A Beautiful Sunset at the Seattle Pier

I had about an hour to kill before the next ferry could take me back over the Puget Sound to Bremerton, where my happy little hotel room was waiting for me.

It’s been a gorgeous day of exploring one of my favorite cities today. Did you miss anything?

Let’s Ferry Over to Seattle!
Delicatus Lunch and Pike Place Market
Chocolate Caramels and Space Needles
Downtown Seattle and the Best Hot Chocolate Ever

Look, Mama! It’s Ivar’s!

Why don’t you go in to eat your deep-fried clams, and I will happily stay out here to wait for you…

Man, the sun makes all the difference in getting good shots. It’s hard to pick a favorite tonight because they all look so pretty with a sunset over water!

I like this one for all the birds.

These clams look startled.

I guess if I was about to be eaten by countless tourists who like seafood, I would be pretty startled, too.

On this pier in Seattle, there are lots of little novelty shops that have several enticing offerings to bring you inside.

Like fresh Mexican Jumping Beans? And free fudge?!

The totem poles are neat, huh?

Ooooo, another pretty shot of the water, sunset reflections, a boat, and flying birds.

I pass this hot dog stand every time that I visit Seattle. I guess if I was a huge hot dog fan, it would have already been on my list of things to enjoy.

Luckily for me, I still had a hot chocolate keeping me full. So this didn’t even tempt me tonight!

Oh my heck.

This is definitely up there for my favorite pictures from tonight!

I love the lights (no, really, I want some for my patio), and the ferris wheel.

But I really love the light cascading down the sidewalk! Isn’t that gorgeous?!

This Crab Pot is another staple on the Seattle Pier. But these sailors never make fish look appetizing enough for me to give it a shot.

Honestly, why would I ever give fish another shot?!

I really like this picture, too, for the sunbursts on the right.

Lighting is everything when it comes to getting amazing pictures! I lucked out tonight!

There are several pedestrian-friendly boardwalks on the pier as well. That is the Seattle Aquarium in the distance.

Oh dang.

Sheesh! So pretty!

This is a closer view of said aquarium. I’ve never been inside, but that couldn’t hurt someday, you know?

I love places of learning like that!

Nerd alert!

So I just wandered around the pier, taking pictures of anything and everything that I liked. And then the sun did all of the hard work for me.

Don’t you love this?

Should we go back to visit? Ok.

This isn’t the best picture of the ferris wheel tonight, but it is the best picture of a homeless man staring at the setting sun.

Should someone tell him that he shouldn’t be looking straight at it?

Poor guy.

I love the water and think often how fun it would be to live closer to it. I don’t necessarily like being in the water, so temperature isn’t a big deal for me.

Man, that’s pretty!

Don’t you feel like you’re there, with the breeze gracing your face, and the seagull cries filling your ears?

We’re pretending, so you don’t even have to worry about poop falling on you, either!

And, of course, any city is beautiful with the setting sun as its light source. Look how alive these buildings become!

I would be missing this place already if I didn’t get to come back tomorrow for another round of all the fun!

Austin Powers arrived in his power boat.

Austin Powers….he’s the maaaaaaaaan! For you!

These harbor lights are pretty cool, too, since they remind me of something from the earlier half of last century. I love mid-century stuff!

And that’s a pretty tall ferris wheel, too. I’ve never even checked the price on it, though I bet that it is pretty steep.

Oh man. This is another favorite.

But let’s head back towards the ferry terminal…slowly.

And let’s pass some more cute shops and restaurants.

Pirates Plunder? Yes, please! How fun!

And I loved loved loved this t-shirt in one of the window displays. Isn’t that cute?!

Well, this explains all the bird poop.

Quit feeding those massive stone birds, buddy!

The fire department has a neat presence on the pier as well.

And here we are back at the ferry terminal!

About every hour, a ferry departs to Bremerton. I’ll be on the next one!

A nice finish for a very reflective day…can you see the ferris wheel in the window reflection?

Inside the terminal is open and warm and airy and smells delicious. There are several little food stands and even a coffee shop.

Hey, it’s Seattle. There is a coffee shop every three feet.

The timber beams above are so beautiful.

I bought my ferry ticket to return home. It doesn’t cost anything to come over to Seattle, but it’s $7.70 to return.

It’s not a bad round-trip fare for a wonderful day, huh?

Let’s board the ferry! The trip takes an hour back to Bremerton.

And I have to suffer through views of this sunset for most of it. What a terrible thing!

Sorry about the light reflections. I couldn’t ask them to turn off the cabin lights for me while I snapped a few pictures.

For a Friday evening, I was surprised at how empty the ferry was.

I’m sure that rush hour has already ended, since it’s almost 8:00 PM, and other people enjoying a date night in Seattle (can you imagine?!) are just now sitting down to their dinner somewhere.

Just before nine, we pulled into the Bremerton Ferry Dock and disembarked.

Then, I waved goodbye to the terminal as I headed to my hotel a few blocks away.

