A Whale of a Walk

AMAZING ENCOUNTER:  As I checked my Facebook feed this morning, I saw notice from the folks at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks that a gray whale (!) had been spotted at their site early this morning. 

Well, well, well, that news immediately changed our planned locale for a morning walk. I was hoping beyond hope the mammoth mammal would still be around by the time we got there. When we were the only car in the parking lot, I figured it was long gone. Fortunately, I was wrong. 

We knew we were going to see plenty of heron overhead. The colony is back and seemingly bigger than ever, and they don't disappoint. 

We kept one eye on them, and one eye on the water, and then lo and behold ... what's that big bump?!

We quickly moved into a better position and the whale partially surfaced right next to where we were standing. I was actually cursing the fact I had a big lens on, as I couldn't capture it from head to tail.

 The whale looked to be about 30-ish feet long, and rather slender by whale standards.

We stayed around long enough to see it surface four times. Its surfacing was announced with a spout most of the time. I didn't catch any of those on 'film' because we never knew where it would surface. But the photo below shows the dissipating mist of a spout.

 And in the photo below, you can see its tail under the water's surface.

All in all, what an amazing encounter!

You can see a short video of our whale posted to Facebook by KING TV at this link:
https://www.facebook.com/KING5News/videos/10153566693076476/?hc_location=ufi

GLAM ROCK:  So, we found these fabulous boots at Value Village a few weeks back, for a pittance. To us, they screamed Ziggy Stardust, one of David Bowie's alter egos. We had to buy them.

And then we came to find out that the Washington State Spring Fair has an art competition for kids where they can enter a customized item of footwear, with a boot being one category. 

Fast forward a few sketches, some Magic Markers, vinyl tape and fabulous fake gemstones later, and this is what Annabelle came up with.

Naturally, it includes the iconic Ziggy Stardust lightning bolt.

 The front platform features graphics that are part of Bowie's parting gift, "Blackstar"

 The inside of the leg has graphics also inspired by the Blackstar set, as well as space age influences.

 And how 'bout that heel?! Much glam rock bedazzling!

Super fun project. We drop it off at the fairgrounds tomorrow.

FROM AFAR: My inbox this morning included a request from across the Atlantic. It read ...

Dear Kristine ...for the Webpage of a new Institute of Leipzig University, Germany, the "Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development", we would like to use your wonderful photo of the girl with the magnifying glass (http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/695781) as one of our headers. We were wondering if it is ok if we use your picture and how you would like to be mentioned in the references. Of course, the webpage is non-commercial and supports research according to strict ethical rules. Thank you so much!
Yours sincerely, Marie Kaiser 

Of course I said yes. Annabelle is happy to have her face plastered on the web page of a research center in Germany. :)

RUNED: Ever wonder what your name looks like when written in runes? Of course you have!

I asked the kids what they knew about runes, and they said that they knew that runes are the characters used by the Vikings and other Germanic peoples.

On the PBS web site associated with the show The Vikings, we learned runes were used from about the second to the 15th centuries A.D. While some runes rather resemble letters in our own alphabet, others look more like symbols.

Here's CJ's first name (Christian) spelled out in runes ...

And here is Annabelle's ...

You can check out your Viking name here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/write-your-name-in-runes.html

GOING UP:  We do love us some Space Needle. Today, some recently rediscovered Space Needle construction photos have been making the rounds. We thought it was definitely worth spending a minute to watch. You can do likewise at this link:
http://www.king5.com/features/making-of-the-space-needle/121668472