Spring Bank Memorial Holiday Weekend

Downtown Seattle

A ferry on its way to Bainbridge

Me, braving the element of wind;
comfort over fashion!

The last Monday in May is actually a holiday in both the UK and the US. To celebrate the long weekend, directed by both my UK employers and US hosts, I worked a half day on Saturday and Monday; so much for a long weekend. After my morning at work on Saturday I decided to take a ferry ride because I was already in Downtown and it was a holiday weekend. This time I didn't go to Bainbridge Island but took the longer cruise to Bremerton. It was the perfect day for a ferry ride, cloudy enough that the wind was chilling but not raining. The weather meant I had the outside largely to myself although I was half frozen after the one hour journey. 



Out on the water

Alki Beach 



Waterfront houses on Bainbridge Island

The ride to Bremerton goes past Alki Beach, around the south of Bainbridge Island, then in through the inlet to Bremerton. 

More waterfront houses Wautauga Beach

Point Glover and Point White

Arriving at Bremerton

Bremerton is a naval shipyard and has been a site of ship building since the late 19th Century. It is one of those places that is trying to give itself a facelift but is struggling to attract the tourists it needs to maintain the kind of shops tourists like to look around. That was kind of obvious by the ferries leaving Seattle; the line for the Bainbridge ferry was over a hundred people long whilst the number of people waiting for the Bremerton ferry was less than fifty. To be honest Bainbridge doesn't have a lot going on either but it does manage 'quaint' which Bremerton does not. The main street of shops has been renovated recently but 3 of every 4 lots are empty. Despite that I did have a good time and it was nice to see somewhere different...



Water feature at the bottom of the park, really reminded me of Cornwall 

One of the fountains at the harbourside park,
what you can't see is the homeless person asleep
on the bench on the other side of the fountain.
That kind of summed Bremerton up.  

I think the most interesting thing in Bremerton was the harbourside fountain park. This isn't a very green park but includes a number of water features and a little history of the naval shipyards. The water features were fun and individual. The basis of a lot of them was large granite (?) boulders that had been carved and polished smooth on some sides whilst left rough on the others. I loved the contrast in texture and pattern this created. I also really enjoyed the way the water was used, the patter of the fountains was irregular and in the lower parts of the park there were little shoots of water that spurted every 10 seconds or so and splashed the rocks. It really reminded me of the ebb and flow of the ocean around rocks in Cornwall where a sudden rush causes the water to spray across the cliffs or forces it though a different gap in the rocks and causes a small burst of sound.

Harbourside Park showing some of the naval based sculptures



Statue of Esther Bielmeier from a photo taken in 1919;
she is heating rivets for ship building.

The park also featured a little of the history of the naval shipyard. This seemed to centre on the history of women working on the ships, I'm not entirely sure why, but there is a larger Navy Museum so maybe they felt the women had been missed out of that. The history was displayed as a sculpture based on a photo from 1919 and a series of photos of women working during the wars, mainly as rivet heaters. These photos were printed on large vertical metal fins, reminiscent of rudders. 







The other saving grace of my visit to Bremerton was a harbour festival that was going on. There was lots of things to eat, some jewellery, clothes, Costco, and soaps. It was fun to have a little wander around and listen a little to the entertainment, various local bands, playing most of the afternoon. 



Cormorants, easier to photograph when still

On the way home the ferry to Seattle was a lot more full with people,dressed in the blue and green sporting Sounder.F.C regalia. It amused me to realize that this was probably the largest crowd of football fans, in costume, I have ever been in the middle of, needless to say I have never actually been to a match. On the way home I had fun trying to photograph cormorants as they glided over the surface of the water. It reminded me what a bad animal photographer I am.


Blurry cormorants swoop over the water



Obligatory Seattle image, a little too misty for a good shot

The ferry ride also gave me some time to appreciate the wind, waves and ferry noises. The growl of a thousand tin symbols on the wind competed with the irregular percussion of a hundred metallic high fives, whilst the shattered reflections of the clouds waltzed on the grey silk below... Although the video doesn't do it justice. 

Finally and frustratingly at the moment Seattle harbourside is a total mess and half shut down whilst they reinforce the sea wall which is currently substantially supported by old wooden pillars especially problematic as a a multi-story free way runs 50ft or less (?) from the water.

The attractive Seattle Harbourside

Supporting structure under docks and harbourside