Tag Archives: Seattle

Center for Wooden Boats

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Center for Wooden Boats
Lake Union, Seattle
May 25, 2024


We took advantage of the Memorial Day weekend to fly up to Seattle to visit two of our children. They live together north of the city, far from Sea-Tac airport. Fortunately, we discovered a few years ago that Alaska Airlines runs a service to Paine Field in Everett which is about ten minutes from the kids’ house. We recommend that airport if that fits your travel plans; it is small and quick to get through, and the waiting area boasts a bar, two fireplaces, ample and comfortable seating, and a wonderful view.

On the Saturday of our visit, we all went down to Lake Union to visit the Center for Wooden Boats. We had learned about its existence in the Los Angeles Times, strangely enough. On Sunday, May 19, the paper ran a special section titled The 101 Best West Coast Experiences. Bob set it aside, but Meredith waded through it and came up with this gem—our youngest has said that her folks’ super-power is finding obscure museums! The article piqued our interest and we planned to make that our family outing this trip.

The Times article mentioned that it is possible to reserve a “Peapod” rowboat to use for free for one hour with an advance reservation. Meredith went to the website but did not find any slots open that day. We decided to visit the museum anyway.

The museum is small but interesting. There are a number of small wooden boats of various types suspended in the visitor center with explanatory plaques nearby—go up the stairs to view the boats from above and read about them. There are also displays about the process of building wooden boats on the upper level, with examples of the tools used in the process. We came away with a definite understanding of the difference between a “clinker built” boat and one that was “carvel built”! As we arrived, a boat building class was concluding in the workspace; this can be viewed from the upper level by visitors. There is also a large classroom area upstairs where a sail making course was being conducted. But, as the docent said when we arrived, the real museum is on the water.

We proceeded to the dock area. On the way we passed a display of two traditional dugout canoes under a protective roof. Another volunteer told us that they were the work of a local boat builder, himself a member of the Tulalip tribe, the guide said. They were fascinating: carved from single huge logs and painstakingly shaped by the use of water and heated stones to achieve their final form.

On the docks we saw a variety of boats. Some are smaller rowing boats and canoes, while others are larger sailing vessels. On the floating dock is a workshop from which wafted scents of wood, pitch, and paint over the waters. One young volunteer was being taught how to drill holes through thick timbers to insert lap bolts—part of an ongoing project to repair and upgrade the Center’s docks.

In the end, we found an unexpected bonus. When we asked, we found they had boats available to take out after all, and three of our group went out for a row. We proceeded to don life vests and enter the “Peapod,” though ours was not a true “double ender.” We were curious about the name. Peapod was a boat type developed in Maine for use in near-shore lobstering.



After a practice lap around the sheltered pool by the workshop, admiring the lilies and a turtle on a rock enclosure in the middle, Meredith guided us out onto the lake. It is quite unlike the rowing Meredith does at ZLAC Rowing Club, where she rows in modern shells. She and our youngest had fun dividing the rowing between them. Bob manned the stern and took a few pictures. It was a wonderful day after a damp morning, which might have discouraged the people who had claimed the reservations, and we enjoyed all of the views: toward Lake Washington, off toward the locks that lead to Puget Sound with the Space Needle and Museum of Pop Culture in sight to the south, and keeping a wary eye on other lake traffic, including the seaplane offering tours.


It was a wonderful few hours. That area offers many dining options, and we chose to walk a few blocks to Tanoor, an excellent Lebanese restaurant, new to us but well reviewed.

Parking is limited close to the center and is park and pay. Their site offers suggestions for parking; we parked in a commercial space under an office tower two blocks away.

Snohomish

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Snohomish, Washington
May 29, 2017

On Memorial Day we drove with our daughters out in the country a short way from where they live, near Seattle, to visit the historic town of Snohomish. It had been recommended to us by the woman working the visitors center in Lynnwood. We had a perfect day for our outing — sunny and warm.

We walked along First Street, window shopping the antique stores and various boutiques. We then explored several adjacent residential streets, admiring some Victorian era homes. The town’s historical society has a museum, but it was closed, so we admired the building from the outside and went on.

We walked downhill back to the business district. We peered into the old Alcazar Theatre building. Built as a theater in 1892, it was converted to a garage around 1915, and now serves as an antique store. We went on down to the river and strolled back behind the business district, through the lovely riverside park. We watched some rafters who were bobbing along the river, heading rapidly downstream, paddling with little skill but great enthusiasm.

