I See You See | Come with us lets enjoy our world together

Time 2020-10-08 06:03:11

Web Name: I See You See | Come with us lets enjoy our world together

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We are taking a break on this site for awhile.Thanks for your company over the past few months. If you have followed us, you will be alerted when we return to more travel postings on this site.In the meantime we ll be writing up a 28 day adventure David took recently with an Intrepid Tour group visiting cities, towns, villages, home stays and national parks in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. We ll be adding posts of his photos and trip notes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays .  We hope you enjoy them. The site link is:www.dymusings.comJennie and David Our Seattle ferry cruise had taken us from Elliot Bay in downtown Seattle, up along the Puget Sound Coast to Shilshole Bay where we entered Lake Washington Shipping Canal.Now we had to get through the Chittendon locks to raise our ferry up to the level of the lakes. Our final destination for this day was the docks at the south end of Lake Union.I always have a sense of anticipation when approaching locks. These locks were built in 1917  at the time creating the largest locks in North American enabling passage between two bodies of water of different levels.When given our all clear, we sailed into the lock, tied off, water was pumped in through tubes at the bottom of the lock as we gradually rose to the lake water level  a difference of about 20 feet. The ship canal project began in 1911 and was officially completed in 1934.Gate opens, ferry unties and we sail on through to the next stage of our cruise. It all takes about 15 minutes. It s somewhat amazing to think that something like this stills exists in this day and age, but it works as it has done for a hundred years.And on the other side we came to a busy small shipping area.All types of marine transport were tied up in the safety of the canal.Another bridge across the canal.One of the many dry docks used for ship maintenance.A newly painted fishing boat ready to go back out into the sound.Tug boats to assist the bigger ships negotiate the canal.And yet more bridges the higher traffic bridge and a colourful train bridge.Not all homes along the canal are inviting! This reminded us that in every city, there are those who do it tough in whatever shelter they can find.Its always fascinating to look up to the superstructures of bridges, built to take millions of cars and trucks a year safely across the canal. Spare a thought for those who built them.Gas Works Park is a large public access space on the northern side of Lake Union. It contains the remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the US  a plant that operated from 1906 to 1956. In 1962 the City of Seattle bought the plant and opened the park to the public in 1975.As we cruised up the length of Lake Union, several sea planes flew overhead. They are an important link between Seattle and the islands including Vancouver Island in Canada.A fascinating feature of Lake Union are the number of floating homes.  They come in all shapes and sizes, some virtually indistinguishable from those built on land. While these home owners don t pay real estate taxes, they do have to pay pay dock fees.This floating home community is one of only a few in the United States I know of one across the bay from San Francisco.  Floating homes evoke a sense of romance and these, along the banks of Lake Union and Portege Bay, do offer a unique lifestyle. We were told that here, for the most part, neighbours are friendly and community minded and there s a never ending kaleidoscope of things to watch such as wildlife, boats and seaplanes.As we approached our dock at the end of our cruise, a seaplane prepared for takeoff.Maybe it was going to Vancouver Island that s where we will go in the next post.Jennie and DavidAll photographs copyright © JT  and DY  of  jtdytravelsIf you enjoy these armchair travels, please pass our site onto otherswww.jtdytravels.commore of our travel stories and photos can be found onwww.dymusings.comMore of our travel photos are onwww.flickr.com/photos/jtdytravels Seattle was having its hottest start to July ever (2015) so we took to the water as a somewhat cooler alternative to walking the hot streets.As the ferry left the terminal we looked back on an area that is being reconstruction to connect the city back with the waterfront for too long divided by a fast and busy highway and much of the water s edge was not available to the people of the city.  After much consultation with the community, the dream is to make a vibrant waterfront for all to enjoy. The highway will remain but the waterfront area will be much more people friendly with boardwalks, parks and amenities. And the ferries that leave from here join that area to the small islands and also link the harbour via a canal to large lakes within the city.Seattle has a large, very busy working port area that is vital to the economic health of not only Seattle but to the whole of Washington state. I read that four in ten jobs in the state are tied to international trade, driving job growth and economic prosperity.As ever-larger container vessels ply the seas, the port has seen dramatic changes to accommodate such vessels. The port has needed to install not only heavier cranes with a longer outreach but also provide deeper drafts.  