The Space Needle and Oh Canada!

 Written on Sunday, posted today...

Off to see the Space Needle with Phyllis and Peter.  We did a better job of riding the bus and monorail this time (practice is everything!)  I will go on record as saying that Seattle has a lot of great things to offer, but I’m not sure it’s worth the traffic.

The Space Needle is bigger than life – at 605 feet, it is tall!

 The view of Mt. Ranier from atop the needle is wonderful.  Snow across the top peaks, it watches over Seattle.

 

 Here is a nice overview of the city and Mt. Ranier.

 

 On the other side of the Needle, the view is different, but still shows the tremendous population density and the vastness of the city and surrounding neighborhoods.

Tourists – of course!

 At this height, a seaplane is a lot closer.

 

In the area of the Space Needle, there is a Chihuly exhibition.  We didn’t pay the extra to go, as it was way past our dinner times by the time we left.  This piece was the “teaser” – almost worked!

On Saturday, Luke and I braved the traffic and drove to see the locks connecting the fresh water Lake Union to Puget Sound.  Even with GPS and a weekend, it was not a fun drive.  The locks were worth it, though.

Of course, we’ve taken Latitudes through locks on the Dismal Swamp Canal, so we were not as fascinated with the locks as the other attraction there – salmon fish ladders.  You get to go down below the water level into a dim room with big windows and see them pass up the ladder from underwater

And, there are the salmon!  They seem to frantically swim back and forth in the fast moving water, trying to up the courage, strength, and energy to make one of the jumps up the “ladder” to the next level.  They are absolutely amazing.

 

 Later we drove to the Fishermen’s  Terminal, the true work terminal where the salmon fishers bring in their catch.  A fish market is right there so you can buy salmon right off of the boats.  The fish ranged from $12 - $35/pound.  We bought a ½ pound of a medium priced fish for dinner tonight.  Luke grilled it, and it was great!  One of the local fishermen was getting his boat ready to leave for the "fishing grounds" - he struck up a conversation and we learned a lot more about salmon and Alaskan fishing than we knew before.

 The boats from the reality TV series “The Deadliest Catch” were there, preparing to leave for the summer fishing season.  Unfortunately, they were on the other side of the marina. But we did get some nice shots of fishing boats.  Here is a favorite.

 

Back to our park-like RV setting for one more evening.  A little green frog was hiding in the shallow of the pond.  Too cute!

Sunday we finally drove into Canada!  Glad to be here, but unfortunately, our phone plan does not include international data.  We are forced to find wifi (we are so spoiled, with our smart phone).  The office at our current RV Park does have free wifi and I will use it tomorrow morning to post this blog.  Not now --- it’s 10 pm (that is 1 am VA time …yawn…)