March in Seattle

Sometimes on my trip across the Ballard Bridge to Shillshole Marina you gotta wait for a vessel passing through the Lake Washington ship Channel.

Even though March was the wettest ever in Seattle I still was able to get out on Puget sound about 10 times.

The Long Nights are over, it used to be dark at 6pm.

We went over to Celebrate Ivar's Birthday, the Admiral had salmon and I had Halibut.

Local Artist use the area condo buildings to showcase their work. So you often get opportunities for Wine and Art Greet and Meets. Here is the Artist with the Admiral. His work is featured in the lobby and all the common areas. 

No Fog here in Seattle but the Harbors on Bainbridge Island were socked in, to the left is Eagle Harbor and to the right is Port Madison

Like a lot of the area venues that sell memberships, the family membership includes Grandparents so we get in free to the Seattle Art Museum events and at special showings for members.

Results of the Dale Chihuly's Pilchuck glass School

Not Glass but this one had everyone thinking talking.

Our Daughter treated us to a day at the Spa, I started right out with the Jacuzzi on the deck overlooking the Sound and the Olympics

The Admiral started in the Gym but soon found me

Cool Air, Hot massaging water, and a great view

We want to take the Ferry over from West Seattle to Vashon Island some day so we drove to the West shore of West Seattle to find the Ferry Landing.

The Pacific Science Center is becoming a playground for Drew, at 7 months he is old enough to enjoy a lot of their interactive exhibits and it is just two blocks away.

This was King of sobering. King County is the most populated in Washington but it is just one of thousands of Metropolitan regions around the US. Texas has a least 5 metro ares this big or larger.

The condo was doing the annual emergency power Generator test, very loud.

The top one is the exhaust pipe from the huge diesel engine. It would be weird if the hundreds of buildings in the central city had to run their generators for power.

Surf Scooters at first I thought we might have spotted some Puffins.

Always a new perspective.

With all the rain in March there was always an interesting sunset on the days the sun was actually visible.

This one from Shillshole with the Olympics in the background was the Best! 

March in Seattle

When you come from Central Texas where you have long Summers, a few days of fall, short winters and a 3-4 days of spring. March is when you realize there are actually 4 distinct seasons that you read about in the story books as a kid. We had the end of summer here, a nice DRY fall in Seattle and even a dry and mild start to winter in Seattle. The legendary wet stuff started in February and continued through March. The difference in March though was a rise in the High daily temps and the trees started blooming everywhere. March brought highs into the low 50.s, until then the 40's was our new warm weather.
I was determined to take every advantage I could to get out on a boat anyway I could on Puget Sound and start learning how to sail in these waters of  big tides and currents, dead heads floating about and rock instead of sand or mud. I took advantage of all the activities of Windshare Sailing to learn from Captain Bill ("Curly"), and the other members wherever possible. On one night Sail in driving rain with Captain Curly I learned the stuff these men and women are made of. These people had a great time sailing off into the dark of Puget sound in the heaviest rain I have seen since moving here. By the time we made it back to the dock I was soaked in spite of having a full set of foulies on, it did inspire me to buy some rubber boots to add to the arsenal. It turned out March 2014 was the wettest ever in recorded history for Seattle.
The second best thing we did in March was take a tour of Mt.Rainier. Hopefully we will visit one more time before we leave Seattle the weather has already started hitting the 60's since it is April so I am sure we will not need special tires or chains to make the trip. Baby Drew finally got enough vaccinations into his body that we could actually start taking him around a bit so we enjoyed the Sound Bridge at the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Aquarium, and Seattle Art Museum. This boy loves getting out and seeing the world, my kind of grandchild!