Only in Seattle

Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks, Space Needle, Pike’s Place Market and Ivar’s Clam Chowder headline this city named after an Indian Chief.

From Chimacum it is an hour by car and 35 minutes more on a ferry crossing Puget Sound. Once past the piers and docks, the steep, San Francisco like streets pass monolithic effigies of steel and glass. Connie and I were on a fact finding mission, requiring us to navigate downtown Seattle; that meant figuring out the bus system. Doing an online search got us an inkling of what and where but boots on the ground is the only way to know. Seattle should be ashamed, online it says seniors are 75 cents, on the bus there was no mention of a seniors price; regular fare was a whopping $2.25! There was a 75 cent fare for those with a special card, after questioning the driver she allowed us to pay the 75 cent fare and told us we could get the special card at the bus headquarters, what! Apparently local people know about the card and lower rate while the visitor pays full boat. At $2.25 I thought the buses should have been more limousine like, albeit the buses were many and not too difficult to figure out which one to take.

After we obtained the information we were after, we retraced our breadcrumbs back to the wharf area. Ivar’s clams restaurant has been in the same location since before we first were here in 1969, so we decided to see if they were like Mo’s and just living on their reputation. Upon request we were shown to a window table overlooking Puget Sound and a fire-boat tied up alongside. We were entertained by people outside throwing breadcrumbs in the air to the waiting seagulls, swooping down to grab them in mid-air. We also watched as a jet black harbor seal had his lunch of not so fast swimming silvery fish. We both opted for the spring salad and Ivar’s signature clam chowder in a hollowed out loaf of French bread; it was absolutely fantastic!

With a full belly, a little shopping and being a bit tired from walking up and down some very steep streets, we boarded the ferry for the return trip (it was only $3.75, round trip, cheaper than the bus!).

Pat & Ed's turkey feed

About twenty or so gathered at the behest of Pat and Ed Hedden's for smoked turkey and all the Thanksgiving trimmings. It was quite fitting in that we all give thanks for the friends we have made here at Chimacum Coho SKP Park. With the exception of a few lucky ones who will stay thru the winter, we will all too soon go our separate ways. Whether or not we return, good memories will stay in our hearts and minds.Like the mighty Coho, the urge to return is great.

Thanks Gregg

Thanks Gregg…………

We have a friend who is a licensed pilot; he has a plane and a hanger at the airport, about three miles from here. He loves to fly, fortunately for us he likes to have company.

To fully appreciate the beauty of the Olympic Peninsula, one must fly over it in a private airplane. The expanse of green forests gives way to the deep blue sea; both blanketed by blue sky and the occasional white puffy cloud. There are never any grey skies because only an idiot would fly in that kind of weather.

We flew over Sequim, Port Angeles and thru the Olympic Mountain range past Hurricane Ridge, where the road ends and the endless Olympic wilderness begins.

The strong swimming salmon find their way up the  River and deposit eggs for another generation before giving themselves to the hungry bear or fertilize the area with nutrients from their bodies. Salmon always return after three or four years at sea, and they always return to the place of their birth.

The Elwha River is one exception; salmon were forever blocked by man’s intervention. Two dams were constructed a century ago without fish ladders; where once 400,000 salmon thrived, barely 3,000 are left. Man does, however, have the ability to learn from past mistakes. As we flew over we could see that both dams have been breached to allow the river to return to its natural flow; this is the largest river restoration ever done. Now the Elwha river salmon that have been blocked from 90 percent of their habitat will restart the natural cycle. In four or five years there will be much celebration as we watch the flash of several thousand silvery bodies; a century of our misdeeds erased.  

 

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 That being said, I gotta get out my fishing pole; yummmm!