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| Typical October Sunset as the fronts start up again. |
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| After Drew's Spanish class we drove the short distance down the hill to Lake Washington Blvd. Park. |
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| Great spot to anchor out ini this cove. |
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| Looking toward Hwy. 90 and the floating bridge, Northeast to Bellevue. That is Mercer Island to the right. |
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| Bellevue, a Whole different city |
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| Another sunny but cool Seattle day. |
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| To the South Mount Rainier is out today, just a different view over Lake Washington. |
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| Even though Rainier looks close, it is pretty far away. |
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| Super clear water. |
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| We stopped over at Fisherman's Terminal to get some Salmon to grill. |
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| I have been wanting to check out this shop for a long time. It is just what I Imagined, every possible chart to sail the world. |
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| The advantage of taking walks along the waterfront. |
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| This young Harbor Seal was in Bell Harbor. |
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| The sunsets continue to be Interesting all month long. |
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We finally scheduled a Salmon fishing trip on a charter boat out of Edmons, WA and got there a day early to see the area.
Another huge Marina there and this guy has a whole new concept for a cockpit enclosure. Notice he is relaxing in the Hammock on the foredeck. |
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| We just saw another young Harbor seal. |
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| Choose your weapon. |
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| Pretty foggy just outside the breakwater. |
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| This sailboat has a very creative way to keep the birds and other critters off. |
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| Heck, I do not even want to board |
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| Departing the Port of Edmonds |
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We fished the South end of Whidbey Island where the Admiralty Inlet
and the Saratoga Passage meet to form a fishing Haven. |
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| Bait fish Balls were occurring in record numbers in Puget Sound, they were all around us all the time. |
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| 1st Mate stands ready on the bow to scoop up plenty of Herring bait fish |
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| The Gulls feed till the las moment. |
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| Several pounds of small herring eventually fill two Home depot buckets. |
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| We see these Bail balls all day long all around us. The Captain says it is the most ever he has seen in the sound in 30 years of charter fishing. |
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| Of course I would see a 37' Lord Nelson vVctory Tug fishing. |
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| The Admiral has already almost landed two huge salmon. |
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| It is hard to describe these huge 120' tugs working the area. |
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| We drifted into a "shallow area" of just under 60' so I landed this Flounder since my bait dragged on the bottom. |
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| Gotta keep the bait moving. |
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| You stay there and I will stay here. |
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I attended a Solar Power workshop hosted by the Seattle city electric company. It is amazing that a city in one of the lowest sunlight regions of the U.S. is aggressively promoting singly family home solar power systems. Why are they doing this? Because due to climate change they are losing their primary power generation: Hydro power from all of their electric generating damns on the rivers coming down from the Cascade mountain range. due to low snow pack in the winters they are losing their year round source of hydro power. Due to incentives offered by the power company and lower cost of solar power technology you now see solar panels installed on at least one home on every city block in Seattle and growing fast. We personally have enjoyed some of the lowest electric rates in the nation due to Hydro powered electric generation, our monthly bills have been $17-$30 a month, the higher bills in the winter due to occasionally using a space heater.
http://www.seattle.gov/light/solarenergy/ |
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| We spent two weeks in Texas to take care of Texas stuff. Thank God for Texas Mexican Food. |
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| We had time while we were in Austin to go see a movie, "A Walk in the Woods" Incredible we were the only one in the theater!, I guess movie theaters will soon turn to dust as all the other movie viewing choices contribute to their demise. |
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| It was supposed to be October in Corpus Christi. But The daily tempertures were over 95 degrees and humidity over 80. I had to get up by sunrise to start working on the boat. I could do about 5 hours out in the heat before I succumbed due to being acclimated to Seattle Temps. |
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| But the Sunrise was nice to see. |
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| I then had to wait for the morning dew to dry before starting my waxing of the deck and topsides. |
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| A complete Surprise. My incredible Canyon Lake friends Bob and Barb who frequent Rockport just happened to be in Corpus and thought they spied me on the boat, We hooked up for an amazing reunion for dinner, lots of old and new stories. Look forward to seeing them both soon again! |
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| A corpus friend sent me this picture of a Wooden Boat festival held in Rockport, very cool. |
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| Our oldest Granddaughter has now earned her drivers License. Austin streets are actually much safer! |
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| Back in Seattle we take a walk along the hike and bike trail along the waterfront and discover a small piece of dock has floated up on the beach. Maybe we could use this as a mooring if we bring Wand'rin Star up here? |
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| Late October is very fall like now. |
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Russell bought us tickets to the Friendly between the 2015 Women's US World Cup Champions and Brazil
See the Supporter Parade: https://youtu.be/IiNw3IFrgpc.
