Urban Weekend

We live in a rural area on the west side of Puget Sound where it’s 8 miles to the closest grocery store, for example. So much of our fun centers around the outdoors, friends and neighbors. This weekend we decided to take advantage of our daughter and son-in-law’s trip to Austria and stay in their home in Seattle to enjoy some urban activities.

It was a beautiful summer evening when we arrived by ferry in West Seattle, so we drove down Beach Drive to a favorite Mexican restaurant. It was Friday night and, as always when the sun comes out, Alki Beach was crowded.  We sat at an outdoor table and enjoyed watching the “date night” scene.

The next morning we returned to Alki Beach, this time by bicycle to work off some of the previous evening’s over-indulgence. It was even more crowded than normal.

We began to hear loud KA-BOOMs in the distance and then saw a landing craft with a crowd of men on deck, some firing canons and waving swords.

The landing craft came to the beach and immediately began to disgorge a large group of what appeared to be pirates.

OK, maybe we knew all along the Seafair Pirates would be landing that morning, kicking off the annual month-long celebration of all things Seattle for Seafair.

Seattleites do get into the pirate theme.

Some are less fierce than others.

Not clear how the pink unicorn fits the theme, but she certainly seemed to like it.

Seattle’s semi-finest were present.

Not all the pirates appeared as ferocious as the one who captured Cathryn.

Street musicians were everywhere.

But you don’t always find pole vaulters at the beach. The UW team apparently wanted to join the fun.  Amazing to watch people hurl themselves through the air like this!

Following the “invasion” and the ceremony surrendering the City to the pirates, we rode back to the house and had lunch before an afternoon activity.

Every 4th of July the Center for Wooden Boats at South Lake Union sponsors a free Wooden Boat Show.  We’ve attended several time over the years. In fact, an invitation to the Wooden Boat Show was the first date Bob asked Cathryn to go on.  She turned him down, but he persisted, and one thing led to another.

The newly completed South Lake Union Park has a small basin for sailing radio-controlled boats, and the new Museum of History and Industry is in the background.

This boat above is powered by electricity.

Talk about a lot of bright work!

Attendees were invited to vote for their favorite boat on exhibit, and the one below received our votes. If we were wanting to buy a boat, and money were no object, this wouldn’t be our choice, but the story completely won our hearts. Bob and Pat purchased “Miracle” 21 years ago, and she was in truly pathetic condition, with photos to document that fact. Bob spent 18 YEARS re-building this boat, and they gave us a tour of the inside. Every detail is well thought out for functionality, well-designed, and beautiful. She is now seaworthy, gorgeous and something of which they can be very proud. And she shines!

There were a number of hulls in this condition.

How would you like to have to keep this hull looking good?

Like glass.

All the boats on display were drop-dead gorgeous, but we think we’ll stick with fiberglass. Does that make us lazy?

It was a great day to be outdoors in Seattle, with sunshine, no humidity and 78 degrees. We felt very fortunate, as the rest of the country seems to be sweltering and literally on fire, or drowning in rain, humidity, heat and flood conditions.