Hey all (this is going to several people, so please excuse the somewhat general greeting),

Our director of sales at work called me Friday, and told me that him and his wife were going up to Seattle to do some things, and that I should tag along.  They we’re really specific, but I was free (no kids), and it was a nice sunny day.   Still recovering from being sick the last 3 weeks and not ready to get back on the bike, I took them up on their offer to pick me up at the ferry.  How much simpler could it be?

The day started off with a bang.  A trip to the doctor’s office for them to get flu shots.  Nope, not kidding.  But it was an interesting visit to one of those ‘concierge doctors’.  Sort of a private insurance that the well heeled like to use.   For about $80 a month they get a doctor they can call 24×7 (not just a service, but their actual doctor..)  and get advice.  It’s in interesting health care delivery model.  The one I went to was called  Qliance.  http://www.qliance.com/ Anyhow, the view for the skyscaper was worth the elevator ride, and it only too 5 minutes.

Back in the car, we fought our way (and I mean fight, this is Seattle I’m talking about) north to the Fisherman’s Terminal.  Which is where things go interesting.  Joel, the ever ‘working a deal’ sales guy worms his way into the parking lot where the crabers park their personal cars.  Which was very cool, because just a few feet away from us was this:  (were’ parked just off frame):

Talk about timing.  They were 3 day late pulling out of port, and the entire crew was there working hard to get the boat ready to head up for King Crab fishing.  It was very cool.  The boat looks so much bigger, yet at the time, so much smaller, than it looks on TV.  One thing I’ll tell you that big ‘block’ they use to pull the crab pots up is ENORMOUS!  About twice the size it looks on video.  Now I really understand what a big deal it is for those guys to get clocked by it.

OK, so anyhow we managed to get a little bit of Keith’s time (he’s a *really* nice guy, not at all like he’s portrayed on TV, he hard a hard time excusing himself from us a few other people to get back to work.  Even after he finally went back on board, we talk him talking to other people from a port-hole on the stern of the boat.  They had a 9 day trip to Dutch Harbor a head of them.  Got to meet his brother Monty and a couple of the deck hands a well.  I’ve a lot more photos of the boat I’ll post up later.

We also saw this, the memorial plaque and small memorial shrine setup for Phil Harris:

The next coolist thing to happen, was a Coasti MH-65 heli blasted by low overhead, cranked itself into a tight turn and then came back right over the Wizard.  You can see one of the guys waving out the door here.

Then we got a little demonstration of USCG at-sea heli rescue.  The pilot put the thing into a hover about 60′ feet off the water, and just off the edge of the dock.  Quite a crowd appeared!  Sorry the photo looks fuzzy, but we were being doused with water from the rotorwash.

It was really awesome to watch, close up, how the pilot kept the bird in such a tight hover.  It was a little windy yesterday.  Being that close to a heli in hover for 20 minutes was very cool.   Those MH-65 Dauphin helis are not that big!  You can see on the door that this one is stationed out at Port Angeles.

While there, Rachael (Joel’s wife), tells us that Dan Akroyd is just a mile away at one of the stat liquor stores promoting his Crystal Head Vodka.  Into the car we hopped and blasted down to the Whole Foods store and there him and his entourage (and I mean entourage) were.   The line to get in the place wrapped around the building, but it seemed to go pretty quickly.

That’s him posing for another person to take the picture.  After that he posed with my friend’s wife,  signed our bottles, stopped (no idea why) thanked me (for taking the picture?), shook my hand smiled and handed me my signed bottle.  He was taking the time to be friendly to everyone.  Some people we’re being real knucklheads making a lot of Ghost Busters jokes, getting him to sign Ghost Busters memorabilia, etc. etc. and he was cool to everyone.   That was a lot of fun.

After we bailed out of there, we headed back to the Fisherman’s Terminall.  Lucky for us the crowd around the Wizard was gone, they’d finished loading the last of the pots on the boat and the crew was relaxing a bit, and got to talk to them for a bit again.    We didn’t stay to watch it pull out (it was going to be a couple more hours).  Stopped at the Anthony’s Fish Bar in Belltown,  watched the cruise ships sail out and then headed to Joels.

At Joel’s, we smoked some cigars, make some cocktails with the Crystal Head (it’s goooooood!),  and capped the night off with a huge dinner at 13 Coins in SeaTac.   The ferry was going to be a really long wait so they just drove me the 70 miles home.   I got back just before midnight.

It would have been a long day for the kids, but I’d wished I’d had the chance to take them there, meet  Keith and Dan, and watch the Coasties rescue demonstration.   Oh, and the fresh seafood at the terminal..  that was pretty good too!.  I think they would have had a lot of fun.

I have 197 photos I took yesterday.  When I’ve culled the herd to a reasonable ‘best of breed’, I’ll be posting up higher-res versions.