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| Incredible match at Century Link Stadium resulting in a 1-1 tie. |
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| The Puget Sound views are the best from here. |
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| What goes down has to go back up. |
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| The Admiral questions a Birder, looks like we might be returning for a birding tour. |
October in Seattle 2015 + Texas
Fall weather arrived about three weeks Islan late in Seattle but at least the temps were now back down with highs in the 70's. Big "D" is taking Spanish near a Lake Washington Location so we took the opportunity to visit one of the city Parks on the South Western shore. This area is blessed with lots of city, state and national parks, all of them that we have visited in the Seattle area give credence to Seattle being known as the Emerald City.
I have also been hanging on to a couple of Groupons bought several months ago in anticipation of going on a Salmon fishing charter trip out of Edmonds, just a short drive North of Seattle. The Salmon fishing season nears an end in October so we Had to make time for the trip. finally the Admiral agreed on a date and instead of getting up at 4 am to be on the dock in Edmonds by 6 am we decided to drive up the day before and stay at aacht Charters and hotel across the street from the Marina. We spent the afternoon walking about the huge marina and driving a short distance to one of the top ten places to visit in Edmonds. Unfortunately Meadowlands Beach Park was closed for the season so we just returned to the hotel to relax and be ready to get up pearly to go fishing. One thing was obvious though, Edmonds seems to be both a bedroom/commuter community of Seattle and a retirement community.
We managed to show up on time at All Season Yacht Charters and after a short check in time and getting our one day fishing license about 12 of us were led down to the docks to Board the 50' "Annie A". After a short safety briefing by Captain Mike we slowly motored out into the morning fog North towered Whidby Island. Evidently the currents that flow around the southern point of Whidby Island creat through Admiralty Inlet to the West and the Saratoga Passage to the East of Whidby create a prime spot for Salmon fishing.
Captain Mike explained that there were record numbers of Bait Balls in the Sound, the most he has ever seen in over 30 years of fishing this area. "
A bait ball, or baitball, occurs when small fish swarm in a tightly packed spherical formation about a common center. It is a last-ditch defensive measure adopted by small schooling fish when they are threatened by predators. Small schooling fish are eaten by many types of predators, and for this reason they are called bait fish or forage fish." see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait_ball Twice during the trip Captain Mike zoomed right up to a bait ball, which are easy to find since the gulls and other seabirds are in a feeding frenzy wherever they are,
The Crew EJ would would a long pole net and scoop up lots of Herring bait fish which provided all us plenty of live bait for the trip. We saw all kinds of wildlife including Gray Whales breaching and blowing! Between the 12 of us fishing only a about six Salmon were actually landed and a few other fish like Dog fish Shark, and Flounder. The trip was way worth the experience catching fish or not.
Then we took of for Texas. We spent a few days in Austin and since I had to fast for a visit to our doctor, we zoomed straight to Amaya's after the appointment to get some real Mexican food! We caught up on Family and then I drove to Corpus to do some fall maintenance as the Admiral drove up to Ft. Worth to help her dad with a few projects.
Is was supposed to be October in Texas but instead it was still early September with temps 97+ and 80%+ humidity. Cleaning and waxing in the heat after living in Seattle for two years was tough, I could only last about 5 hours in the heat before going below where our two AC units have been running nonstop. I did get it done though in the 5 days I had and since I planned to return in November I already formulated a to do list. Joe has been doing an excellent job of looking after Wand'rin Star and since his boat is just two slips away he can check on her easy and often. Also our boat neighbors Randy and Wendy walk by her several times a day so she is well seen after.
We celebrated the end of October by returning to Discovery Park and hiking down to the West Point Light house. If you want some of the best Puget Sound vies this is the place. The trial down from the very high bluff overlooking the Sound down to the beach can't be beat for a great Washington State Hike just a few minutes drive from Downtown Seattle. The hike is about two hours but just remember what goes down has to come back up!
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