Sunday, March 25, 2012

My Birthday In Seattle

I had an awesome day on the day of my birthday, but we had a trip scheduled too. Since Travis was going up to Mike's Beach to help with a dive class the weekend of my birthday, it was the following weekend that we went. This year we decided to go up to Seattle. We went up late Friday night and got home Sunday evening. Travis decided to be adventurous and tried out Priceline. This is the hotel we stayed in, Hilton's Homewood Suites. It turned out great, great place, great price!
hotel

hotel

hotel

In the morning we had a big filling breakfast at the hotel to brace us up for the better part of the day and the cold water we headed out to dive at Alki Cove II. Because who doesn't want to go diving when it's snowing out? Seriously, the water was extremely cold (about 44) and coming out into the cold air made it extra chilly! Still, we did two dives!
Travis

I love that we found this very tiny sunflower starfish eating a tiny crab claw. That's Travis' finger it's sitting on.
starfish

Vermilion Star, Red Sea Star (Mediaster aequalis)
Vermilion Star, Red Sea Star (Mediaster aequalis)  macro

Red anemone
red Urticina anemone

Plumose Anemone (Metridium)
Plumose (or Frilled) Anemone (Metridium giganteum)

urchin
urchin

urchin
urchin

Anemone Metridium Giganteum
Metridium Giganteum

Anemone Metridium Giganteum on a boat
Metridium Giganteum

A school of tubesnouts
tubesnouts

Lots of life on the buoy rope
buoy rope

Chitons look so weird and ancient to me and sure enough, they are. Chitons have a good fossil record going back 400 million years. And check out all the straight scratches on the base and all the footprints left behind by things that have grown there.
diving

Alabaster Nudibranch (white-lined dirona) (Dirona albolineata)
Alabaster Nudibranch (white-lined dirona) (Dirona albolineata)

Alabaster Nudibranch (white-lined dirona) (Dirona albolineata)

The rhinophores of the Alabaster Nudibranch
Alabaster Nudibranch (white-lined dirona) (Dirona albolineata)

Copper rockfish
Copper rockfish

Kelp crab trying to get his fight on with me
Kelp crab

The same kelp crab from behind
Kelp crab

Feather duster worms (Serpula vermicularis)
Feather duster worms (Serpula vermicularis)

Feather duster worms (Serpula vermicularis)
Feather duster worms (Serpula vermicularis)

Feather duster worms (Serpula vermicularis)
Feather duster worms (Serpula vermicularis)

A big lingcod guarding eggs
lingcod guarding eggs

I think this is a baby Striped Seaperch (it was maybe two inches)
baby Striped Seaperch

Another starfish. I just like this one's long feelers waving in the water.
starfish

Metridium Senile Anemone
Metridium Senile Anemone

Metridium Senile Anemone
Metridium Senile Anemone

Sunflower star
Sunflower star

And the tubesnouts again, I wanted to get closer to them and then suddenly a school swam right through me.
tubesnouts

After we cleaned up I took a shot of the Seattle skyline from the dock
Seattle Space Needle

This seagull was sitting fat and happy, ignoring me.
seagull

Also a shot from the dock, look at the sea lions hanging out on what looks like a mooring buoy that that barge is hooked up to.
sea lions

The we went in search of a higher perch to photograph Seattle's skyline.
Seattle Space Needle

The Seattle Space Needle
Seattle Space Needle

I'm not sure it translates well to the picture, but there was a great circular break in the clouds right of the Space Needle that I thought was cool.
Seattle Space Needle

From another location, a view of the Puget Sound.
Puget Sound

After we cleaned up, did a little more driving around, sight seeing, had some dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory, and walked in a park, we went back to the hotel to collect warmer clothes and we went back up to the overlook for a night shot of the Space Needle and Seattle's skyline.
Seattle Space Needle

And for good measure, since it was my birthday trip, I actually got out from behind the camera. It was so chilly and windy up there. I had a lot of layers on, my coat and then Travis' big jacket on over the top since he was even using his rarely used heavy winter coat.
Seattle Space Needle

The next morning we met up with Justin and Debbie from Blue Element scuba back at Alki Cove II to say hi. I think Justin hates the thought of anyone diving when he's not and since he hadn't been to the Seattle side of the sound for a while he just couldn't not go when we were. When we got there they had just finished their first dive and Debbie was freezing and not looking forward to a second dive. Turns out a good thing they did dive! They found some great treasures! Old china and silverware.

After we said goodbye to them we went to the Seattle Public Market, Pike Place Market
Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

Pike Place Fish Market, famous for the flying fish! See the guy below, he's just caught a fish.
Pike Place Fish Market

Another catch
Pike Place Fish Market

And more throwing and catching.
Pike Place Fish Market

Crabs, anyone?
Pike Place Fish Market crabs

Sightseeing is not really Travis' thing, particularly if it includes crowds, bad parking, etc. Since it was my birthday so he had to go with the flow but I was nice and gave him the motivation to go by telling him that the Pike Place Bakery had donuts the size of a dinner plate. He got a glazed and I got an apple fritter of course.
Pike Place Bakery

I loved the rows and rows of colorful produce.
Pike Place Market

Pike Place Market

And the bouquets were gorgeous. Honey, please buy me flowers?
Pike Place Market

Hanging chilies outside another shop
Pike Place Market

And one last shot of Pike Place Market before we had to head home.
Pike Place Market

We stopped at Ivar's for a quick lunch at the outdoor Fish Bar and then we had to be on our way.

Later, on the way home we broke out the donuts. Mmmm.
donuts

Travis had me take the shot with his phone to Facebook.
donuts

And I shared this one. See my two bites out of the top? That's one big donut. No I did not eat it all at once. Yes, Travis ate all of his in no time.
donuts

What a great weekend!

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