Tag Archives: new

Bothell’s New Fire Station

One of the routes that I take when riding my bike takes me through the center of Bothell – a town next to ours.  I would ride past the old fire station but hadn’t been on the route for a while.  There had been a sign saying a new fire station was going to be built and, when I recently rode by, not only was it finished but there was a sign outside saying that they were planning to have an open house to celebrate the opening.  I figured this might be interesting.

The open house was scheduled for a Saturday morning so was not going to be a long event but that didn’t deter people from showing up.  There were plenty of people there when I arrived – indeed some were already leaving having got there earlier.  As I stayed around, it got a lot busier.  So many people came to have a look around.  Many of them brought their kids along to see the station but I suspect the kids were less interested than the parents were.

The appliances were on display in the main open space of the station with fire trucks, ambulances and assorted support vehicles for people to climb all over.  These were of interest to me but I was almost more interested in the stuff around them.  Storage for the equipment, venting pipes for the vehicle exhausts so they could run indoors, things like that.  The one thing that they didn’t have was a pole!  I guess those are no longer a standard of fire stations!

There was much more to the station to see, though.  You were able to walk throughout the building and, while there were some tours explaining everything to people, I was happier going at my own speed and avoiding the worst of the congestion.  The operations space where they could control the delivery of whatever services were needed was pretty compact but efficient.  It was alongside a selection of offices for some of the leadership.  Across from that was a gym where the crews could work out if they wanted.

Heading upstairs and we got to the more domestic side of things.  There was a large kitchen and dining area.  Large cooking surfaces with big skillets were a sign of what feeding a shift involves.  There were multiple refrigerators along one wall with each labeled for the shift that utilized it.  I wonder whether there are ever issues with one shift pinching food from another!  Next to that was a TV room with big recliners arrayed around the TV – each on embroidered with the logo of the fire station.  This logo showed up in various places.

Next was the accommodation space.  There were bunk rooms available for the crews to use.  I understood that they would be on watch for long periods so could eat, relax, sleep, shower and work out while they were not required for operations.  The bunk rooms were compact and basic but looked like they would do the job nicely.

It was interesting to see what a modern fire station involves.  I hadn’t really given it much thought before and seeing the layout gave me a new appreciation for what the crews’ lives can be like.  The new building was clearly a nice upgrade for the facility and it was functional but not unattractive.  They even had some sculpture work outside.  A lot of effort went in to putting the place together.  I hope they find it beneficial.

New Mukilteo Terminal

Washington State Ferries have opened their first new terminal in 40 years.  Calling it a new terminal is a bit deceptive – it is a replacement for an existing terminal – but it is definitely a new place for the ferries to come in.  It is the new Mukilteo terminal and it is located about a third of a mile from the previous terminal.  That one was right at the end of Mukilteo Speedway next to the lighthouse.  The new location is east along the shore near the old Air Force tank farm location.

The construction has been underway for a while and the switch over happened on December 29, 2020.  The ferries didn’t run for much of that day as they moved some key equipment across from the old location.  Additionally, the crews took the opportunity to get practice with berthing in the new facility.  The transition was done ahead of the holiday to make sure that the surge in traffic over New Year wasn’t affected.

I took a walk along the shore on two days later to see what it all looked like.  The weather was hardly delightful but it was December in the Pacific Northwest so no great shock there.  Additionally, not everything was complete.  The main facilities are open but they have yet to install the passenger footbridge.  That will go in around February/March time.  For now, passenger walk across the road access (not while cars are there, of course!).

That also means some of the construction equipment is still in place.  A large floating crane is still there and will be, I assume, until the footbridge is completed.  They are also tidying up some of the other elements but they should be done pretty soon.

There is a new toll plaza on the entrance to the holding lots.  I didn’t go up to take a look at that but I did get some photos from a distance.  The demand for service was really high on this day with everyone heading home for their New Year celebrations.  Despite the large holding lanes, it was full and traffic was waiting beyond the plaza and up the hill.

The main building is a really elegant structure.  Lots of wood construction and styled on a native long house, it contains an information center, a ticket office and some other facilities.  There is lots of native art decorating it both inside and out including a cool boat hanging from the roof.  The building is elevated over the road access.  The ramp for loading comes straight in to the shore and leads directly under the building.  It means you have a nice elevated view of the boats as the come and go.

