The weather in Seattle has been absolutely perfect. It hasn’t rained once since I’ve been here. Today the sky was especially clear allowing me to see Mount Rainier from Seattle. Today was also the last day of my classes at the Summer Institute for Statistical Genetics. To celebrate, I took the bus to the Chittenden Locks in Ballard, a very popular tourist site and the place where taking photos while brown makes you a terrorist. Luckily, I’m pasty, or you wouldn’t be able to see the pictures below.
The Chittenden Locks have both a small lock and a big lock that work 24-7 year round to allow traffic into and out of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Here’s a picture of some boats in the lock.
The locks have a fish ladder to help the salmon swim past the locks to spawn. The ladder has a viewing room where people can watch the fish swim and takes photos.
To help smolts make it safely out to sea the locks have installed special shoots to help them get safely over the dam.
After seeing the locks, walking across them and back, I walked about a mile along Salmon Bay to where it empties into Shilshole Bay and a couple of restaurants are found along the docks. I decided to eat at Ray’s Cafe which is the top floor of Ray’s Boathouse. I decided to eat a whole Dungeness crab, which did not come cheap.
From my table there was a beautiful view of Puget Sound and the mountains of Olympic National Park. I could have had an amazing sunset picture if I waited two hours.
After I ate my crab, I walked back to the locks and hopped a bus back to campus and my dorm room. The day was still clear enough that I could get photos of Union Bay and Mount Rainier.
Chittenden Locks in Ballard??? Am I related to them?? Do they look like me?? LOL
Oh, and BTW, that is one big mother-effing crab!!! It is highly impolite not to to share with the rest of the class…
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