July 4th was the Centennial of the opening of the Ballard Locks and the ship canal that connects Lake Union and Lake Washington to the Puget Sound. This was quite the engineering feat 100 years ago and it still gets significant vessel traffic due to the Fisherman’s Terminal for the Washington/Alaska fishing fleet as well as the dry docks, shipyards and of course many pleasure craft. The Fremont Bridge supposedly holds the record as the bridge in America that opens most often, as I’m sure many commuters will attest.
The lead boat in the parade
Today was an additional celebration with a historic boat parade to re-enact the original boat parade when the ship canal was first opened. There were more than forty historic craft taking part as well as a fire boat, tug boats and other assorted vessels.
The Virginia V proudly blew it’s whistle as it came past where I was sitting. This is part of the historic boat display on Lake Union near the MOHAI museum.
Lotus floating hotel
The Lotus which is normally a floating hotel in South Lake Union was also in the parade and I didn’t know it was still operational.
Lake Union Dreamboat
There were also a number of Lake Union Dreamboats in the parade – these were a unique design built in the mid-1920s at a shipyard in Lake Union.
‘Olive Oyl’
Our neighbors Bob and Cathy were out in their small wooden boat ‘Olive Oyl’ – and of course with their dog Stella.
The parade also included a small traditional canoe with some Native Americans who were singing loudly and very well.
There were also quite a number of other boat styles represented – but all looked very classy!
After our previous boating adventure we had all agreed to do another boat trip and we decided to charter a boat to travel on the Canal du Midi in France. The date was set and then Kate and Adam decided their wedding date and so it became a “Familymoon” for the newly weds (although they did manage a few days in Paris before joining us). Our neighbors, Mike and Patti also chartered a boat at the same time so it was quite a party trip.
We started at Narbonne and made our way to Trebbes along the Canal de la Robin, the Canal de jonction and finally along the Canal du Midi. This is a fascinating trip with a variety of medieval towns, small country villages and even some Roman ruins.
We traveled about 37 miles and traversed about 30 locks some of which were double locks and there were two triple locks. Our boat was quite comfortable with three cabins and heads and the much needed air conditioning as the weather was unseasonably hot for the time of year – around 95F most days!
Adam working the lines in the lock
Everyone got on splendidly and there was great teamwork in the locks. We dubbed Kate the “Lady of the Locks” and subsequently promoted her to be the “Queen of the locks” given how adept she was at catching the lines, placing them around a bollard and passing them back. She was also brilliant at working the automated locks in the first two canals.
After Kate helped us with our lines, she scurried around the other side of the lock to do the same for Mike and Patti, although at times Luke also jumped off to assist – including one time he grabbed the ladder in the lock and climbed up as we sailed by it earning him the name of “Ladder Luke”.
Adam and Grant were great handling the lines while the locks were filling and the team effort made the locks rather easy for us – other boats were having some difficulties entering, leaving or maintaining their positions during the lock operation.
Another brilliant meal together at the restaurant next to the lock in Trebbes.One of our favorite places to visit!
We had some fabulous meals and all appreciated the quality of French wines. We also enjoyed the early morning forays to the bakery or boulangerie to get the breakfast pastries – we became experts at Pain au chocolat!
We also had some unexpected treats – such as when Grant and Luke found “le Bar” – the only place open on a Sunday afternoon. This reminded us of some older hotels in Australia – it was hot, the noisy ceiling fans were doing their best to cool things down, the beer was cold and there was even a dog in the bar!
The ducks take their revenge!
We ate a lot of cheese, Grant of course went for the unusual and ordered frog’s legs and we all managed to eat a lot of canard. I think the ducks knew and they surrounded the boat when Adam went to take a walk!
Cooling off – Mike is immersed apart from trusty camera
Given how hot the weather was, we made a stop at one of the few places with a swimming hole (the canal was definitely not clean enough to enter the water and survive!) and we also had a great afternoon at the lake near Homps.
After we dropped the boat off in Trebbes we had one more day and evening together in Carcassonne.
This is a truly fabulous old medieval city with a very large restored castle. Our last evening here was memorable and then we all departed on the same train, although Alice and I were headed home, Grant and Luke were going to spend some time in Paris, and Kate and Adam were headed to Amsterdam after an evening in Paris.
It was another very memorable trip and now we’re already planning our next adventure together!
It has to be one of the greatest events for a Dad – the wedding of a daughter. I was no exception and the wedding weekend was an emotional and very happy occasion for everyone involved. Kate and Adam were looking very happy and very much in love the entire weekend and Grant and Luke arrived from Australia to join in the celebration.
Having the bridal party in Mission House and the rest of our family and friends in cabins at Chautauqua made it a very special time. Alice and Kate had a very special time getting ready on the morning of the wedding and I have to say it was a very memorable moment for me as well when I first saw Kate in her wedding dress.
The ceremony itself was very special with the signing of the Ketubah (I guess in times of old, Adam and I would have signed after first having negotiated how many cows and camels I would receive in exchange).
Then it was off to the outdoor ceremony under the Chuppah with the magnificent backdrop of the Flatirons.
After Adam successfully broke the glass with the accompanying “Mazel Tof”, it was off to the reception at the art-deco Boulder Theater.
After cocktail hour, Kate and Adam had their first dance, I welcomed the guests and made a toast, Adam responded and then it was time for food, drink and dancing.
One highlight was the Horah – Adam and Kate both managed to stay on the chairs, although we had strategically positioned Grant on one of Kate’s chair legs just in case!
During the evening, Adam and Kate managed to break away and climb onto the theater marquee for some photos.
