Seahawks Training Facility

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I have driven past the Seahawks training facility on I-405 more times than I can think of.  I have also ridden by a couple of times on my bike when doing the loop around Lake Washington.  I was doing another ride but, this time, I wasn’t bothered about keeping my average speed up and so was willing to make stops along the way if there was something worthy of a look.  I figured this would be one such thing.

It is called the Virginia Mason Campus and is located alongside the lake.  There are outdoors facilities but there appears to be a large indoor training space.  A huge twelfth man flag is on the side of the structure.  I took a quick look around and grabbed some photos with my phone.  I thought I had taken a couple more but the app I use has been misbehaving recently and some of the shots were not saved.  As I made my way out, I passed the entry sign which appears more welcoming than the fences and guard houses suggest when you get closer.

Blue Angels Legacy Hornet Retirement

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Recently, the Blue Angels made their last formation flight with the F/A-18 Hornet.  The team is transitioning to the Super Hornet ahead of 2021 and they have started working up with the new jets.  It has been a while since I last saw the Blue Angels demonstration so I thought a few shots with their aging legacy Hornets was in order.   They always got the oldest jets in the fleet so I hope they are happy to have some slightly newer airframes to work with.

Winter Light on the Ferries

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I spent some time early one morning waiting for the return of a warship as covered in this post.  It was dark and rainy when I first got there but then the sun snuck under the clouds and the result was some very pleasing light.  I was down in Mukilteo which is the departure point for the ferry to Whidbey Island.  They leave every half hour and I was able to get a few departures while I waited and after the ship has passed through.  The white superstructure of the ferries glowed in the morning light with the dark background of the island behind them.

More To Love A321 Shot for Work!

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I had a brief visit to Seattle Tacoma International to get some images for work.  These images were not of the aircraft but the configuration of the roadways in to the airport.  Not a great opportunity for photographing an aircraft.  However, you could just see some of the ramp area and, as the sun came out, the Alaska Airlines A321neo in the More To Love markings taxied in.  It was just visible above the terminal buildings so it would have been rude not to get a shot!

Stormy Skies Over Lake Washington

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One damp weekend day, I went to Kenmore to visit the camera store.  After browsing in there for a while, I headed down to Log Boom Park just to take a look at the Lake.  A storm shower had just passed through so I decided to try my luck in staying dry.  As I walked down to the water, my gamble did not pay off and it started to rain again.  However, I was able to stay out of the worst of it and take a couple of shots across the lake.  The clouds near us were really menacing but there was clearer sky in the distance.  Quite a range of exposures to accommodate.

Royal Air Force P-8

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The RAF has been taking delivery of its new maritime patrol aircraft.  The retirement of the Nimrods left the RAF without a maritime aircraft for about a decade which is a strange choice to make.  Finally, the P-8 Poseidon was ordered to reinstate that capability.  They started coming off the line here in Seattle a while back.  The fourth aircraft has been undergoing testing ahead of its delivery.  It was returning from a test flight and was coming straight for our house.  It is not unusual for planes heading to Boeing Field to come our way so I grabbed the camera and got a couple of shots as it flew by.  It even turned slightly giving a slightly wing down view in one shot.

Under the American Max

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Production of 737 Max jets is underway again and that means some flight testing of new jets.  I was heading back from Boeing Field but stopped at the approach end to get a shot from the underside.  I almost didn’t get there in time so was not exactly where I wanted to be to take the shot but it still worked out reasonably well.  I do like a different angle every once in a while and underneath is certainly worth a go every once in a while.

Dinosaurs In the Hedges

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The cut that connects Lake Union with Portage Bay and then to the lock as at Ballard has a trail alongside it.  We were taking a walk along there recently prior to getting some lunch close by.  We passed what initially looked like a normal hedge until we realized it had been shaped.  It was a pair of dinosaurs – a parent and a baby.  It was actually quite hard to find a good position to get a view of them.  The greenery tended to disguise the shape when closer in and the positioning of the two of them obscured the heads to some extent.  I suspect the best angle would be from above.  A drone would have been very handy.  It was a cure thing to come across unexpectedly.

Pegasus Heading Out and Back

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Boeing seems to have addressed a lot of the problems with the KC-46 Pegasus program (but not all of them yet) and so the Air Force is taking delivery of jets at a regular rate.  Since plenty have been built, there are enough to deliver.  I was at Paine Field a while back when one of the jets was heading out on a test flight.  I ended up being there for both the departure and the arrival since the flight was not that long.  The good summer light that Seattle gets but we don’t like people to know about meant I got some reasonable shots of it.