There is a waterfront trail that runs from up near the lighthouse to a park further to the east so you can walk along the shore to see the facilities and watch the boats.  Near the terminal, there are many information boards giving some history of the region and these are quite educational.  On a sunnier day, I can imagine there will be plenty of people enjoying this part of the shoreline and checking out the ferry traffic.

Log Feeding New Life

I am regularly fascinated by the way in which a fallen tree will be the source of food for new plants.  The decaying wood releases nutrients and provides a great base for the next generation.  Of course, as it decays further, the base may gradually disappear from under them.  In the interim, though, any number of plants will sprout and develop.  I came across one such log in Meerkerk Gardens.  It seemed to be home to any number of new plants (and that ignores the insect species that were, no doubt, hard at work on its surface).

The Raiders’ New Home

Across from McCarran airport is a construction site.  While plenty remains to be done, it is easy to see that this is the new home of the Oakland Raiders (not Oakland for much longer).  We drove right by it on the interstate but I had no way of photographing it then.  However, I did get a shot of the structure from the airport parking lot.  I wonder what it will look like when it is finished?  Can it be as impressive as the new stadium in LA?

Accidentally Getting Lufthansa’s New Livery

Lufthansa changed their livery recently.  It was not universally appreciated and I can’t say I disagree.  It really is rather dull.  I hadn’t even bothered to keep an eye on whether it was on a jet coming to Seattle.  Instead, while out in Federal Way, I saw a 747 heading my way so decided to take a couple of shots.  Turns out it was the new colors (or lack thereof).  Soon it will be a common sight as they repaint the fleet but this was my first encounter.

Time for Another Big Change

Things are about to get different for us.  We moved to California in 2013 as a result of work changes for me.  Some of the things we had planned worked out well but a few others did not go as expected.  Nothing unusual in that.  However, we started to consider some other options for what to do.  I have now been given a new opportunity which involves a move to Seattle.  Consequently, we are making another move.  We are heading to the Pacific Northwest.

I have no idea what this is going to bring.  Certainly there will be plenty of new things for us to explore.  We have visited the area before but living there will be a while new thing.  The area is full of aviation activities, many of which have been the subject of previous blog posts.  Consequently, I expect a lot of things will be fun to check out.  We will leave behind friends and hopefully make new ones.  The blog will show off a lot of those things as they happen.  Strap in for the ride!

New Alaska Livery

AU0E1191.jpgWhen an airline decides to change its livery, it isn’t too long before large numbers of their aircraft are in the new scheme and you start forgetting that there was ever a previous paint job. In between those two points is the time when you are interested in the change. Catching something in the new livery is of interest. Alaska Airlines has changed their colors. As an airline that is active in this part of the world, the chances of catching the new look should be good.

AU0E9943.jpgIt so happens I have seen two of them in close succession. One was overflying me while I was out walking. There was a lot of wildlife on my walk so I had a long lens on the camera so managed to get a couple of shots. The light was not great and there was plenty of cloud so not a great shot. The next time was shortly afterwards when the conditions had become considerably worse. Torrential rain meant that the plane was pretty obscured by the rain drops even though it was not far away. Neither of these will be shots that get pulled from the archives I imagine as they will be replaced by many more as the planes get repainted. However, they were my first encounters with the new look.

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New Apple Campus

C59F8742.jpgThe bottom of the peninsula runs in to the San Jose area and it is full of the tech businesses that are dominating the news these days.  The departure from Oakland if you are heading south takes you out to the coast and then back over this part of the world.  If you are sitting on the left side of the plane, you get a good view of the area.  One of the most high profile companies is Apple and they are in the process of building a huge new campus.  This is like a giant spaceship shaped as a circle that has landed in Sunnyvale.  Given how big it is, it isn’t hard to spot from the air.  We might have been high but it was still conspicuous.  Here is the view I got.

New KLM Colors

C59F9882.jpgKLM are one of the few airlines that are not soon to be rid of their 747s. They have demonstrated this by starting to repaint them in a new color scheme. When I was at LAX, one of the newly painted jets was due to come in. Annoyingly, rather than follow the normal approach path to the 24 complex, he came straight over the field and went in on the 25 complex. I saw it come overhead and could see it in the distance as it landed over on the other side of the airport.