After our walk we ducked into the Oxford Saloon (established 1910) for beers and appetizers before heading back to the girls’ home.

Heritage Park

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Heritage Park
Lynnwood, Washington
May 27, 2017

We ventured out from San Diego, and flew north to spend Memorial Day weekend with our daughters who live in Washington State, near Seattle. We brought the California weather with us – sunny and in the 80’s.

Our youngest daughter teases us that our super power is finding a museum anywhere. Bob rose to that challenge. On Saturday we bought sandwiches to go at a local Subway then headed to Heritage Park in the Alderwood area of Lynnwood, a town just north of Seattle. We enjoyed a picnic outside, under a pine next to ferns and moss-covered rocks – things you definitely do not see in Southern California!

After the picnic we explored the historic buildings and small museums located in Heritage Park. At each stop we met and chatted with docents who excelled in both enthusiasm and knowledge. All exhibits offered free admission; we left donations in the various donation jars.

First stop was the Wickers Building, known originally as the Alderwood Manor Main Store. This building was built 1919 and used as a general store for much of its existence, then as a plumber’s shop and finally as an appliance parts store. Like the other Heritage Park structures, it was relocated to this spot; it would otherwise have been demolished to make room for the freeway. Inside the building we chatted with the woman running the visitor center, whose knowledge of Washington State was truly encyclopedic. She seemed to want to plan outings for us for every day of our visit.

We then stepped into the newly opened Northwest Veterans Museum, a one room museum with a good, and varied, display of artifacts in display cases, one case for each major war from World War I to the present. This small museum was run by two knowledgeable volunteers, and they had a plate of delicious homemade cookies on offer. Among the artifacts was a uniform that had belonged to Col. Mary V. Fager, an Army nurse who served from World War II to the 1970’s.

After seeing the Veterans Museum, we went upstairs to tour what had been the apartment space for the Wickers family, who ran the store for several decades. It was furnished with the sort of items they might have had around 1934 when their daughter was born.

Our second stop was Interurban Car 55, the last survivor of six trolley cars that served the Alderwood – Seattle – Everett electric car line from 1910-1939. It was used as a roadside diner for a while after its retirement. It has since been beautifully restored. We looked at the trolley car from a distance; it is fenced off most of the time. A docent who saw us admiring it came out to tell us that there will be an open house on June 10 when visitors can go inside the enclosure and into the car itself. We told our daughter she should plan to go back and see it then.

We then went into the Superintendent’s Cottage, which dates from 1917. This building was the home for the superintendent of the Demonstration Farm, a large hatchery. In 1922 Alderwood Manor, Washington was the second largest egg producer in the nation. Who knew? Inside that cottage there are fascinating sets of “then and now” photos of locations in and around Lynnwood, and also maps of the area over the past century of development. We learned the origin and backstory of several local landmark buildings.

Our final inside visit was to the Humble House, and even though we arrived when it was officially closing, the volunteer on duty insisted we come in. That cottage was built in 1919 and is typical of the farmhouses in the area at that time. The local genealogy society keeps its library in the cottage. We chatted with the woman on duty, who like us has roots in Massachusetts. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts. Together we chuckled a little over the local view that things that date back only a century are “old” – not the frame of reference we have in New England, first settled in the 17th Century, or even in California, with Spanish missionaries founding Mission San Diego in 1769.

Next to Humble House is a gigantic rhododendron. We were impressed with its size and profuse blooms, then later noticed many more large rhododendrons as we drove around. Like the ferns, not something we see much of in Southern California. Funny how well plants grow when you give them some water.

Before we left the park we walked around the Water Tower. This structure, like the Superintendent’s Cottage, was part of the Demonstration Farm. It has been relocated but not yet restored. There is no water tank on top of it, and the interior is not open for visitors. The historical society wants to refurbish it but lacks funds to do so currently.

Whidbey Island

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Whidbey Island, Washington
March 19-20, 2016

We flew to Seattle to visit with our oldest and youngest daughters and our daughter-in-law. Last time we visited them we enjoyed exploring Bainbridge Island, and we were intrigued by the idea of further island explorations. This year we decided to explore Whidbey Island, and we took the ferry from Mukilteo to Clinton, at the southern tip of Whidbey.

