In addition to our wedding anniversary the end of August also brings the anniversary of the first time Walter and I met in person. Why do we celebrate meeting "in person"? Because we met online while Walter was living in Kentucky and I was here in Seattle. We developed our relationship first online then over the phone lines. Finally we decided that what we had was more than friendship and we decided to meet in person.
Walter came here to Seattle for the first time on August 31, 1986. It is no coincidence that our wedding anniversary is so close to our meeting anniversary. We planned our wedding date for the closest Saturday to a year after Walter's first arrival in Seattle.
During Walter's first visit I played tour guide and showed him a lot of Seattle's fun tourist sites. On our very first day we visited the Ballard Locks and then had dinner at the Totem House fish and chowder place across the street. In celebration of our anniversary we went back to the Locks and had dinner (as we do each year on this anniversary) at Totem House. We don't usually go there the rest of the year because really their fish is pretty greasy. But it's a fun thing to do in commemoration of our first meeting. It's too bad we can't repeat the rest of that week which included a visit to Expo 86 in Vancouver. That was fun!
I was taking a picture of Walter at the locks and a friendly stranger offered to take our photo together. We love tourists!
The official name of what we refer to as the Ballard Locks is "Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and Carl S. English, Jr. Gardens." The locks which are run by the US Army Corps of Engineers were built in 1911 so that coal and timber could be easily transported by boat. They serve to allow boats to pass between the saltwater of Puget Sound and the fresh water of the Ship Canal connecting to Lake Washington and Lake Union. Just like the locks in the Great Lakes and the Panama Canal, our locks help the boats move from one water level to another. Surprisingly there were not a lot of boats going through the locks this time otherwise I would have some video for you. Usually the locks are very busy with boats coming and going, especially on a summer day.
I liked this photo of the locks showing moss growing on the sides and reflecting in the water.
There is a fish ladder at the locks which simulates a salmon's natural return from salt water to freshwater where they will lay eggs and die. There are windows to the locks where you can watch the salmon as they rest between each step of their journey. We saw a few fish in the ladders during this visit and I got this photo through the glass.
I noticed some new art on the premises too. Here is one of several new mosaics in the fish ladder area (this one is above the fish ladder windows).
Of course in addition to the locks we also enjoyed the beautiful botanical gardens on the premises.
It's hard to believe that 22 years have passed since Walter first came to Seattle. I'm so glad he decided to stay and make Seattle his home and me his wife!If you would like to see more photos from the day you can get to them here.
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1 comment:
22 years. Congrats to you both. We are almost at two years - twenty more to go to we pass your current milestone, but then you'll be 44 years...let's not dwell on that. Time is fleeting. My tip for slowing it down is to increase the frequency that one looks at one's watch. However, beware, do this too often and life can get really tedious!
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