Belltown Bent

Have a nice yesterday

Looking out the window this afternoon brought the pleasant reminder that this upcoming weekend presents one of the Bent's favorite opportunities to go back in time.

The unmistakable lines, the perfect pace, the gentle roll of the bow wake, and the gorgeous glow of pampered bright work - not unlike this Lake Union Dreamboat, photographed on a Bent cruise through BC's Gulf Islands. I pinched myself. I wasn't dreaming.

A pre-war wooden motor yacht was making it wondrous way down Elliot Bay for Bell Harbor and the annual Rendezvous of the Classic Yacht Associations Pacific NW Fleet, one of several such events scheduled for this summer.

Saturday and Sunday, June 16-17, the harbor will be a solid slip to slip dreamland of lovingly restored and maintained wooden motor yachts, displayed up-close and touchable, many open for boarding, and all worthy of the awe and admiration they inspire.

If you're anywhere near the downtown waterfront, make your way to Pier 66, check out the classic cars on display up top, then make your way down the gang-plank to a rendezvous with boating's past, and thank the skippers for keeping it present.

A Saturday Double-Header

Double-headers don't come around every weekend. And if you've going to see one, you pretty much know what you're in store for.

But Saturday, about 2 miles north of trackside Safeco Field, and several hours before the Mariners hit the field, visitors to Belltown's Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park were treated to a double-header of another sort. Most of us were caught by surprise.

Sporting bigger numerals than you'll ever fine on a baseball jersey, numbers 844 and 4449  double-headed right past Calder's Eagle and through the park, whistling away in a cloud of steam. Union Pacific 844, the last steam engine delivered to Union Pacific, in 1944, pulled lead on the northbound leg of the Puget Sound Steam Special from Tacoma to Everett, a benefit for the Barriger Library of the University of Missouri at St. Louis, and the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation. After decades of pulling passengers and freight, the 844 now serves as Union Pacific's goodwill ambassador, and remains the only Class 1 railroad steam locomotive never to be retired.

A few hours later, on the southbound leg of the excursion, the 4-8-4 configured locomotive Southern Pacific 4449 had the honors of pulling lead back to Tacoma. Built by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio, 4449 began its interesting history pulling SP's premier passenger runs in California, including the Coast Daylight, and was one of two locomotives to pull the American Freedom Train during the United States Bicentennial.

More: video (6:05) | recollections of a railroader - Bill Virgin's P.I. column | 4449 and 844 pix on flickr

Many colored White Rock

The Bent bopped up to The City of White Rock, B.C. for a large portion of beach promenading, and a side of business north of Surrey. I did most of the promenading.

While the white rock really is white (they paint it now - much nicer than the guano which earned the glacial erratic its name), the town is quite colorful. Literally and figuratively.

Sitting on the north shore of Semiahmoo Bay, the town basks in the moderate comfort of southern exposure, making it a combination retirement/resort destination for our northern neighbors. These contrasting dynamics blend quite naturally, much like the purple flowers and yellow blooming trees along the promenade. At least for a day-tripper from Belltown.

Destination dining

When two guys are this happy, while working hard delivering a great dining experience to a comfortably buzzing full-house on a Saturday night, you know something good is going on.

The Bent blew out of Belltown on the 5:35 to Bainbridge Island for a 6:30 reso at madoka, the new offering from co-owners chef Alvin Binuya and manager José Gonzales. Just a few minutes and one left turn after docking, we were sipping our cocktails and gazing longingly at every item on Binuya's pan-Pacific menu, wondering how many we could possibly sample before catching the 8:55 back to Pier 52.

Alvin, whose culinary skills are highly regarded in Belltown and beyond, and José, long respected for his front-of-the-house mastery, go way back. One year ago they decided to partner up and launch madoka, Japanese for "perfect circle", and they've been making people happy ever since. We're happy to have found the perfect circle route to fine food. See you on the ferry.

I'm right behind you, honey

Lesser Snow Geese mate for life, and they have no trouble finding their partner in the flock. Even if the flock numbers as high as 60,000 and has flown 3,000 miles down from Russia's Wrangel Island, north of the Arctic Circle.

That's approximately the size of the Fraser-Skagit sub-population of migratory birds arriving on the Skagit Delta. They'll spend the rest of the winter winging their way back and forth between there, just an hour from Belltown, and the Fraser River Delta in BC.

Mating pairs and their young will arrive together, and usually hang out together. They'll munch their way through winter, the kids will hook up with a life-partner, and they'll all head back to their breeding grounds with heavy layers of fat and protein so they can wait out the spring thaw so they can all get busy on the next cycle. It's worth a quick trip up I-5 to pay your respects.

A long swim home

The Bent just returned from a fly fishing trip to the Grande Ronde river, in SE Washington/NE Oregon. It's about a 7 hour drive from Belltown. But the steelhead trout we were hoping to delay, for just a few minutes, have to swim 600 miles from the Pacific, up the Columbia and Snake rivers, to reach the mouth of the Ronde in Hell's Canyon.

The deep canyon of the Ronde runs through Nez Perce country and the Blue Mountains and is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna, including free-roaming elk and bighorn sheep, and healthy populations of black bears and mountain lions. Boggan's Oasis, where highway 129 crosses the river, is where all the people hang out.

Note: no steelhead were harmed hooked in the making of this entry.

Less than two hours from Belltown, at the tip of a spit, is the Semiahmoo Resort. The resort is surrounded by tidal saltwater, with the Puget Sound on one side and Drayton Harbor on the other, and is within the last 10 of Washington's 3,026 miles of shoreline.

The beautiful location and facilities more than made up for the less than sterling service. And if watching countless herons stalking the tidal flats, spotting groups of harbor seals, loosing track of the boats coming and going, or hanging out at the pool isn't enough, the resort offers the #1 public golf course in Washington.

Riding the Underground

Somewhere in the woods of Western Washington, not too far from Belltown, accomplished BMX riders spend countless hours digging, sculpting and manicuring dirt into a series of challenging jumps and chutes - all to experience the joy of a few seconds of soaring, spinning, and speeding through the air. No crowds, no sponsors, no problem. Just the love of air.

Ballard Locks - managing the flow

Adjacent to the well-known Ballard (aka Hiram M. Chittenden) Locks, is the spillway dam. The Army Corps of Engineers uses the spillway to maintain Lake Washington, Lake Union, and Salmon Bay at the congressionally authorized level.

The Lockmaster, in addition to managing some 75,000 commercial and recreational vessel passings through the locks each year, must also maintain the freshwater level within about 2 feet, all while monitoring and controlling the intrusion of tidal saltwater  into the freshwater ecosystem.

Sen. Patty Murray's efforts to restore full funding for around the clock operations of the Locks are dependent on U.S. Senate and House budget negotiations to take place this fall, which will hopefully override the 40% cuts proposed by the White House.

Check out the satellite view of the locks and spillway.