uncle Ike’s storefront and hey! there’s the truck in my picture.
The official name of the color is glacier white.

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New Year’s Day 🎇

There was fog around the top of the Space Needle at midnight, just as the fireworks display started.

Fog drifts towards the Space Needle before the fireworks display begins during the New Year’s Eve celebration.

[caption from The Seattle Times, photograph by Karen Ducey / The Seattle Times]

Drones light up the sky around the Space Needle before midnight during the New Year’s Eve celebration in Seattle.

[caption from The Seattle Times, photograph by Karen Ducey / The Seattle Times]

Fireworks illuminate the foggy skies and smoke surrounding the Space Needle, as seen from Kerry Park during the New Year’s Eve celebration.

[caption from The Seattle Times, photograph by Karen Ducey / The Seattle Times]