Playing Catch Up

            Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

THE DAY EARTH SMILED: NASA has begun sharing images of Earth taken by the Cassini spacecraft on Friday, July 19, which was also known as "Wave at Saturn" day. This one's my favorite so far. Look, there we are!! The bright white dot just below Saturn's (awesome!!!) rings. Can you see us smiling and waving - from 1.44 billion kilometers away?!

People on the West Coast of North American were supposed to look toward the eastern horizon at 2:30 p.m. and wave, so that's just what we did.

We were down at Seattle Center at the time. Here are the kids on the east side of the Space Needle, waving toward the horizon.

 And then we darted over to the arches at Pacific Science Center, and they waved from there, too!

You can read more about the raw Earth-moon image from Cassini, here.

These "Smile at Saturn" shots are are only the third-ever images of Earth from the outer solar system. Voyager 1 got the first Earth image from distant space, in 1990. Cassini shot the second, during an eclipse of the sun, in 2006.

Another cool shot Cassini sent back is this one - where you can see Earth and our moon!

Earth is the blue point of light on the left; the moon is fainter, white, and on the right. Both are seen here through Saturn's diffuse E ring. Per NASA, "Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were combined to create this natural color view." The distance between Cassini and Earth was approximately 898.414 million miles at the time of the photo.
HELLO, BERTHA!: Saturday midday we headed down to the Sodo district to check out a construction project like no other. Later this month, the world's largest tunneling machine will begin eating away at the ground, creating a 1.7 mile long tunnel that runs from South Lake Union to the stadiums at the south end of town.

Here's a map of the route, on the floor of a place called Milepost 31, an information center on 1st Avenue at Main. It has displays about people and projects in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square.  

                 

From there, we were off to the actual site of the dig for an open house.

Before we went in, we had to sign waivers. CJ and Annabelle considered their legal rights carefully. I think they were the only two people in the crowd who actually read the poster!

We snaked through the crowd and caught snippets of Governor Jay Inslee and other politicians and project managers giving speeches ...

Eventually, we made our way to Bertha herself. My, what a big tunneling machine she is. The world's largest (in diameter) tunneling machine, to be exact. More than five stories of steel, right now she's situated in an 80-foot deep "launch pit."

She's names after Bertha Knight Landes, who was elected mayor of Seattle in 1926. Landes was the first woman to lead a major American city. Berth was built by Hitachi-Zosen in Japan, at a cost of $80 million.

 When she starts digging, there will be workers inside the 7,000 ton behemoth, monitoring the goings-on.  Bertha's 326-feet long, and stands 57.5 feet high.

http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/About/FollowBertha

We also had a chance to sign our names on a tunnel liner segment. So years from now, when we're driving through that tunnel, we'll know the names of MPA alums are there somewhere!

Here's a cool animation which shows how the machine will work.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guWkPRReUaE#action=share

You can find an interactive map of the project and some of its components here:  http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/viaduct/Traffic/MP31Flash

Once the digging starts later this month, progress of about 6 feet per day is expected.

STATION TO STATION: On the way back to our car after bidding adieu to Bertha, we stopped in King Street Station. We did so because Friday night after the McCartney concert, everyone had to go to the bathroom and I suggested ducking into the train station which, fortunately, was open past its advertised hours.

When we walked in I was stunned at how gorgeous the place was. Replete with marble columns, a mosaic on the floor and lovely fixtures, I kept saying "this is amazing, this is amazing" while frantically looking for a bathroom. The station certainly didn't look anything like the run down, kind of sketchy place I recalled from years ago.

We made a note to revisit the station soon, and followed up on that the very next day.

This compass rose is right in the lobby.

I loved the view toward the King Street exit .

I love the round interior windows. They're so ornate and unnecessary. :)

Turns out King Street Station, built in 1906, is just coming off a $50 (!!) million dollar restoration. Turns out the city bought the building from Burlington Northern Santa Fe in 2008. That was news to me.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has a Web site about the project, with lots of before, during and after images here: http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/kingstreet.htm