Tag Archives: seattle

Union Pacific’s Falcon 2000

Union Pacific is one of the large freight railroads in the US. Their fleet of locomotives is commonly seen across the US west of Chicago. They are painted yellow and carry a large American flag on the side. However, trains are not the only way that staff of UP get around. They also own a Dassault Falcon 2000 and I saw it come in to Boeing Field. While it isn’t painted like a loco, it certainly shares a few design cues with them and it looks a bit more interesting than the average all white scheme.

Hippos are Sociopaths

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A pair of hippos was hanging out in the water of their enclosure in Woodland Park Zoo. One was facing away from us and was submerged for most of the time. The other was facing us and was staring in our direction. The shot I want of a hippo is the large yawn showing off the scary array of teeth that backs up their reputation as one of the most dangerous animals to man. This guy wasn’t obliging. They say that humans have a natural reaction to seeing a yawn from someone of yawning themselves. The people that don’t do this have a higher probability of being sociopaths. I thought I would try it with the hippo. Either it knew I was faking it or hippos are sociopaths. I wonder which it is.

Two Tankers

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The KC-46 Pegasus tankers have appeared in the blog before but only on the ground. That post can be found here. I have finally seen them flying. A couple of them were airborne on test flights from BFI and, while they had taken off quite far apart, they ended up returning quite close together so I was able to get shots of them both. They don’t look terribly dissimilar which is what you would expect. They are fully fitted out with the boom and one of them has the pods so this is what a service aircraft should look like when the Air Force squadrons start to get their hands on them.

Bears!!

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Bears are cool and brown bears are even cooler. We saw a couple of them at Woodland Park Zoo and, while it was the middle of the day, they were actually pretty active. It didn’t hurt that some food was coming their way so I guess they were incentivized to be a little busy. It was a warm and sunny day so the fact they had some water to work with probably suited them quite nicely. Lots of zoo animals are somehow aware of where they can go to be as difficult to see as possible. These guys were either unaware or just showoffs.

They wandered around the enclosure quite a bit and provided plenty of opportunities to see them. Aside from the outdoor area, there was an indoor viewing space that was against the side of their pool. From within there you could really get a good view of them chomping down on the food that had been thrown their way. They seemed quite content to enjoy the nosh and pay no attention to the hordes staring at them through the glass. Being so close to such a large creature was really very impressive.

Otters on Speed

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Otters are known as being playful. However, having watched a bunch of them at Woodland Park Zoo, I have to think that they are on some serious drugs. The speed with which they flew around the enclosure, wrestled with each other, lay in the water getting blasted by the water jets and generally acted like hooligans, you would think this was a vast waste of precious energy for a creature in the wild. I think they must metabolize something in their food to create something like cocaine or speed. What other reason could there be?

Hwy 99 Crosses the Water

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To get from Seattle to Fremont, you have to cross the water. Highway 99 runs across a high bridge to get from one side to the other. Being underneath the bridge you have a very different perspective on things. It is an old bridge structure with concrete piers supporting the roadway. From underneath, the symmetry of the structure is quite appealing. What is apparent when you are there but is not so clear in a picture is the steepness of the hill as it drops away down to the water. The gradient is pretty dramatic. The bridge does climb a bit but the ground falls away far faster.

Zero G and, Ironically, It’s Not Raining

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I last saw this jet on approach to Oakland. I blogged about that event here. On that day, it was pouring with rain. I got the shot but it was rather dreary. This time I saw the jet parked up at Boeing Field in Seattle. Ironically, the sun was out on a lovely day – not Seattle’s reputation. Sadly, it wasn’t moving while I was there. I don’t know why it was in town but I heard there was a big software conference underway so maybe it was a fun trip for some big cheeses in the software business.

View from the 24th Floor

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I had a meeting in downtown Seattle that was on the 24^th floor of an office block. As a result of traffic being better than expected, I got there a little early so I had a little extra time which was spent waiting in the lobby for the meeting to start. Their lobby had a large window view of the south end of the city looking towards the stadiums. It would have been churlish to not get my phone out and to grab a quick picture and doubly churlish not to share it with you!

Flying Fish – You Knew It Had to Happen

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How long was it going to be before a post about being in Seattle included fish flying through the air at Pike Place Market? You knew it had to come at some point so here we go. The weekend we were there, the place was pretty packed. Tons of people were there so getting into a good spot was not particularly easy. Moreover, you don’t know when they are going to start throwing something. It depends on when someone orders something.

It is actually pretty dark inside the market so getting a good shot is trickier than I expected. The fish fly fast so you want a higher shutter speed. The ISO gets ramped up and you have to try and track the flight while in amongst the crowd with limited ability to move. Hardly the best situation but, if you want a shot, it is what you need to do. Of course, the bigger problem is that, just when you give up and wander away, they start calling out another order and you have to try and get back into a good spot quickly. That is the toughest challenge!

The Sun is Out – Time to Jump in the Fountain

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It doesn’t matter whether a sunny day is a hot day or not. Get a bunch of kids somewhere near a fountain and they will be running through it in a heartbeat. When the air temperature is not that high, I guess the water temperature is probably not going to be much different. That doesn’t matter though. I think when you are a kid, you don’t care about stuff like that so much. Instead, you run through the water and have fun!