C59F9026.jpgFortunately, later in the day I was on the south side up on Imperial Hill awaiting a message from my buddy that he was ready to roll. I had not thought further about the KLM jet but, since it had come in earlier, that meant it was going to go out again. It took off in front of me – catching me a little by surprise. I was able to get a shot of it in good light so all was not lost.

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Canon 100-400 Review

One of the longest running sagas in the world of camera equipment watchers was the replacement of the venerable 100-400 zoom lens. I have had the old version for about ten years and it has been a useful workhorse for me. However, it was becoming a little unreliable in recent years. A trip to Canon came back with a clean bill of health but I still found it a little trickier to get good results with. I had totally given up on the image stabilization as I found it often made things go strangely, particularly in the view finder.

Consequently, I have been keeping an eye out for when the new lens was due to come out. I planned to replace mine when the new one showed itself. As it was, I had been waiting of quite a while. Then, at the end of 2014, the new lens was released. There was not a glut of them available (and at the time of writing they are still pretty hard to come by) but I placed an early order and a couple of days before Christmas, it showed up on the doorstep.

First impressions had to wait as it was taken away to become a gift. However, once I did get it in my hands, I was quite impressed. For those that aren’t following these things (and if you are interested, you probably are following them), Canon have changed from the push-pull style of zoom to a ring operated zoom. This is like most other zoom lenses and it seems to work well. However, they have made the zoom ring the outer ring which is the opposite of my 70-200 so makes for a little adjustment. It does mean that the focus ring is where your hand might be when bracing the camera for steadiness. However, this has not been an issue for me yet.

I took the old and the new lenses out for a shoot to see how they compared. I shot with each in turn as well as doing some comparison shots to see how much they varied. It was interesting that, when I imported the images into Lightroom, I went through them to cull the poor shots and found the rejection rate would go up and down. This was when switching from one to the other. The newer lens seems to have a higher rate of keeping focus for moving subjects (surfers in this case). The bodies were the same so the lenses were the only variable.

I quickly adjusted to the new lens and find it easy to work with. It certainly feels solid and there isn’t the play I found with the old version. The image stabilization is a major improvement. It is great for static subjects with a major improvement in steadiness. It has three modes – static targets, panning targets and a third mode that only starts the stabilization when you fire the shutter. I have played with that but have not found it to be so reliable. I suspect it is a lack of understanding on my part. However, I think Mode 2 for panning will be where mine stays.

Aside from focus, how is the image quality? Pretty impressive. In the comparison shots things were a little sharper all over but more so at the edges. I will have a word of warning here though. I have had a series of shots where one side was noticeably blurred. What I have not been able to break down is whether that is a focus plane issue, a haze issue or a problem with the lens. I have tried a number of test shots to try and get to the bottom of this but everything seems to be solid. There is possibly an issue around the 300mm mark in some one test I ran which does coincide with what I have experienced in the field but it is far less than I had seen before. However, I have had plenty of good shots so I suspect the issue is not with the lens but with what I was shooting.

The new lens hood is one that leaves me with mixed feelings. Overall, it is good. The newer lens hoods on Canon lenses now include a button to lock it in place which stops them dropping off at odd moments. This one also includes a small “window” in the side of the hood to allow you to adjust polarizers without taking the hood off. This is a nice enough idea but the sliding panel over this window, while having a detent, is easily disturbed and I frequently find it is open. Not a huge problem but a bit of a compromise in the design.

My remaining issue is not with the lens but with Lightroom. Adobe have not created a lens profile yet (or rather not released one) which I suspect means it will be in the new version of Lightroom which is supposedly imminent. I have shot a lot of stuff wide open with the lens and there is some vignetting which is not a big problem but having a well worked out correction profile will be very helpful.

Overall, I am very happy with the lens. It seems to perform very well. Once I have convinced myself the minor problems I have seen are down to me rather than the lens, I shall relax into this being a regular part of my kit. It doesn’t have the low light capability of the 70-200 but it might find itself being used more for shoots when that lens was previously in the bag. We shall see.