An ongoing task.A view back to the city and the space needle.Several restaurants now use the older pier areas. This one is the iconic Waterfront Seafood Grill Pier 70 which has received recognition many times as one of Seattle s top dining destinations.  As you would imagine, the menu incorporates the wonderful bounty of fresh seafood of the area, as well as the fresh harvest from the farms in the surrounding countryside.  During summer, guests can enjoy waterfront dining on that long deck.I d seen these silos from the space needle and wondered what they contained. The answer is grain. It s a completely automated facility moving grain efficiently from trucks and rail cars to silos and then to ship s hold.A massive rock wall surrounds a marina filled with some very expensive yachts.Just before the ferry turned from the main harbour area into the canal, we passed West Point Lighthouse, sitting, as it has done for many a long year, at the end of a low, half-mile-long, sandy point that extends into Puget Sound. The lighthouse still sends out alternating red and white flashes, even though from a modern beacon within the tower.Light houses are usually built on rock. But, to support this lighthouse built on sand, a grill of timber was first built three feet below the ground before adding the brick foundations. The brick tower and and an octagonal iron lantern room were then built on top. They must have done something right, it still stands today, albeit with a surround of added rocks to keep both the lighthouse and the sand spit safe from lashing storms.Along the canal, many houses are built on timber piles. Safe from storms, this would be my choice of place to live in Seattle if I could afford one of them . but probably not!Other places are built on the shore line rather than over the water.Salmon Bay Bridge, (or Bridge no 4) is on the northern rail line between King Street Station in Seattle and Everett (where the Boeing factory is situated). It s called a single-leaf bascule bridge, built in 1914, and has two rail tracks. It has a span of 61 mts (or 200 ft).So what is a bascule bridge?  In simple terms its a draw bridge that uses a massive counter weight to continuously balance a bridge span, or leaf, as it swings upwards to allow clearance for boat traffic. As we were to see later, largish ships use this canal.The concept has been used since ancient times. But it wasn t  until the introduction of steam power in the 1850s that long, heavy spans could be moved quickly enough to make their use practical for more modern day usage.  I guess this is electrical these days.I liked this house near the bridge solid foundations rather than timber poles that have a habit of rotting over time and lots of balcony to sit out and watch the bridge in use!More houses along the canal. It was very pleasant sailing passed these canal side homes as we made our way to the locks that lift the ships from the ocean level to the lake level.More of that anon.Jennie and DavidAll photographs copyright © JT  and DY  of  jtdytravelsIf you enjoy these armchair travels, please pass our site onto otherswww.jtdytravels.commore of our travel stories and photos can be found onwww.dymusings.comMore of our travel photos are onwww.flickr.com/photos/jtdytravels After exploring the exhibits in the indoor area of Seattle aquarium, it was time to venture outdoors to visit the harbour seals and the cute sea otters.The harbour seals are one of the main attractions around the harbours of towns and villages along this coast. They are seen by researchers as barometers of the health of Seattle s waterways because of their diet  sole, flounder, sculpin, cod, herring, octopus and squid. These are all links in a food chain that is becoming increasingly vulnerable to pollution, development and other human activities.When in the water they are streamlined, but out of the water they flip flop along in a rather ungainly fashion.  While their hind flippers are used to propel them  through the water, these aren t used on land. When they “haul out” on sandbars, beaches or onto rocks, they have to use their front flippers and an undulating movement to get along, giving them a common nick  name of “crawling seals”.Harbour seals have a thick layer of blubber which not only provides them with insulation in these cold waters of Puget Sound, but also adds buoyancy for swimming.Harbour seals  can remain underwater for close to 30 minutes while hunting for food. Fortunately we didn t have to wait that long between dives as their keeper gave them fish to eat. But it was impossible to guess when they would come up to the surface. Most of the time, their nostrils remain closed. Once they resurface, they must consciously open their nostrils to resume breathing.Some cute sea otters live in the next pool. We asked how these otters came to be in the aquarium when there are plenty of surrounding waterways. The answers were interesting.One was discovered on an airport runway in Alaska suffering from hypothermia.  