Spencer Spit State Park

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Come a short distance from the ferry terminal on Lopez Island and head left and you will soon be near the turning for Spencer Spit State Park.  There are camping sites throughout the park, but we were just interested in wandering down to the shoreline.  It isn’t a long descent from the parking lot to be down by the water.  It appears that the high tide can drive water into the area alongside the spit but that this then gets cut off as the tide retreats.  There seemed to be some algae on the surface of the water which didn’t look great close up but, step back a bit and it seemed more appealing.

More To Love But Alaska Doesn’t Love These

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When Alaska bought Virgin America, they got an order for A321neos as part of the deal.  When the merger was completed, Alaska painted some jets in their More To Love scheme to sell everyone on what the bigger airline had to offer.  Two of the neos were painted in this livery.  I have shot them both.  Recently I caught one of them and it seems to have had a need for a replacement radome as the nose doesn’t go with the rest of the paint.  Sadly, while there may have been more to love, Alaska doesn’t love these jets and they will be gone in October 2023, ending the use of Airbus jets in their fleet.  They will then be “Proudly All Boeing” (and Embraer!).

Friday Night at the Velodrome

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I persuaded Nancy that a fun Friday evening could be had in Marymoor Park if we went to watch some track cycle racing.  Not sure how I managed that, but the food trucks and beer garden might have swung it for me.  Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome is located in the park and is the last velodrome available in the Pacific Northwest of the US.  It attracts lots of riders as a result.  It is ages since I last went to a velodrome to watch racing, so I was looking forward to it.  The Nationals were on in California, so some of the regular racers were away but there were still plenty of competitors out.

I shall share some examples of the wider view of the arena, the competitors and the spectators for now.  Some more racing specific shots will come in a separate post.  It was a great evening with lovely weather (and great food and beer), and I think we both enjoyed it.  The racing was well structured to keep it entertaining, and they even had races for the kids.  The star of that show was a kid with a big wheel!  It was all I could do not to reference respecting my “authoritie”.

Western Global is Back With the MD-11F

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I posted about the visit of Western Global and their 747-400F a little while back.  They did not wait long for their next return and, this time, they went for a rarer type by bringing in the MD-11F.  I know FedEx and UPS still have loads of these (although they are starting to retire them) but other operators are thin on the ground.  This was worth catching.  (I have since heard that Western Global is in liquidity difficulties so who knows if they will still be around soon.)

It arrived at Paine Field when I wasn’t able to be there, but it did depart in the morning when I was able to get to see it.  The weather was not ideal, and I would have appreciated a little sun on it but I’ll take it in any conditions given that I don’t know when I might get another opportunity.  What a cool looking jet the MD-11 is from the front quarters.  When they are gone, we shall have lost something special.

Cross Kirkland Connector’s New Bridge

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The disused railway lines along the eastern side of Lake Washington are progressively becoming trails for the local community.  One section of track that runs through the middle of Kirkland is know as the Cross Kirkland Connector.  This will run up towards Woodinville in due course.  The northern end of the trail for a long time was Totem Lake when the trail came to 124th St.  This is a busy road and crossing it was not a simple process.  As part of the development of the trails, a bridge has been under construction for a while now and it recently was opened to the public.

This bridge is a short distance from my office, and it would provide a useful potential connection if I was to start cycling to work again.  I walked down to the bridge one lunchtime to see how it looked.  The styling of the structure over the road is quite flowing and I had driven underneath at various times in construction, so I was familiar with the general shape.  To get down to the street level, a circular ramp is on the north side, and this loops around near the lake and marshlands.

There are some overlook areas built out from the ramp to encourage people to linger a little.  A few bikes and pedestrians passed over in the short time I was there so I hope there will be a good amount of traffic to justify the investment.  When all of the trails are complete, it will be possible to ride from Renton to the Skagit County line without needing to use the road.

Phantoms in Pieces

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When I was first into aviation, the Phantom was everywhere.  It was operated by numerous air forces and the RAF had tons of them (including some that had cascaded from the Royal Navy).  At all of my early air shows, there would be Phantoms on static and part of the flying display.  While they had started their RAF career in the strike and ground attack role, by this time they were purely used for air defense.

