Saunders Excellent Adventures: Locks and Seattle

Jon and I really enjoy going to the Hiram Chittendon Locks -- which takes boats from the fresh water of Lakes Union and Washington to the salt water of the Puget Sound. We find it a fascinating process....the kids -- not so much, at least not when they were younger -- but it's still one of our favorite spots to take visitors.

The Visitors Center has and inter-active display on how the locks work...

Derek's awesome "Locks" t-shirt

Jake and Ashlyn watch from the walk-way as ships come through the small lock -- from the Puget Sound up into the lakes. I don't have photos, but there were some Coast Guard ships that came through the locks not long after this.....maybe Ashlyn got some photos....

Jake watching the fish in the fish ladder. We were at the tail-end of the run.

A new take on "bunny ears" -- "Moose Antlers"

Back: Derek, Me, Jake

Front: Kyle, Jon, Scott, Sunny, Ashlyn

We took a photo like this in 2001 with Ashlyn's siblings...so we re-created....only you can't see Sunny very well, cause she was holding Kyle in place!

Weren't they sooo cute? They still are...but so fun to see these older photos.

Seattle -- Seafair

After we visited the locks we went to downtown Seattle -- we decided to go have lunch on the pier....it was also Seafair week. Seafair is an annual celebration which began in 1951-52 to celebrate Seattle's centennial. "The festival was designed to attract tourists and stress marine events in keeping with Seattle's boast as the "boating" capital of the world " (History of Seafair) There are many events during the week one is when the Naval Fleet comes into port. All the Sailors stand at attention as they parade into the Sound. Then they dock at some the piers. If you are hearty and brave the crowds you can tour the ships.

We got there in time to see the tail-end of the parade of ships.....

The amphibious assault ship -- USS Bonhamme Richard (LHD 6)

Ashlyn, Jake and Derek with the assault ship in the background.

Guided missile destroyers -- USS Sampson (DDG102)

USS Chafee (DDS 90)

In additions to this US Coast Guard vessel, there were 3 Royal Canadian Navy Ships with the fleet this year.

The plane and a US Coast Guard helicopter were flying above the fleet.

USS Sampson at dock....didn't stand in line for tours!

We had lunch at Steamers, before we split up and Jon, Kyle and I came home while the rest of them went off to explore!

Kyle on the carousel -- yes, there is carousel on the pier -- and this is how we coaxed (okay bribed) Kyle into going with us instead of trailing the rest of them....

Above: Derek, Jake and Ashlyn at Pike Market.

Below: Scott and Sunny outside the Market.

I believe the wall behind them is gum -- GROSS!

Seafair also has hydroplane races on Lake Washington and the Navy's Blue Angels preform shows on Saturday and Sunday. We didn't go to the show this year -- Derek, Jake and Ashlyn, left on Saturday morning to head back to Utah, ont we have gone in the past.

So these photo's are not my own -- but they are cool and are from this year's Blue Angels show...

We had many nights of fun and games -- many rousing rounds of "Things", "Apples to Apples", "Balderdash" and "3's". We were happy that Taylor Skinner is home from school for a couple of weeks and he joined us for many evenings!