One was just a few weeks old when her mother was accidentally killed by a boat in Kodiak, Alaska. She was cared for round the clock by staff and volunteers for several months before joining our other otters. She is now the mother to three pups, all born at the Seattle Aquarium. One of those now has a pup of her own. And another one was rescued after being caught in a fishing net as a young pup. They all seemed very content.Sea otters have very thick fur to keep them warm. We were told that there are abou 500,000 hairs on every square inch of a sea otter s fur. That apparently, equals the number of hairs on 3 or 4 normal human heads normal meaning not including those heads that are thinning or bald! Sea otters don t go bald. They die of cold if they did.These two were having a rest after a stint of grooming;  rolling and twirling in the water; rubbing and raking their fur with their forepaws and licking the fur with their coarse tongues. They need to keep their thick fur very clean because it insulates their bodies by trapping tiny air bubbles and keeping a layer of air between the water and their skin. Dirty fur loses its insulating qualities allowing cold water to penetrate through to the skin.Reluctantly leaving the seals and the otters, we wandered through the connecting dome section of the aquarium to see some of the shore birds of this area.  One was the Long-billed Curlew, the largest shorebird in North America. It uses that long, curved bill to probe for prey such as  shrimp and crabs in mudflats.Although the adult birds have long bills, their newborn chicks don’t. They are therefore unable to probe for food in the mud. So their parents take them to grasslands where they can find insects to eat. After two or three weeks, the female usually leaves the care of the brood to the male. She s done her stint sitting on the eggs in the brooding process.Another local shore bird is the Black Oystercatcher although that is a misleading name. Its favourite food is mussels rather than oysters! It searches at low tide in the places where mussels and limpets adhere to the rocks. It uses its strong bill to pop limpets and chitons off the rocks and separate the fleshy foot from the shell.One of the beauties of seeing birds up close is to check out the way feathers are distributed over the bird. This bird, a Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus, had just finished grooming.These birds are sometimes called chattering plovers . Their scientific species name, vociferous, is Latin for noisy and they are in fact, we were told that Killdeer chicks start making noise even before they have hatched. That doesn t help in keeping the chicks safe from predators as they hatch in their simple nest, a scrape on sandy gravel ground. But the adult birds have a way of helping to keep the chicks safe. They often fake a broken wing, twisting one wing up onto their backs. Then they make themselves look vulnerable by dragging themselves away from the nest. It works sometimes!Unlike many other shorebirds, Killdeers have short necks. But they have long beaks for digging in wet or muddy areas to forage. They feed primarily on invertebrates such as earthworms, snails, crayfish, grasshoppers, beetles and aquatic insect larvae.After a long morning enjoying the aquarium, we had lunch on deck overlooking the boardwalk. And most enjoyable it was, too.The boardwalk is new a very pedestrian friendly precinct by the water s edge.It was very hot and an ice cream was in order while we wandered along the boardwalk.Flower baskets added to the summery scene.We joined a queue at the local cruise terminal it would be cooler out on the water.Finally the ferry came into dock and we prepared to explore some more of Seattle.Jennie and DavidAll photographs copyright © JT  and DY  of  jtdytravelsIf you enjoy these armchair travels, please pass our site onto otherswww.jtdytravels.commore of our travel stories and photos can be found onwww.dymusings.comMore of our travel photos are onwww.flickr.com/photos/jtdytravels... The Seattle Aquarium is on the waterfront directly below the Pike Markets. It was opened in 1977 but has been expended since then. We found it to be a fascinating place to visit.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsThere six major exhibit areas with the aquarium: Window on Washington Waters, Life on the Edge, Pacific Coral Reef, Underwater Dome, Birds Shores and Marine Mammals.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsJust inside the entrance is a large, 120,000 gallon fish tank filled with more than 800 fish and invertebrates local to the north west of Washington State coastal waters. Three times a day, a diver enters the tank to interact with both the fish and the visitors. The reactions of the children was great to watch  a whole new experience for many of them.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsFurther inside are exhibits of a wide variety of creatures that live below the tide line. I took photos of some of the individual species to share with you all. It wasn t easy because the water is continually washing over the exhibits just as it is in the real underwater world.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsWe had seen several of the Lion s Mane Jelly (Cyanea capillata) one morning on our journey through the Inside Passage of Alaska.  It s a native of God s Pocket, British Columbia, CAN. It propels itself using special muscles called coronal muscles, embedded on the underside of the bell. These push water out of the hollow bell. As water is pushed in one direction, the jellyfish moves in the counter direction.The Lion s Mane does not have a brain or eyes so it relies on nerve cells to sense and react to food or danger.  