Salmon Spotting

I read that this was salmon spawning season and that I could go to a few different spots in the area and see the fish traveling up river to do their thing. For some reason I had envisioned them jumping, like they do in nature videos when bears try to snatch them out of the air.

When we finally spotted the fish at Tolt-MacDonald Park, they were cool but weren't really doing anything majestic. I'm a bit confused about the gap between hype and reality in this instance so I think I must have done something wrong. Maybe there's a better place I can check out next year?

While the fish weren't that exciting we were treated to some amazing views.

Fremont Fun

So we worked Fremont Oktoberfest Friday, drank delicious beers at the festival on Saturday, and we were back for more Fremont action on Sunday. One reason was that one of the perks we got for working there was a parking pass that was good all weekend. Being unable to turn down a free thing may catch up with me eventually but today is not that day.

Fremont has a Sunday Market that we hit first. Kind of a farmer's market with a lot of other stuff going on as well.

There was a large amount of thrift shop stuff being sold in a parking garage that I thought was fun. 

There's a giant 16 foot tall, 7 ton statue of Lenin that a guy bought in Czechoslovakia. He had to chop it into three pieces in order to ship it over here. I think it's pretty awesome and fun to see such a thing in the US. Some high level genius has dipped his fingers in bloody red paint to remind us that he was a bad guy. Thank you so much. Now we know. Now get a job.

Yesterday we visited the giant rocket attached to a building. This one has a giant planet to match.

We were very boba thirsty after all that statue watching.

Boba thirst can sometimes metastasize into beer thirst. Unfortunately at this late stage of the ailment there is only one cure.

Gas Works Park is notable because it preserves the remnants of a plant that converted coal into gas that closed in 1956.

Not a bad looking city at all. I might just make myself at home.

We took a long uphill walk to get to Caribbean sandwich shop Paseo. After ordering the cashier told us that today was customer appreciation day and that everything was free, marking it as one of the best days of my life.

Nordic Museum and Fremont Traversal

Seattle got a new NHL team this year, the Kraken. They are also is in the process of refurbishing the old Key Arena into the new and improved Climate Pledge Arena.

I'm new to town, and Lydia has a second job, so I thought it might be amusing to apply to a few of their many openings and see what happened.

I have a sickness where I like free things no matter what they are. Free museum is a good find though. There were a few locations on the list, but this particular time we went for the National Nordic Museum.

I thought it was cool how they covered immigration to the US from lots of different Northern European countries.

There were these fun golden pretzels with crowns on top in front of all of the bakeries in Denmark. I thought that was fun. I would pledge my allegiance to King Pretzel no problem.

The museum itself had a fun Nordic style to it as well.

We went to the museum in Stockholm where the giant ship Vasa now rests. It was super cool. This museum is like half John Europe trip memory lane.

"The phrase En Svensk Tiger was part of a Swedish public campaign during World War II to prevent spying and ensure secrecy. Tiger refers to the Swedish verb tiga (to keep silent), meaning that "A Swede keeps silent." The expression is similar to the American slogan "Loose lips sink ships."

"Nordic America

Between 1840 and 1920, nearly one-third of the total population of the Nordic region migrated to the United States. The earliest arrivals tended to settle near the East Coast, while later immigrants ventured to the American Midwest and the far West, including the Puget Sound region. They worked on farms, in mines and mills, in fisheries and logging camps. Over time, many entered professional life and became national leaders. Today, more than 10 million Americans are descended from immigrants from the five Nordic countries.

Yesterday we volunteered at Fremont Oktoberfest and so now it was time for them to pay the piper.

I was impressed with how little everyone seemed to give a crap that it was raining. Seattle drunkards are a hardy bunch.

All that pretzel talk earlier got me thinking. I needed a giant baked good in my life!

I was amused that there was a McDonald's food truck on site.

The Fremont Rocket attached to a random shop is a real circa-1950 Cold War rocket fuselage.

You can see the Fremont Troll prominently featured on this Oktoberfest poster.

We decided to visit him in real life.

You can pick your trolls and you can pick their nose.