Mukilteo Musings

Only In Seattle

A couple of things in the newspapers caught my attention today. They are worthy of an "Only In Seattle" list! At this very moment, Lucas called me from our rickety old boat out there on Puget Sound. The manly fishermen are returning with dinner which will consist of two crabs and a flounder. Crab-allergic Kaley is at her restaurant job creating salads and plating desserts so we can enjoy a crab feast.

1. Only in Seattle, are we becoming known as a tourist destination. It used to be we were kind of a secret but this is changing. Evidently, according to AAA, Seattle is third behind Orlando and Las Vegas as a hot summer tourist town. New York and L.A. are 4th and 5th. Of course, unlike Orlando, Las Vegas, New York and LA it is not hot here. Yesterday, the high was 80 in Seattle but it never got above 68 at our house and it was full sun.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2003778577_tourist07m.html


2. Only in Seattle, a reason to visit is to witness a "super pod." I get a thrill seeing merely a spout and a dorsal fin of an orca. In fact, just thinking about it reminds me of the words in that John Denver song, "You fill up my senses...." The combination of the water, mountains and wild orcas is unequaled anywhere in the universe. However, I have never seen a super pod. As I write this, all three of our resident pods are now in the San Juans. They came together into a super pod or family and friends gathering. They get so excited meeting up again after months of being apart, that they literally have a big party breaching and slapping the water. "Oh my gosh, Betty, I haven't seen you in ages. You look wonderful! I sure hope you brought your famous potato salad and deviled eggs."

The return of K pod included a rendezvous with Puget Sound's other two orca groups — the J and L pods — that formed a welcoming "superpod" just north of the Canadian border Wednesday, observers reported.

J and L pods were traveling south toward Orcas Island in the San Juan Island chain about noon Wednesday when they apparently heard acoustic calls from K pod, said Brenden Oranato, who was aboard the Serengeti, a whale-watch boat operated by Seafun Safaris out of Victoria, B.C.
"Js and Ls swung around and began swimming north at high speed," Oranato told the Kitsap Sun newspaper. "All three pods met up approximately six miles north of East Point," a portion of British Columbia's Saturna Island.

The return of K pod on the Fourth of July was about a month later than usual.

Those aboard the Serengeti said they witnessed a "greeting ceremony," in which the members of each pod form a straight line that heads toward the other groups. When they merged, the whales breached — or threw themselves out of the water to crash down with a splash, said Jeff LaMarche, who was on board the Serengeti.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003778567_orcasreturn07m.html


Photo: Center for Whale Research Emma Foster, Super pod, 7/4/07

3. Only in Seattle, hot tourist destination, can you see a "dead" ringer for Larry King at Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe.


photo Seattle Times/Eric Kayne

I'm just sayin'---put on a pair of glasses and suspenders.....!

UPDATE: Without the glasses and suspenders, mummy man is a dead ringer for Michael "gut feeling" Chertoff.

Off to put on a pot of boiling water: Only in Mukilteo.