Quiet Thursday

GRAY DAY:  For some reason, I was thinking it was going to be sunny and 80-plus every day in Seattle from here to eternity.  Guess I was wrong.

Today dawned cool and cloudy, a thick marine layer hanging close to the ground.  The dogs were probably happy for it during our four mile walk this morning.  Today's destination: the Olympic Sculpture Park, along Puget Sound.

Our walk took us past the huge grain processing facility at Terminal  86.  The Atlantic Hawk, under a Nassau flag, was in port. It's a big, BIG ship.  It felt like it took us 10 minutes to walk past it, but it's really 'only' 225 meters (738 feet) long - way more that two football fields! 

This photo isn't particularly pretty, but it does capture the essence of today: gray.

I was very happy to find this pretty lady waiting for us at the Sculpture Park.  I've been wanting to see it ever since it was installed a few months back.

Her head is 46-feet tall, and no, my photo is not, in some way, squished.  The head's proportions are not those of a standard human.  Viewed in person, it's very dramatic. 

The sculpture is the work of Spanish artist Jaume Plensa, who has won a litany of awards.  Called Echo, the piece is named after the mountain nymph from Greek mythology

THE NEXT GIANT LEAP: Lots of talk about Apollo 11 these days, on the 45th anniversary of the first manned moon landing.

NASA has scheduled a a special program about NASA's "Next Giant Leap." It will be broadcast online at 10:30 a.m. Pacific time, live from their Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Morgan Freeman is hosting and astronaut Reid Wiseman, who is on the space station at the present, will join the broadcast.

You can view it here: http://ustream.tv/NASAJPL2

FIELD REPORT: News from down south and the happy campers.

Christian sent me this photo today ...

See! They're doing more than eating. They're also sleeping! (and it looks like quite soundly, might I add).