What a wonderful day. I can’t get enough of this place. I’m glad that I get a repeat session tomorrow.

Are you ready for more?

Bremerton…A Nice Finish to a Long Day

Soon we were off again.

Wait, did I start too soon? I’ve already flown from Teterboro near New York City this morning. We landed in Denver for a quick fuel stop before continuing on our journey home. With not enough time to run home to see Hubby, I just stayed at the airport for our next flight an hour later.

We were headed to Bremerton for a long weekend, and I couldn’t wait to spend a few days in Seattle!

Wow, New York and Seattle in the same week. Can it possibly get any better than that?! They are definitely my favorite two cities to explore!

So…now we’re off again.

We waited for this Citation to land on our runway before we were cleared for takeoff.

What a gorgeous view just after we were airborne!

Ah, Spring in the Valley of the Sun. Things are green and nice this time of year. I’m pretty sure that it was seventy-four degrees when we took off.

Perfection!

Do you want to know what isn’t perfection? Nightmares about work…

I just woke up from a terrible dream this morning. I was back in my old job and had just found out that we were headed to Belgium. The real kicker was that I had been attending a day conference out of town and had no luggage with me. And all of a sudden I had to go to Belgium for three weeks. Instead of being thrilled to finally go to Europe, I was worrying about how expensive it would be to buy a toothbrush while there!

No warning. No clothes. No communication. I think this pretty much sums up how I always worried about that old job!

I don’t miss it one bit, in case you’re wondering!

Anyway, back to the wonderful flight…

This was a late Thursday afternoon of the Easter weekend when we were trucking north towards the Seattle area. The skies were packed with airplanes, and we saw lots go over and under us on their flights.

My window was facing away from the setting sun, so a little frost started to develop on the inside to my right.

We were waaaaaaaay above the clouds down there, and thankfully, they were not convective.

I’ve been up since 3:00 AM local time, so I don’t really think that any more challenges during this flight would work out for me!

It’s going to be great to land in Bremerton in a few hours!

Another blessing? Almost no headwind at all. Usually, flying northwest like we were, we have a nice little headwind around eighty knots keeping us from zooming along even faster.

Tonight? It was from 005 degrees at three knots. Can you believe it?! What a blessing!

Another airplane flying over a pretty mountain as we got closer to Bremerton tonight.

Airplanes in a picture just make everything better. Don’t you agree?

Well, OK…this picture is pretty, too. But it would be way better with an airplane in the shot.

I’m just sayin’…

We descended just over Tacoma and came up to Bremerton almost from the south. Seattle Center does this to keep us away from their busy airspace. We are just across the Puget Sound from them!

It was a pretty gorgeous flight…especially admiring the sunset for almost our entire evening!

That’s Tacoma directly underneath us, and Seattle is in the distance by that pretty cloud.

Are you as excited as me to have two whole days off to explore Seattle?!

Man, I love my job.

There were clouds all over as we began our final descent into Bremerton tonight. They were painted purple, orange, and pink with the setting sun working its magic.

This is a terrible shot of the Bremerton airport as we flew on a forty-five degree angle to enter the traffic pattern.

There were a few other airplanes in the pattern tonight, so we had to play dodge ball to make sure that we could fit in for our landing.

As we turned for our base leg of the approach, I could see the town of Bremerton just north of us. Those beautiful lights were welcoming me home!

I love this place. I’ve probably already told you that a thousand times.

But it’s still true.

We landed and taxied to the ramp. We always get spoiled rotten at Avian Flight Center, and this evening was no different!

We got our passengers and their luggage loaded up into the car and on their way. Then I got to enjoy the gorgeous evening at the airport while prepping Gladys for three nights on the ramp in Bremerton.

Is she smiling?!

Yes, she is.

We all love coming here.

Goodbye, pretty girl! I’ll see you in a few days! On Easter Sunday, to be exact!

Once in the parking lot to borrow the crew car, I took a parting shot of the FBO hangar.

These trees always remind me of something straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. Don’t you think so?

They are all over in this part of the world.

A surreal shot of forest blur as we made our seven-mile journey from the airport to town.

I can’t wait to get to that hotel room. It’s been a very long and fun day, but I’m definitely ready for some rest!

We eventually made the final corner before coming into view of the Bremerton Harbor.

Ah, Bremerton. You have no idea how much I love you!

I stayed at the lovely Fairfield Inn by Marriott. I had a goal to get a certain amount of nights at Marriott so I could use some points to get free rooms while at Disneyland.

It worked! We got four out of five nights paid for by Marriott points. So stinkin’ awesome!

Thank goodness that I’ve stayed in a hotel room almost constantly for the past three months, huh?

I was grateful for the microwave, too. I still had some healthy food in my bag, in case it was needed.

And this was the beautiful view that greeted me from my hotel window. Through these two apartment buildings, you can see the Puget Sound.

I am so happy to be here for this entire weekend! But, more importantly at the moment, I am so happy to fall asleep!

Prepare for lots of Seattle. I couldn’t help myself!