Locks-n-Stuff

BOUNTIFUL:  We're finally beginning to reap the benefits of our months of gardening work. We've got multiple zucchini and so many cherry tomatoes, which the kids eat like candy. Sweet!

SOMETHING FISHY: For our morning walk, we headed to the Ballard Locks.  There were lots of fish moving through the ladders! Annabelle took this photo ...

 We stood atop the dam and watched the fish jump.

 We watched a few boats passing through the locks, including this tugboat ...

 and this one, out of San Francisco. Be glad you can't smell the diesel. :)

We took the opportunity to enjoy the multitude of flowers in bloom on the grounds of the park ...

and we also checked out a special guest, at the visitor's center, one of the "Astronauts on the Town," a fun visual celebration to mark the 50th anniversary of the Museum of Flight. 

In total, there are 25 unique, life-size "astronauts" stationed around town. Each began as a white fiberglass statue, then "transformed with paint, lasers, plaid shirts and other materials into a colorful new personality" per the MoF. 

Today, we encountered this lovely statue, Aboriginaut. 

Per the art project's Web site, this particular astronaut's design was "based on cave drawings of astronomy by Aboriginal cultures of Australia. The symbols on the suit depict the sun, the stars and the moon along with symbols representing travel." 

If you follow our blog, be prepared to see many more of these Earth-bound astronauts in the future, as we hope to visit a number of them. 

THREE MORE:  This afternoon, we watched three humans (one Russian, one American, and one Japanese citizen) hurtle off Earth, destination International Space Station.

Fortunately their flight went mostly OK (one solar array failed to deploy, per early reports I read, but one was enough to get them where they needed to go).

A BIT OF A HIKE: We stumbled across a video today by people who hiked the Pacific Crest Trail and made a compilation using one second of video from each day of their journey. In all, it's 2660 miles in just over three minutes. What a trip that would be. Makes me want to blank five months (maybe six) on our calendar and give it a go. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=styiDn7YKhE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=styiDn7YKhE
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