20070128
The closest that Seattle comes to the concept of a normal "beach" is Alki. Alki is in West Seattle and must be accessed over the West Seattle Bridge. We decided to head over there to take a couple of shots of the city from what we hoped would be an unobstructed viewpoint. As it turned out, there was a sand barge in the center of the bay polluting the view of downtown. So, I did what any digital photographer would do -- crop it out of the shot. The photos below are what we saw.
The evening before our trip over to Alki, I got this shot of Alki from across Elliot Bay. The boardwalk area is visible as is the road that goes to the top of the ridge.
The daily delivery of 737 fuselage components to Boeing's Renton facility from Everett, WA via train.
Downtown shot from the West Seattle bridge at 60 mph. For this one, the convertible top was down and I held the Leica up and did a "point and pray".
These avians were waiting for dinner. I think these are cormorants.
A view of the north Belltown harbor area. Look closely and you will see "The Eagle" at the Olympic Sculpture Park on the left of the photo. Also visible is Pier 70.
The Cascades were visible between some of the downtown buildings. Note the seaplane on the horizon.
Kathleen in her Manhattan coat and Seattle hat. The offending barge is in the background.
Two folks in a kayak approaching a noisy set of sea lions camped out on a buoy. They were half way across Elliot Bay, but we could hear them easily since they make so much noise. The Seattle Aquarium is visible on the harbor front.
Alki provides access to the harbor for scuba divers. Here, this fellow and his buddy just came back to the surface.
Tons of folks over at the SAM OSP across the street. The crowds have just kept coming, forever changing the face of parking in the Belltown area (and not for the better).
The sunset was pretty nice. Here are three ferries doing their daily runs with Bainbridge Island in the distance.
I managed to get some geese on the wing right at the crux of the sunset. This was a good ending to a good day.
Alki is a nice place, but I am not sure that I would want to live there. I am sure that the commute there over the West Seattle Bridge would be a bear. Except for the water taxi and swimming, I think that the bridge is the only way to get to downtown from that side of the bay. We looked at condos there and found a really nice one (with "really nice" prices) but it was massive overkill for what Katheen and I needed. Plus, there was the bridge to content with, so we passed and "settled" in Belltown.