Seattle. Day 26

Here we are at the Coast Guard Museum in downtown Seattle. 

The highlight of this trip was meeting Officer Davis who had been with

the coast guard for 65 years.  He was 83 and going strong running the

museum.  He said he has contributed to 27 books.  Andrew asked if there

was a shop with coast guard things for Bobo's room.  Officer Davis said he could

 take us over to the shop and the female coast guard who was showing our kiddos around the

room could watch our kids.  Alright, we did not expect that.  So we headed

over and started shopping.  It was so fun with Officer Davis, it was like

shopping with your grandpa.  He would find things for us and

then I would ask him about different helicopters or a ship we saw which he knew

everything about each item...the history, the year, the place.  There was

this huge book on the Coast guard that Bobo would have loved, he

helped edit it but said it was probably too expensive.  Andrew and I had

fun picking some things out.   

Of course, I asked the officer if he would get

in a picture with us, he declined politely.  He did give Bobo

the stuffed dog he is holding.  The dog's name is Sinbad

and he was a Coast Guard dog and he even instructed us on how to fix

the hat on the dog.  He did sign the picture book that we bought for Bobo....

the inscription read...."To the next coastie"

The red ship above is an ice breaker ship. 

It was just wonderful to be in the presence of Officer Davis, a man who has

committed much of his life to something and is such an expert. 

I walked away so full (so blessed!)for me and for my family to have Officer Davis and

his two volunteers be so attentive, passionate about the coast guard,

willing to give of their time, give in the name of education,

and have every question asked, answered!

 

We promised the Officer a picture of Bobo in the coast guard uniform

which Bobo doesn't know he has yet....

Next we stopped by the statue, The Fallen Hero's. 

He liked it!

The Locks in Ballard, WA (a neighborhood near Seattle)

 This is a system that raises the water level of the ocean

so boats can pass from the lake to the ocean which is more shallow.

 

The Ocean (on the right) is lower than the river (higher on the left)

We got to see the Locks work as a boat came in as we

had just arrived.

Water is moved by pressure, it slowly is rising and the green

moss will disappear as the water level in the ocean is

rising from the river water.

When the water level is the same on both sides, the

bridge opens and the boat can pass through.

 

Then we watched as the water slowly went lower again

in the ocean as the bridge closed back up separating

the ocean from the lake.

The fish ladders in the next area we walked to were

created to help the salmon in their yearly migration.

There are the salmon swimming back to the same river to spawn and

then those baby salmon once they are mature will go into the ocean

only to return to the same river to begin their spawning. 

Andrew took me to a surprise stop at Kerry Park,

to watch the sunset.  It was another beautiful view

of the city of Seattle.

 

 

 

 

It surprised me how steep some of the Seattle streets are,

reminiscent of San Francisco.  It is also interesting because

the water front in Seattle is a steep decent down from the rest of the city.

We ended our day at the mall for some food and a little shopping around.