With the end of the Cold War, the RAF reduced in size and the Phantoms were withdrawn from service far faster than had originally been anticipated.  It wasn’t long before they were all gone.  A bunch ended up in museums and the rest were cut up.  As I was exploring Kemble’s airfield – Cotswold Airport to give it its proper name – I was surprised to come across a bunch of bits of Phantoms alongside the road.  A pair of fuselages including one of a Boscombe test jet that I had a kit of as a kid, some wings, fins and tail planes.  It was all just sitting there so I grabbed a few shots.  I have heard since that the airport was pressuring the owners to cover it all properly and I think it all went under cover shortly after I was there.  A lucky break for me, I guess.

Crabs Getting Feisty

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Nancy and I were walking along the shore on Lopez Island one Sunday on a trail alongside some marshy areas.  We were discussing whether the water was connected to the sea all of the time or only at high tide when I noticed something moving in the shallow water.  When I looked closer, I realized that, not only was it a crab, but that there were tons of them.  The water was full of them, and they were pretty aggravated.

It didn’t seem to matter what size they were; they were all picking fights with each other.  Some of these were brief hit and run type efforts but others seemed to be engaged in battles that were going on for a while.  Most were in the water but occasionally they would come out onto the land.  One walked right up to my shoe.  Spaces under rocks or wood seemed like prime spots with smaller crabs trying to get under there while the larger inhabitants fended them off.  It was hilarious to watch once you could see that they were there.  I could have spent ages watching them but that wasn’t the purpose of visiting the island, so I left them to their battles.

Black Gulfstreams in the Rain

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Previous posts have shown that I like a bizjet that isn’t painted like all of the others and being painted black is even better.  It won’t surprise regular readers, therefore, that when I got to see not one but two black Gulfstreams on one afternoon at Boeing Field, I was quite a happy chappy.  The weather was not great, though.  It was raining pretty steadily which doesn’t make for ideal conditions.  However, it isn’t all bad.  Sunny days with black jets can produce some harsh contrast conditions while overcast light is more even and soft so it might not be all bad.

Rain in the shots is still going to be an issue though.  Depending on the shutter speed you choose, you may well end up with the raindrops being visible in the images.  A bit of tweaking of the settings when processing can boost the contrast a little, but those raindrops are not disappearing.  Still, the subject is an interesting one to me and that’s what counts.

Amazon’s Rivian Delivery Trucks

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Amazon became an investor in Rivian, the electric vehicle manufacturer.  Part of this investment resulted in Rivian creating a new delivery vehicle for Amazon that is electric.  I first became aware of it when watching a Doug DeMuro video but it wasn’t long before they started showing up around here.  We do have Amazon’s headquarters here so it shouldn’t be a surprise.  I have seen them on the roads a lot but have not been able to get a shot of one because I was driving.  Then one showed up at work, so I took a few pictures from my window before it headed off.  It took me back to the unusual FedEx delivery vehicles I saw when we lived in Chicago but, of which, I have seen nothing since.

Sabreliner Duo Passing Through

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The large exercise that was taking place in Alaska attracted a lot of unusual types and I have posted about the Hunters and the Northrop Grumman testbed heading up there already.  They weren’t the only ones, though.  Paine Field had a couple of transients too with a pair of Sabreliner jets heading north.  This vintage bizjet is a pretty agile type and Clay Lacy used to display one on the air show circuit.  These two had an interesting pod mounted under the front fuselage – presumably for some sort of electronic warfare role.  I was able to head up to Paine Field that weekend to get them as they arrived.  I didn’t have the time to get them departing although they weren’t around for long – just getting some fuel and then heading onwards.

They did route back through Paine Field when the exercise was done so I was able to get a second go at shooting them then but the conditions were much as before, so the shots are not too different.  I did take a bit of a chance with my shots by dropping the shutter speed down pretty low to try and get some good motion blur – always a risk when shooting something new!