We closed the theater down on the dance floor with the band sayin “Best. Wedding. Ever”. Such a great event and wonderful memories for us all.
We’ve had a truly remarkable weekend of fabulous weather. After a very long and wet winter, Spring continues to get better. This weekend we hosted our annual Spring Open Houseboat, which was well-attended and everyone had a good time mixing and talking and of course drinking and eating some delicacies from The Australian Pie Company in Burien.
After all of our guests had left, there was a wedding party taking photos on the dock. A police harbor patrol boat came along and put on quite a show with their water jet.
The Fremont markets were very busy which is not surprising given how wonderful the weather has been. At the market Alice saw a very cute bird feeder in the shape of a beaver. So now we have another beaver on the dock to keep Justin and his beaver family company. A small bird was checking it out very soon after I hung the feeder up. Very cool!
It’s been a great Spring weekend in the Center of the Universe – just in time for the opening weekend of the boating season. I managed to get out for a paddle on both days and also managed to stay upright on the paddle board, which I was proud of given the number of boats out and the number that still haven’t figured out that Lake Union is a no-wake zone.
Fremont is hopping today for the return of the Food Truck Rodeo. A large number of food trucks selling all sorts of cuisine including Salvadorean, Mexican, Afghan, Japanese, Hawaiian, BBQ, Indian and British. The longest line seemed to be for the street mini-donuts which surprised me.
The crowd was large outside the Fremont Mischief Distillery and Mike, Patti and their staff were kept busy keeping up with the people how wanted to have tastings.
Outside Mischief was very crowded
I keep thinking how lucky we are to live in such a fun location!
It’s that time of year again! The days are getting longer, the weather is warmer, birds are singing, trees are blooming and the Canadian geese are flying – it really must be Spring!
I’ve been out for a couple of kayaks already, but today was my first outing on the paddle board this season.
Absolutely great day for it – calm, sun peeking through clouds and I caught up with some people I know who were out on the water doing a 24-hour paddle to raise money for families fighting cancer.
On my previous kayak paddle I saw the Ice-cream Social Boat out as well as the old steam powered boat – with the “Sleepless in Seattle” floating home as a backdrop.
On the west coast, people head to Canada for different reasons – to visit Vancouver, to ski Whistler, for the cheap pharmaceuticals (so I’m told) or to escape US politics. However we made a run for the border for a very different reason – to buy some hot cross buns 🙂 Alice had heard about Cobs Bakery which is chain of bakery stores in Canada that are in some way related to Australia’s Baker’s Delight.
It’s getting towards Easter and that means that in addition to their usual fare of great breads, fruit buns and scones they had fresh-baked hot cross buns. Authentic versions of these are hard to find in the US so of course we had to make a run. We decided to make an overnight getaway of this and spent the night in White Rock, which is a small tourist town on the coast just across the border. As it’s still early Spring and the weather is still quite cold and wet, a number of the restaurants and little shops were closed. Still we managed to find a nice restaurant for dinner as well as a breakfast place so all good.
In addition to the buns and some fruit bread I also succumbed to buying some Cadbury Easter eggs, rabbits and chicks. After making our purchases, we made the return trip.
Going through the border crossing took some time and the CPB officer seemed a little skeptical that we only had some bread rolls but let us through all the same. We shared our treats with our neighbors on the dock, all of whom seemed to enjoy an early Easter gift.
For the first time this winter, we had snow in Fremont. We woke up to around one and half inches of snow and it continued snowing through most of the day – at times it was like “Colorado snowing”. Given we only experience this once or twice a year it was very cool and made all the more special as it was Alice’s birthday.
This made for a very pretty surroundings all done in white!
‘Alice’ seen through the trees on the Burke-Gilman trailThe footsteps on the dock are mine from my early morning visit to the gym 🙂
I had the pleasure of heading to Australia last week.
First stop was in Melbourne to explore a potential business opportunity. I hadn’t spent much time in Melbourne so I took advantage of getting in a day early to explore the city and get a feel for what it would be like to live there. I stayed in a nice hotel on the Yarra River with great views of the city.
I also managed to have my first beer back in Australia in a pub on the waterfront.
Next was a trip to Brisbane where I got to spend Australia Day with Grant and Luke – very cool! I also caught up with Peter and Nereis and the team from myDIALS – hard to believe it’s been ten years since Peter and I started that company!
I stayed in another nice hotel in Brisbane – this time on the Brisbane River with more great views.
Brisbane has grown up a lot since I went to University there, but it still has the feel of a large country town. I saw this old pub that had been updated as the “Koala House”, ironically now housing a Japanese restaurant!
The trip home was uneventful. I connected through Vancouver and it was made more special by flying over ‘Alice’ and Fremont on the short flight from Vancouver to Seattle.
Alice and I went to Las Vegas for Christmas and also spent my birthday there. We had a great time! In addition to taking in a couple of shows and having some great meals, we went for a horse ride through BLM land.
I also indulged with a little more horsepower, by racing a couple of cars around the Las Vegas Speedway. Great fun, starting with the Mercedes AMG GTS and then on to the McLaren 570S – a truly tremendous vehicle.
We had a very nice birthday dinner at the Bellagio overlooking the fountains and were entertained multiple times by the synchronized fountain, lights and music performance.
Alice also managed to make the return memorable as she had some neighbors decorate the “Waiting for the Interurban” statue in Fremont.
Here’s the team finishing up their decorating work!
The Virginia V proudly blew it’s whistle as it came past where I was sitting. This is part of the historic boat display on Lake Union near the MOHAI museum.