Sensing organs tell them whether they are heading up or down, into the light or away from it.  Even with such a basic structure, they are amazing hunters!P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsThe scientific name for this Basket Star is Gorgonocephalus eucnemis which comes from Greek mythology because its arms twist and coil looking like writhing serpents. The Greek gorgós means dreadful and cephalus means head .Five pairs of arms branch from the central disc (or head) and divide into smaller and smaller subdivisions. These arms, or branches, are covered in tiny hooks and spines which are used to help it to feed as it extends its arms like a net. Any small crustaceans that come within reach are snared, immobilised and tied in what appears to be a knot of branches. The branches then twist to take the food to the mouth on the underside of the central disc. The disc has what looks like a comb which is used to remove the food and clean the branches ready for more food collection. Fascinating.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsRock pools allowed visitors to see tentacles up close.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsSea anemones, like these, usually stay in the one place.  They anchor themselves to surfaces or sand with a sticky foot called a pedal disc. Water flows over them bringing food to them. Any passing small fish or crustacean which touches those anemone tentacles is likely to be shot by the anemone with a nematocyst, a harpoon-like spear. It contains a paralysing neurotoxin which immobilises the prey.  The anemone then uses its tentacles to guide the food into their mouths.P1130451 © DY of jtdytravelsIf the environment becomes unlivable, anemones can slowly slide along the ocean floor on their foot or float away and “swim” to a new anchoring spot by flexing their bodies.P1130457 © DY of jtdtravelsA beautiful close up.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsThere are several types of starfish on display at the Seattle Aquarium. Some types have been causing growing concern since 2013 when they were found to be suffering a disease now called Starfish wasting disease, a condition that gives the impression that the starfish is melting . Seattle researchers are taking part in a joint effort to understand why a growing number of starfish are being affected, not only around Seattle, but along the coast of British Columbia, Washington State and California. The cause is still not fully known.However, researchers believe now that the disease is associated with certain bacteria and a virus like one that affects cats and dogs a virus in the same family as the Parvovirus.It appears that this virus causes the sea star s reproductive system to swell and that the condition is aggravated by environmental factors like water temperature, acidification or toxins. A recent blog from the Aquarium researchers about the sea stars states that the sea stars have  gone from being one of the most common species in the Puget Sound to 2-3 years later, being incredibly hard to find. P1150297 © JT of jtdytravelsAccording to that same 2016 report, the loss of the sea stars has already started to change the ecosystem, since sea stars are major predators. Their food source, sea urchins, are growing in both number and size. Now, experts are talking about whether sea stars should be listed as endangered. P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsThere s a wonderful, never ending variety of species in the underwater world.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsOne of the exhibits is a glass case devoted to Dale Chihuly s sea form shells.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsJust beautiful.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsAnother area is devoted to hands on activities for small children. I watched this little girl for quite some time as she invented and reinvented her own underwater world in felt.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsThere s also an intriguing wall of tiles representing the creatures of the deep.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsI loved these childlike representations of the real creatures in the watery exhibitions.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsBrain coral featured in the tropical underwater exhibition.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsA lot goes on behind the exhibits at the aquarium.  For example, we, like all other visitors, enjoyed several excellent exhibits of various corals and colourful tropical fish. But none of these corals are taken from the wild. They are propagated and grown in tanks until they are large enough to go on display. Excess corals are shared with other aquariums to reduce the need for any exhibitor to harvest corals from the wild.P1150265 © JT of jtdytravelsHow s this for a wonderful colour combination?After spending some time enjoying this main exhibition hall, it was time to go outside to a very different exhibition area, partly under a dome and partly open to the skies.More of that anon.Jennie and DavidAll photographs copyright © JT  and DY  of  jtdytravelsIf you enjoy these armchair travels, please pass our site onto otherswww.jtdytravels.commore of our travel stories and photos can be found onwww.dymusings.comMore of our travel photos are onwww.flickr.com/photos/jtdytravels.

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