The scenery was magnificent — snow capped mountains to east and west, water, farms, and trees — all very different from what we see in San Diego.

On our drive north from Clinton, we stopped at Fort Casey State Park. This site is now a state park; formerly it was an army base with coastal defense artillery. Two large (10 inch barrel) guns are still in place for viewing, together with their massive carriages, and two of the 3 inch barrel guns are also on display. Our youngest daughter liked the maze of underground rooms and the artillery “dumb waiter” (our term) which was once used to raise the shells to the guns. From the ramparts we could see out over Admiralty Inlet across to the Olympic Peninsula. We were lucky to come on a free pass day; generally Washington state parks charge a fee of $10 per car per day for a Discovery Pass, or $30 for an annual pass.

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Within the park, just a short walk from Fort Casey, is the Admiralty Head Lighthouse, built in 1903 and used until 1922. We watched a video with archival footage of live firing practice of the big guns at Fort Casey. Bob and the girls climbed up the lighthouse tower. (Meredith waited on the landing.) There is no lamp in the lighthouse now, but there is a great view from its tower. On the ground floor there are several exhibits, including other lighthouse lenses typical of ones used in that period. Meredith was interested by the wooden library box; every few months the lighthouse service would deliver a box containing an assortment of books, both fiction and non-fiction, for the keeper to read.

Whidbey_lighthouse

We went on to the Island County Historical Society Museum, located near the waterfront in Coupeville, a scenic small town founded in 1852. Family admission worked out to about $2 each. We enjoyed looking at the 1902 Holsman car displayed in the lobby; it was the first automobile on the entire island. There are some impressive baskets on display in the Native American exhibit on the bottom floor of the museum.

In the late afternoon we stopped at the PBY Naval Air Museum in the town of Oak Harbor. On one side of the highway is a retired PBY seaplane, which saw service in the Aleutian Islands during World War II. The museum’s indoor displays are in a building across the road. We found them to be well labeled and very informative. We watched an excellent video which featured local residents reminiscing about life in Oak Harbor before the naval air station and describing the transformation that occurred with the opening of the air base and the all consuming war effort of WWII. Adult admission to the museum is ordinarily $7, but we had picked up discount coupons at the Island County Museum so paid $6 each.

Whidbey_PBY

We stayed overnight at the Best Western in Oak Harbor. The next morning we attended Mass at the local parish then drove to the north end of the island to see the scenic Deception Pass, so called because the first European explorers in the area thought that waterway was the mouth of a river. (Instead it is part of the Salish Sea, the network of inlets and waterways between the Olympic Peninsula and the mainland of Washington State.) We drove south from there, mainly retracing our steps but adding a couple of scenic detours. We enjoyed an excellent locally-sourced lunch at the Oystercatcher in historic Coupeville, stopped to see some mid 19th century blockhouses, and then finished our excursion with a tasting at the Spoiled Dog Winery. Late in the afternoon we took the ferry and headed back to the girls’ home.

Star Wars in Seattle

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EMP Museum
Seattle, Washington

The Star Wars movies are one of our favorite things, so when we saw that an extensive Star Wars costume exhibit would be on display in Seattle we were eager to fit it into our visit.

The girls were happy to come with us, and we also met up with Meredith’s niece and former brother-in-law. The exhibit is in the EMP Museum, in the Seattle Center, near the Space Needle. The museum building is a funky and colorful asymmetrical building designed by architect Frank Gehry. The EMP (Experience Music Project) Museum was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000.

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We bought tickets both to the museum and separate, timed tickets to the Star Wars exhibit, for a total cost of $32 each. (Online discounts may apply.) EMP is the first stop for this Star Wars exhibit, which is part of a 12-city national tour; it runs at EMP through October 4, 2015.

The exhibit was lots of fun. There were costumes from all six movies, and extensive background information – text, video, and audio — about the design and fabrication of the costumes. There were also interesting displays grouping costumes, such as half a dozen senators’ robes. Several displays showed how costumes evolved as a character developed, for example four separate costumes worn by Senator and later emperor Palpatine, showing his evolution toward the Dark Side.

