February in Seattle

This Peregrine Falcon showed up hanging out on the condo building to the West one block away. He was around several days showing off. After he left we started spotting a Eagle flying by from North to South and then back to to the North. The Eagle continues to show up, spotted him again today.

Sunsets are spectacular anywhere USA but I am particularly fond of those over bodies of water. It's That Earth, Water, Sun thing: 

See http: //water.usgs.gov/edu/gallery/watercyclekids/pictures/sun-earth.html The Water is intimate with the Sun of course.

The Sun does not exactly rise in the East and Set in the West here, especially in the winter. It is more like rise in the South West and Set in the North West, in this case over the Olympics.

This Work boat put on a water show for about 45 minutes, guess he was testing out his water canon but it was Awesome.

The Cascades are a bit more elusive in the winter but occasionally we get a great view from our balcony.

Feburary brought snow to all the mountains in the region so The olympics and Cascades are much whiter now

An ever changing breathtaking view.

Here are some Puget Sound Sailors on a Blustery Feb. Day in Elliot Bay

We got another sail in on Lake Union between the February rains.

Freezing cold for 2 days.

Took pics of the overnight snow as we were leaving at 7am to go over to Get Drew to build a snowman.

He was ready to build his second snowbaby.

The balconies gave him a hint what his Mimi and GiGi were up to.

After the snowman we took a walk on the street to see more Snow!

There were several full sized snowmen or snowbears? built on the hillside at Seattle Center.

My sister from Austin Texas sent this. I do not think they feel the same way about the 2014 winter! This is Snow sport county up here and They finally have the snow they have been needing  to keep the resorts full.

Kale Ceasaar Salad, our favorite at the Armory in Seattle Center, but this time we celebrated the snow by adding the optional fried Chicken!

A cold walk to the Seattle Art Museun to see a special Miro Exhibit. You could not take pics but they had this cool interactive area where you could sit at a tablet and create your own...So this is our tribute to Miro!

One of the permanent exhibits at the SAM, This is is especially loved by Boomers!

Well of course!

On our way to pick up tickets for tomorrows trip to Blake Island we enjoyed this 

Third Thursday of every month, Best Damn Happy Hour at the Armory in Seattle Center. This one was packed, we had to wait an hour just to get a table.

Could be our new favorite at the Armory?

And the best part of February was getting to Eat Lunch and visit Google in Seattle where my Son in Law just started a new job. MY next life I will work at Google for sure! You can only imagine what the world would be like if every company treated there employees like Google. What would it be like if the company or agency you worked for gave you complete respect, trust and a license to be creative as possible in problem solving?

February in Seattle

The free ride was over, February brought the real Seattle Winter weather with above average rain and snow in the mountains. They actually said the word "Drought" on the evening TV weather news. Not even a thought now as all the mountain ranges surrounding Seattle has enough snow pack after this months weather to meet the regions water needs for the summer. The strange thing about this years winter given the extremes the rest of the US has experienced, Seattle has been the one of the best places to be, even our home state of Texas has had a unusually cold winter. I can count on 1 hand the number of times I have actually sweated since we moved up here. The benefit is you can do without body deodorant. This is impossible in Texas. No matter what the weather is though there are always things to do so you just put on your rain jacket and go do it. Last weekend we took a road trip to Whidbey Island in the rain with our daughter and grandson Drew while his dad went mountain hiking in the snow. Today I taught sailing in the rain and 40 degrees. Yesterday the Admiral and I took a boat over to Blake Island for the day, a Washington State Park and the boat was full for the trip with about 200 persons on a cold misty day.
I asked one of our neighbors when is Spring in Seattle, we had just had two sunny days with temps in the 50's to finish out February and I heard the word " Spring" on the news. He said it will sneak up, there will be few more "sun" days than gray days each month till May.
I have been trying to find a way to sail in Puget Sound and considered buying a small day sailor and just selling it when we leave. I found a better option in joining a sailing club at Shilshole Marina called Wind Works. I will post that one soon. But not a day goes by that I do not see at least one sailboat out sailing in every type of weather including heavy dense fog.I often wonder why they chose to be out in such conditions then I am reminded that each part of the Sound can have its own weather happening. Perhaps when they started out to Seattle the sun was shining or there was no fog in their area or they are crazy or since they sail year round up here they just take it all in stride.. Seattle definitely has several advantages due to the geography weatherwise of points North and points South.The Olympic Mountains cast a rain shadow over Seattle so both Tacoma to the South and Bellingham to the North get a lot more rain. Wind can get up anywhere in the area but the ferocious stuff either howls West through the Straight of Juan De Fuca through the southern San Juan Islands to Everett OR from the Northeast through the mighty funnel of the Fraser River Valley... From Wikipedia: "the Fraser exploits a topographic cleft between two mountain ranges separating a more continental climate (in this case, that of the British Columbia Interior) from a milder climate near the coast. When an Arctic high-pressure area moves into the British Columbia Interior and a relatively low-pressure area builds over the general Puget Sound and Strait of Georgia region, the cold Arctic air accelerates southwest through the Fraser Canyon. These outflow winds can gust up to 60 to 80 miles per hour (97 to 129 km/h) and have at times exceeded 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). Such winds frequently reach Bellingham and the San Juan Islands, gaining strength over the open water of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.^{[11]" These winds come down from Canada and smack Bellingham and the north San Juana Islands.}
One of the Seattle local weatherman explains it this way:  http://www.komonews.com/weather/faq/4348231.html
So If one ever thought about perhaps retiring to the Pacific Northwest or just moving up here for a change, you better do your weather homework. A friend, Johnny Huddleston  who was in the Navy and stationed on a base on the North end of Whidbey Island got to experience all of this. It is mainly just the higher elevations that get the snow around the Seattle area, 1000' elevation or higher. The "Lowlands get the rain and Seattle gets misty rain and fog due to the rain shadow. The land nearest Puget sound remains warmer than the surrounding area since the Sound maintains 45 degrees acting as a heater in the winter.
My next purchase will be to buy some waders, never owned any so I will have to do some research. When I volunteer at Cama Beach I will have to wade out into the shallows of Saratoga Passege to launch and retrieve boats.