Towering

ON A CLEAR DAY: To our delight, today dawned with surprise blue skies - bonus! So, we spent the first part of the day working on the house, finishing the siding (hooray!) while the kids rode bikes and scooters in the alley. Above, is one of hundreds of apples that hang over our heads as we work and play out there. They rain down, and sometimes I think we should all be wearing helmets. 

This afternoon, we decided to take a field trip (and use a Groupon before it expired) to Columbia Center, the tallest building in the state. Formerly the Bank of America Tower at 932 feet, it's the tallest building in Seattle and the fourth tallest building west of the Mississippi, by a tape measure from ground to rooftop. But, since the building has seven stories of varied uses BELOW ground, it's actually the 'tallest' building west of the Mississippi. 

Built in 1983-84, it opened in '85. There's an observation deck on the 73rd floor. We spent about an hour up there this afternoon, drinking in the local sights. 

Here, we looked toward our neighborhood's peninsula, Magnolia. Pretty! :)

Here's a view to the south, of West Seattle and the sound. We saw lots of ferries and activity at the Port of Seattle.

 Here's a sort of closeup of the Space Needle, still looking fabulous at 50 years old, and sporting Galaxy Gold on top. If you look in the far distance, you can see the railroad bridge by Ballard Locks is open for a boat. 

And here's the Space Needle and Seattle Center with Queen Anne Hill to its right. You can see old Queen Anne High School in the far right of the photo, atop the hill by the towers.

To the south, we also had a great view of the stadiums. 

I also happily pointed out to the family where I expect the new Sonics stadium will be, hopefully sooner rather than later. 

I also couldn't help but point out good ol' Smith Tower, sporting a 12th Man flag for the 'Hawks might I note. Back in the day it was the tallest building in the city/state. Today, it looked rather puny. ;)

Looking to the east, one of the expanses of green we picked out was the Seattle Pacific field where we went to see the kids' cousin Torie play a few weeks back.

One thing I learned tonight in my research on Columbia Center - according to the 9/11 Commission report of June 16, 2004, the original plan for the attacks called for the hijacking of ten planes, to be crashed into targets including the "tallest buildings in California and Washington State. That would have included Columbia Center. 

AFTER PARTY: After the Columbia Center excitement, we decided to have a sit at the nearby Pike Brewery. It was a good decision. :)

The kids enjoyed excellent Pike pretzels, while we enjoyed excellent Pike beer. Imagine my delight to find out they had their Space Needle 50th anniversary IPA (on the right) on tap. (Kilt Lifter is on the left.)

HELMET CAM: Yes, we're *still* marveling over Fearless Felix's freefall on Sunday morning. Today, Red Bull posted this video featuring some helmet cam footage of the dive.Sweet!