There are some great videos, with George Lucas, costume designer Trisha Biggar, and Natalie Portman, among others. Meredith particularly enjoyed an audio clip of actor Anthony Daniels who played C-3PO, describing his doubts when his agent sent him to see someone named George Lucas who was doing a “low budget science fiction movie” and was looking for someone to play a robot, because it might lead to bigger things. Daniels was captivated by a sketch of C-3PO in Lucas’ office and agreed to play the part.

The exhibit ends with – who else? – Darth Vader, and of course we all had to take our photos with him.

EMP2

After we had cruised the Star Wars exhibit and related gift shop we saw several more exhibits at the EMP: Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic; Can’t Look Away: the Lure of Horror Film; and Indie Game Revolution. Both the fantasy and the horror exhibits had some great artifacts on display, including some original Wizard of Oz costume pieces and weapons from the Lord of the Rings movies in the fantasy exhibit. We enjoyed the “guest curator” videos that were playing in the horror exhibit, particularly Roger Corman’s perspective on the evolution of horror pictures. We skipped the music exhibits at EMP and also the temporary Seahawks exhibit.

The museum has multiple levels and is a bit confusing to navigate. Wheelchair patrons can use elevators, but stairs (lots of them!) are a more direct way to get around the museum. It would be possible to use a wheelchair or walker in the Star Wars costume exhibit, but the crowds made it somewhat claustrophobic even for those of us on two feet. If we were going to bring a wheelchair to this museum, we would aim for a less crowded time than midafternoon on a rainy weekend.

There is a café on the lowest level of EMP, but we ate an excellent lunch at Chutneys, an Indian restaurant in the Queen Anne neighborhood nearby, before coming to the museum. We parked in a parking garage near Seattle Center. The trek to the restaurant took us through the center then back again, all in steady rain that turned out to set a record for March 15. We were pleased to have brought our ancient London Fog trench coats, both of which date from our undergraduate days at Yale.

Bainbridge Island

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Bainbridge Island Museum of Art
Bloedel Reserve
March 14, 2015
Bainbridge Island, Washington

Yes, we do know Bainbridge Island is in Washington State, not in Southern California. We spent a getaway weekend with our oldest daughter and our daughter-in-law, who live in the Seattle area, and we thought it would be fun to add a couple of short posts about what we saw up there. Hope you don’t mind this detour off topic, but if you do, just scroll down to the next post, which covers our latest trip to the Getty Center.

Bainbridge Island is just west of Seattle. We took a short car ferry ride over to Winslow, on the south end of the island. Right near the ferry landing we stopped at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. The staff were very friendly. We had fun exploring Cut and Bent, a special exhibition on the ground floor, of art made by various contemporary artists from tin and other found objects.

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Then we went upstairs, where there were some beautiful wooden furniture pieces on display and also a large collection of paintings by noted regional artist Rosalyn Gale Powell called the Garden Path, featuring (but not limited to) her floral pieces.

Admission to the Museum of Art is free. There is a donation box by the front desk, and we made a contribution. Garden Path runs through June 7, 2015, as does the Cut and Bent exhibition.

After our museum visit we ate a great lunch at Bainbridge Bakers next door. Paninis for Bob and our daughter; quiche for Meredith. Other dining options on site include a small café inside the museum, and the Alehouse next to the bakery café (patrons must be at least 21 to get in). Parking is free but somewhat limited, both in quantity and time (3 hour maximum). Handicap access to and inside the museum is good. The art museum and eateries share parking with a children’s museum.

After lunch we drove to the north end of the island and walked through the Bloedel Reserve, a public garden founded by the Bloedel family on the site where they resided from 1951 to 1986. It first opened to the public in 1988. The walk around the grounds is about a mile and a half long, mostly flat with some gentle slopes in the second half of the walk. The main trail is bark covered and not suitable for wheelchairs; there is an alternate and shorter paved route that wheelchair patrons can use.

Halfway around the circuit is the Bloedel residence, a beautiful home on the bluff overlooking Port Madison Bay. The ground floor is open to visitors and staffed by a docent whom we found quite helpful. We enjoyed the walk and the variety of plants and environments we saw – meadow, woodlands, marshy areas, moss garden, camellia walk, and Japanese garden, along with a couple other areas.

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Admission to the Bloedel Reserve is $15. There are no eating facilities on the grounds.

From Bloedel we drove north to catch another ferry, from Kingston to Edmonds.