Seattle - the fish ladder

Marianne has a few forum friends in Washington State and since she had never been to this state we decided to fly to Seattle on our way to Oz this year. One of her friends, Lydia, picked us up and took us on a brief tour of the fish ladder.

Since Seattle has such a beautiful location, I promised Lydia that there would be a couple of photos of  the ugly side of Seattle and here they are. Enjoy!

Puget Sound. Unfortunately the clouds had moved in and rain looked very likely.

Lydia and Marianne admiring the view.

In the distance are the Olympic Mountains. Of course they were not visible because of the clouds. I came to Seattle back in 1998 and they were covered with clouds back then as well. I suspect there are no mountains at all, just clouds. They should be named the Fig Newton Mountains.

The locks separate Lake Washington from Puget Sound.

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A diagram of the locks. The fish run is on the far side.

The path to the fish run is marked with these disks inset into the footpath.

Ship tied up at the locks.

The dam. More about the white tubes and the white lines later.

By now it was raining. The ladies sheltered under a yellow umbrella while I brought out the umbrella I used on the walk across England.

It was pelting down rain so most of the tourists had disappeared.

The rain did not bother this Sea Lion that was lurking waiting for a salmon to appear.

Another predator waiting for food.

The explanation for the white tubes. Click to enlarge.

Interesting sculptures.

Explanation of the white lines across the water.

A description of the fish ladder where the salmon climb to spawn.

The highest part of the ladder can be viewed in a special room with windows where you can see the fish. This monster had to be two feet long.

The windows.

Part of the ladder that is not covered. I did not see any salmon leaping up.

When we arrived the bridge was down to let a train pass over. When the train was gone it was raised up. It really is a monster in the American tradition of always building things larger than in other countries.

It was still raining as we reached this tree. Despite the rain, it was perfectly dry underneath the thick canopy of leaves.

We walked back through the gardens.

It was very dry in Seattle this past summer so this rose garden was not looking its best.

For some reason or other that I don't understand, there is a statue of Leif Ericson here in Seattle. Since the closest he got to Seattle was Newfoundland I fail to understand the logic. Lydia proved that she was a true citizen of Seattle by not wearing a raincoat or sheltering too much under an umbrella. Only wimps from outside Seattle use umbrellas. She looked to be soaked.

And finally, Dave and Sophie, who own Lydia, She is heavily involved with Airedale Rescue which is why she is friends with Marianne. We enjoyed meeting them and they enjoyed us as well.