Beach Bums

BEACHY KEEN: We have spent a fair amount of the past two afternoons at four different beaches along the shores of Puget Sound. There are worse ways to spend an afternoon, to be sure.

A Groupon for an hour rental of a four-person surrey (pedal car) prompted us to go to Alki Beach in West Seattle on Monday, midday.

It was a lot of fun pedaling along the waterfront. The weather was perfect and the views were spectacular.

 What a gorgeous place to live! Below, you can see the Eagle (red object in lower left) statue at the Olympic Sculpture Park, the Pacific Science Center arches (white), and the Space Needle (obviously!) 

 Meanwhile, one of the Washington State Ferries motored by.

Here's a short video of our cruise.

Today, we got together with an art class friend of Annabelle's and checked out a trio of 'secret' parks.

First stop was the end-of-the-road park in Magnolia, at the foot of 32nd Ave West, and then we headed to the Fourmile Rock beach, a bit further west.

 Then, we headed over to Ballard and took a path to a pocket beach between Anthony's restaurant and the Ballard Elk's Lodge. It's nice because it has sand (as opposed to the rocks covering most Seattle beaches). However, today, most of the sand was covered in (rather stinky seaweed).

Regardless, we were glad to have discovered the spot, and will be back to starfish hunt another day.

HERE WE GO AGAIN: We here at MPA are already rolling around the Red Planet on Curiosity, but today, NASA announced another opportunity for us to travel to Mars. 

Space enthusiasts around the world can participate in NASA’s journey to Mars by adding their names to a silicon microchip headed to the Red Planet aboard NASA's InSight Mars lander, scheduled to launch next year from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

"Our next step in the journey to Mars is another fantastic mission to the surface," said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, in a NASA press release. "By participating in this opportunity to send your name aboard InSight to the Red Planet, you're showing that you're part of that journey and the future of space exploration."

Submissions will be accepted until Sept. 8. To send your name to Mars aboard InSight, go to: http://go.usa.gov/3Aj3G

We got our boarding passes this afternoon!