So I have a new "big fancy camera" that has a bit of a learning curve. I also don't have my usual filters that i like to use to help me get my skies right. As a result, these pictures from Mt. Rainier and the wildflowers around it are pretty good. No worries, i'll be up to par soon enough, if not better.

Seattle's biggest "traditional" parade (i.e. not one of those where there are naked bicyclists) is the Torchlight Parade, which was this weekend. This parade has all the regular stuff - bands, floats, balloons - what makes it unusual is that it starts just before dusk and continues well after it gets dark. Even though the idea is to have the participants "torch lit" and most didn't really understand that, I still loved the parade. It was so distinctly Seattle - complete with a little rain.





The most Seattle aspect of the parade was the finishers of the parade. Here, we end our parade with pirates. Complete with real canons that they fire (no balls, just blast). It totally feels like they are coming to pillage the city. I wish I had photos of them, but by the time they made it through to where I was watching from, it was totally dark. Grrrr.... argh!

Everybody knows that Seattle has a Space Needle. Not everybody knows that Seattle also has a monorail. This is known for being totally touristy and relatively useless to the locals. Hence why I had not taken it thus far. Now having taken it twice, I can verify that it is indeed very touristy, but still somewhat cool.

Seattle has a salmon ladder, which helps spawning salmon get from the ocean to where they need to go to make babies. This ladder has a viewing room where you can see the salmon doing their level best to make it up the ladder. I had never been there when there were actually salmon running. Not to say that ladder was teeming with fish, but there were a few, so this was a first for me.




Around the fish ladder there are some pretty sculptures and gardens which I really had never paid that close attention to before:

Aaaaaaannnnnnnddd we are back. Thank you for your patience. For those of you who were getting antsy... i am flattered, but there is no need to apply pressure. I only *just* got my camera replaced last week - which was the earliest possible it could have been. I'm not even fully replaced yet.

So in honor of being fully functional for the first time in a month, I did a lot of Seattle things this weekend that were totally new to me. Nice.

This weekend was the Seafood Festival, which I thought was going to be all about seafood. Not really. I mean, there *was* seafood there, but I thought there was going to be endless varieties to sample that you might not otherwise have a chance to. Instead, it was a large street fair with a couple of extras thrown in. Like a climbing wall. In the middle of the street.



A huge salmon throwing up children:



A latino Elvis wearing not one, but TWO different vinyl jumpsuits. I was very impressed that in 90 degree heat, he was able to change suits in under 2 mins. I mean, it takes me longer than that to sometimes remove a wet swimsuit....




Oh, and would you look at who was watching latino Elvis... and no, she was NOT part of the act.



And how can we have a fair in Seattle without this guy... you remember him.. from Folklife over Memorial Day Weekend..