Yesterday we left the safety of the land beneath our feet and we boarded a Ferry to take us away from downtown Seattle to nearby Bainbridge Island.
Bye bye, downtown Seattle. We're ferrying away from you:
While we were chugging away from Seattle on the ferry, I finally got a picture of one of the Seattle area seagulls. I swear, they're the size of a large housepet or small child. Do these things even have any natural predators nearby? Talk about a HUGE population of seagulls.
And while I didn't get a chance to photograph this seagull next to anything else so that you can compare its size, you can see that it's almost as tall as the office building next to it!! (Okay, kidding. But they ARE really big!)
As we were chugging away from dry land, we also saw this huge... Navy ship thing. (James could tell me what it was, exactly, but he's in training right now.) Destroyer?
The more interesting part of the picture, however, is the little floating red thing in front of the big Navy ship:
See the red floating thing? It's a Coast Guard vessel. It's guarding the big Navy ship.
Here's a (little) better picture of it:
American dudes with guns.
There were two of those red floating Coast Guard vessels, and as we watched, some idiot in a joyride boat got too close to the big Navy (Destroyer?) ship. The red Coast Guard vessels went TEARING toward the joyriding boat and totally stopped it in its tracks and made it turn around.
Did I ever tell you about the summer that my insanely awesome husband sailed this thing across the Atlantic Ocean:
I kid you not. There's no end to the things my guy has done. Skills, people. The man has skills.
Thus, we were both amused to watch the two small, red Coast Guard boats full of dudes carrying guns intercept the idiots in the joyriding boat who got too close to the Navy ship. Um, DUH.
And I'll tell you this: that joyriding boat wasn't the only one taking their lives into their hands. So were these next people. I have no CLUE what they were doing, but it sure didn't look too safe:
Being dragged behind some sort of boat, I guess, with only that balloon thingee keeping you alive. Whatever! People are NUTS.
But the people who live on Bainbridge Island aren't nuts. They know a nice place to live when they see it:
And this is where they all store their beautiful sailboats:
Interestingly enough, as we were walking around, we overheard some (American!) locals carrying on a conversation about how stupid America is and how stupid Americans are. And I'm sure there are some stupid Americans somewhere, but golly gee darn, people... if you're living on Bainbridge Island, you can AFFORD to stand around and criticize (while rubbing down your gorgeous sailboat). Most of the rest of the world is off trying to make enough money to feed itself and its family that day.
Speaking of a Bainbridge Island sailboat... they're quite lovely:
We walked around picturesque Bainbridge Island with its organic food shops, its Montessori and Waldorf schools, its private buy-in family medical practice, its huge floral baskets hanging off of every street lamp...
...and then we took the ferry back to Seattle.
It's very pretty at night time:
And then, this afternoon, the Blue Angels were part of a downtown air show... and my hotel room is close enough to the venue that I saw them flying by!
Here they are, flying in formation through downtown Seattle today...
Now, how cool is THAT?
Maybe someday, that'll be my son...
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