Seattle

Easter 2015

By Robin Leabman

April 10^th, 2015

Flying over lake tahoe

I’ve been extremely aware of California’s water problems for several years, as I have watched the Sierra perennial snow pack disappear aggressively over the past five years. Our route took us directly over Lake Tahoe, where just two days prior California Governor Jerry Brown stood on a grassy ski slope and announced 25% water restrictions for all of California. I sure hope he also intends to stop Nestle from illegally drawing water from the San Bernardino Mountains for their Arrowhead brand bottled water. Nestle’s national forest permit expired in 1989, but that didn’t stop them, nor the beneficiaries who allowed Nestle to continue to steal California’s water. From the pictures below, you can see that there is no snow anywhere around Lake Tahoe. In the bottom left of the Tahoe photo you can see a dusting of snow in Desolation Wilderness where my cousin Scott and I camped a couple years ago (I’ll put those up in another post).

Approaching seattle

Clouds prevented any clear shots of Mount St. Helens and Mount Rainier on our way into Seattle on this trip... Next time. We were vectored around to the north to land at Boeing Field’s Runway 13R. This approach gave us some good views of the city.

The Locks connecting Lake Union to Puget Sound

Downtown Seattle backdropped by Lake Washington

Looking back over my wing to the stadiums and downtown

Final approach to Boeing Field Runway 13R

Pike place market

I lived in Seattle back in 2000-2001 and loved everything about this wonderful city. Maybe it was the delightful weather, the holiday weekend, or the connection the people of this fair city have with their surroundings; the water, the mountains, and the immense greenery that makes this place buzz with positive energy and a wonderful sense of community.

Living for the last 14 years in Los Angeles with its lack of water, hot summers, snowless winters, megapolis sprawl, and detachment from others while fighting traffic in our metal and glass cages (cars), I really appreciate the juxtaposition Seattle has to offer. My flight crew and I spent Friday and Saturday wandering around downtown, Capital Hill, and Pioneer Square.

I just love cherries. Probably because I grew up in Montana with a cherry orchard.

This pasta stand has chocolate noodles... Delicious!

This is the famous fish market where they throw the fish.

The "stop motion" app on my Sony a6000 shoots bursts, then overlays each image for this effect.

Space needle sunset

My crew (Dane and Cyndee) and I headed to the Space Needle to watch the sunset. Cyndee stayed indoors to quell her fear of heights and to avoid the cold wind. Dane and I were unfazed by the cold, and being pilots, we’re obviously not afraid of heights. How a flight attendant could be afraid of heights still has me chuckling. She honestly nearly passed out in the elevator up!

Capital Hill in the foreground, Bellevue in the background

The viewing deck of the Space Needle with Dane looking West.

Space needle twilight

After the sunset, we were treated to a spectacular blood-moon and views of the city.

Easter bunny pub crawl

On Saturday there was an Easter Bunny pub crawl that attracted young and not-so-young from all the outlaying neighborhoods to downtown. I stood in the middle of the sidewalk as this massive flow of drunk Easter Bunnies engulfed and parted around me while I shot the migration. It was quite fun being in the middle of all that merriment!

I like how this guy turned his bald head into an Easter egg!

Pioneer square

Dane and I decided to take the light rail back to our hotel near SeaTac Airport, something I needed to do because the train didn’t exist when I lived in Seattle all those years ago. It’s interesting because there’s a tube under the city where subterranean buses share the tunnels with the trains. I guess that’s one way to do it!

This bus tunnel did exist 15 years ago when I lived in Seattle. It just didn't have any trains.

Chili night

On Saturday evening I got together with some old friends, Ben, Bill and Ursula. Ben and I rented rooms 15 years ago from Bill in his gorgeous house on the Bellevue side of Lake Washington. His deck offers unobstructed views of the lake, the tops of the highest points in downtown, boats, seaplanes, and beautiful sunsets. From this vantage point we enjoyed a tradition I’ve been missing since I last lived in Seattle… 48-hour homemade chili! Plus it was both Ursula’s and my birthday (April 5th and 6th respectively), so we followed the chili with a Japanese cheesecake!