Category Archives: Pacific Northwest

What a Great View of the Sound!

The house at Bloedel Reserve sits up on the hill with the grounds landscaped to provide an unobstructed view down to the sound below. You can imagine the tranquility of sitting on the terrace in the evening, sipping a cocktail and looking out at the water. Unfortunately, at the time of our visit, a large barge was moored a short distance out in the water. I’m sure the view is beautiful but, with a barge plonked in the middle of things, somehow the delightful nature of the scene is a little compromised!

Why Travel North if the Aurora Comes to You?

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Icelandair painted one of their 757s in a scheme that portrays the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. It is named Hekla Aurora. It was painted a long time ago but, since they didn’t operate anywhere I lived, I hadn’t got to see it. Then I had my first sighting when landing at SeaTac when it was parked across the ramp as we taxied in. I certainly didn’t get a shot of it. Moving to Seattle meant I would have a chance to see it in action but that was dependent on it operating here on a day when I could actually be there. Turns out my luck was in – and it was sunny! (In fact it had been a crummy day but I had a feeling it would clear up and, while it was raining as I drove down, the sun came out on cue. Hurrah!)

Remains of Another Battery

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I mentioned our trip to Fort Ward in this blog post. The fort was designed to protect the harbor at Bremerton. Therefore, it would not be silly to assume that there had been some form of armaments here. Just like our explorations of the Marin headlands here and Baker Beach here, it turns out that there was a gunnery battery covering the entrance to the harbor. The guns are long gone but the concrete emplacements are still in place. The ground has clearly done its best to try and reacquire control of things. Doorways to lower levels are now partially filled in with earth with just the tops of the doors still showing above ground level.

Cormorants Lined Up for Inspection

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It’s been too long since we last had a cormorant on the blog. Time to rectify that. These are not action shots. Instead, as we walked along the shoreline on Bainbridge Island, there was a wooden beam out in the water. The cormorants were lined up waiting for me. I think they knew I didn’t have a long lens with me, otherwise they would probably have flown off. Instead, they were hanging out in the sun drying themselves. My choice was to shoot from along the beam or side on. I went with both!

Fort Ward

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Our Bainbridge trip included a bonus element. I had been advised how busy the ferries could be on nice summer weekends so we headed out early anticipating some long lines to get on the boat. We got to the terminal about an hour ahead of when we were planning to sail, bought our ticket, drove straight on to a boat and it sailed a minute later! This was a pleasant surprise. However, it did mean we were on the island a lot earlier than our planned first stop was open. We needed to kill some time.

Nancy did a quick search and came across a place called Fort Ward. We put that in the GPS and headed off. Fort Ward is an area of the coastline that used to be part of the protection of the approaches to Bremerton naval shipyards. It was given up by the military a long time ago and now sections of it are rather nice housing and more of it are a state park. In the early morning, walking along the shore through the park was a very pleasant way to spend some time.

Veterans’ Alaska 737 – Finally!

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Alaska Airlines has a number of jets in special colors. My efforts to finally get the merger jet were covered in this post. One of the other jets that I never managed to catch in California was their Tribute to Service aircraft that is honoring veterans. My friend Roger caught it a number of times but I was always in the wrong place.

Alaska is, despite the name, headquartered in Seattle so their jets are regularly rotating through SeaTac. Shortly after arriving here, I saw that this jet was coming in and, since I was nearby, I decided to see if it could finally catch it. Sure enough, I got it. I would also like to point out the sun and blue skies in this shot for those of you that think I have moved to somewhere where it only rains. It’s true that it does rain but not as much as you think so far!

Bloedel Reserve

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I’m always on the lookout for the place I might move to when I decide to lay off the whole sordid business of working for a living. We took a trip to Bainbridge Island which, if you asked Nancy, was a chance to check out some of our new area or, if you asked me, was a house hunting trip. The place I was looking at was called Bloedel Reserve. They may tell you that it is an estate that is now open to visitors but clearly they are keeping it ready for me. A nice little house with some delightful gardens.

The house is not necessarily my style but I’m sure I could find a way to make it work. The grounds do look like they might need a reasonable amount of effort. I suppose I could buy a little mower to ride around on but that does sound a bit like hard work. I suppose I could get some help. I wonder whether Nancy would like a little John Deere?

Seattle Skyline Zoomify

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On our boat ride back from Bainbridge Island, we were getting back to Seattle in the early evening. The light was not at its best but it was certainly becoming nice. While the boat was moving, if you were quick it was possible to shoot a series for a pano so that is what I did. The resulting pano is rather large. Therefore, the above image is a small excerpt but to zoom in and pan around, you can go to the Zoomify version of the shot below.

Portland Station

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I took a trip to Portland for work. Rather than drive, I took the train down. It wasn’t as quick but it was a far more relaxing way to travel. With wifi on the train and no need to pay attention to where we were going, I could get on with things or, occasionally I assure you, stare out of the window at the scenery. A lot of the journey was along the shoreline and it was very pretty. (They are building a more direct route to bypass some of this which will reduce the journey time but probably make it a lot less attractive.)

I arrived at Portland at the Amtrak station. It was a rather striking building. A lot of the older stations are more architecturally individual as they were built at a time when railways were competing for business. This one made me think of a European style. For some reason, it made me think of Germany. I can’t quite pin down why but there was something Germanic about the design.

I arrived in good weather but didn’t have time to get a shot. The following morning things were rather murky but, when I came back for my trip home, the skies had cleared and I grabbed a few shots. I rather like the message on the tower. Pretty clear what they are driving at!

Building But Not Delivering – The KC-46 Story

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The tale of the USAF’s quest for a new refueling tanker has been long and drawn out. People went to jail, awards were made and overturned. None of that matters now. The contract is with Boeing to produce a variant of the 767 as the KC-46 Pegasus. The program has not been smooth. Technical and production issues have caused delays. The in service date has slipped and Boeing has incurred a lot of overruns.

While all of this has been going on, the production process has not stopped. Consequently, while testing still continues, there are production airframes coming off the line. If you go to Boeing Field, there are a bunch of test airframes on the flight line. If you go to Paine Field, there are a bunch more that remain to be finished. It appears that Boeing is building the airframes, sealing them up, not fitting high value items like engines, and parking them wherever there is space. A few years ago, Paine Field was covered in undelivered 787s. Now it is as if time has turned back because the Dreamliner’s predecessor is the type parked all over the place.