Ride the ducks!

Adjacent to the Seattle Center, this 90-minute amphibious tour travels through the sights of downtown Seattle and then along Aurora to to Fremont and Gasworks Park, out onto the water to see the houseboats on Lake Union before returning to Seattle Center.

Golden Gardens Park

Located just north of Shilshole Marina on the western side of Ballard, Golden Gardens Park is a nice beachfront area with picnicking areas, sand, fields and a few secluded ponds near the north beach which held ducklings when I visited there earlier today.

In addition to playing frisbee or romping through the sand, Golden Gardens has incredible views of the Puget Sound and the Olympic mountains beyond on clear days. You'll also see a number of small sailing ships from the aforementioned marina, and possibly also large container ships heading towards the Port of Seattle from the entrance to the Puget Sound.

Some pictures I took from earlier today:

From Golden Gardens Park, Ballard, Seattle

Seaplane rides

Lake Union is not only a functioning marina and home to a number of houseboats, it's also an airport for a number of small seaplanes which are mostly based out of the south-western side of the lake. Walking along the shore between South Lake Union and Eastlake, you can find a couple of signs advertising seaplane flying lessons and seaplane tours of the city.

We haven't been up in any of the planes yet, although the idea of being able to fly out of an airport that's a 15-20 minute walk away is definitely enticing...

Ballard Locks

Officially known as the "Hiram M. Chittenden Locks", this pair of boat locks are some of the busier locks in the country, as ships traveling between Puget Sound and Lake Union or Lake Washington must traverse these locks. There are two locks; one for large ships and one for small ships, in addition to a salmon run to allow salmon to climb the 22 feet between sea level and the level of Lake Washington.

In addition to the locks themselves, the northern side of the locks (which includes about 50 spaces of parking) also hosts the Carl English Botanical Gardens.

Discovery Park

This is a great park on the west edge of Magnolia. It has great views of Puget Sound and nice walking trails with a variety of loops for different distances and exertion levels. On the north side is a small Navy station, and there are some great birdwatching opportunities on the west side near the lighthouse. The west end also houses a sewage treatment facility, but it seems well-run and is reasonably-well concealed in the forested section along that coast.
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