A fine summer's day

Summer got off to a shaky start, but today was fabulous.  I hung out at the beach with about a zillion other people, many of whom were swimming.  I'm sure the water was cold, but hell, we think that when the air temperature gets over 60 it's a warm day! 

Oh, and this woman has all of her limbs in real life, but got up and walked away before I was done!

And for bonus points, tonight's sunset:

Summer solstice sunset

Nice of the sun to show up - last night it went from gray, to grayer, but tonight there was actually a sunset.

Glazer's photo fest and resident evil

Glazer's had a two-day toy show with all of their vendors set up showing off the latest and greatest.  Those new Wacom tablets are killer - I've got to get one of those.  Nikon and Canon were both there, and the Canon session were about Canon while the Nikon sessions were about photography.  I liked the Nikon dude better.  He had all these great little setups where you, too, can take awesome water drop pictures.  There was also a guy who travels with Art Wolfe there talking about equipment.  Most of it I knew but he did answer my big question about how to charge when you're nowhere near an outlet for a long time (short answer: Bring lots of batteries. The solar chargers don't do it).  He also talked about mountain biking across Alaska and had the great quote: "At least on hills you get it back on the way down.  Wind just sucks."

I walked home since it's a nice walk around the lake and the weather was great. There is some construction going on to build a park at South Lake Union, and work ends at 2:45pm sharp!

I also went by some boats in dock covered in plastic like caterpillars - do ferries turn in to sea planes when they hatch?

Surprisingly there was also some thip which hasn't even bloomed yet - must be late-season thip.

Yesterday I only got in a short afternoon walk, but the view from the University Bridge was as good as ever.

Today I decided on the Evil Bakery for lunch, and managed to sketch the guy just sitting across from me.  It's a bit odd to draw with your sketchbook at an angle like that.  He was chewing on a straw while reading and didn't even notice me.

And the condiment bar with it's accessories...

Random tangerines

Walking back from the post office (yes mom - mailing the last sketchbook to you) there were a couple of tangerines artfully placed on the railing of the University Bridge.  Not sure if this was guerrilla art, bird food, or vandalism but the effect of the bright orange skin on the dull, weathered railing was quite striking.

Yesterday I got in a good ride and sketched a few squirming people and a perfectly still concrete plant.

Over the weekend there was a water polo game, and there were also some geese.  I sketched them both on the same page and due to a lack of attention to scale, ended up with giant geese:

The game was in the lake, and it sounded like there were some swimming lessons in the pool that's near the trail, so I peeked in through the fence...

There were several wedding photo shoots at Gasworks - I always get a kick out of the combination of a decommissioned gas refinery surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and wedding photos.

One of the weddings was Men in Kilts!

Then there were the Frisbee dudes who left before I finished drawing them:

Followed by the party of three, who left after I drew two:

Bicycle barbecue

OK, I'm totally behind on my scanning, and there's been some cool stuff.  First off is the bicycle barbecue.  I rode down to gasworks and there were a bunch of guys with their bikes down on the steps, and they also had a barbecue.  You know those little ones about a foot and a half long?  He had bungied it to the rack on the back of his bike and rode down from Bothell with it. I'd never thought of  that but it fit perfectly.

Then there's assorted views around town:  Under I5:

Waiting for the University Bridge (it's closed when it's opened):

A 3/4 moon over Portage Bay:

The Burke-Gilman trail from above:

A Frisbee game on the lawn (also from above):

And a very sad scene - the Evil Bakery closes at 3pm on Sundays...

..but I went for lunch later in the week (they do a special where you can have a sandwich, drink, and evil tart).

And back again for a slice of chocolate ganache that could put anyone into a coma with a very nice cup of coconut green tea...

Then there was some sort of accident on the bridge with an accordion bus and a tow truck - fun to draw - and two police cars who blocked traffic for a while after the bus had been towed.

Duck Dodge season has begun, which means oodles of boats on Lake Union on Tuesday evenings.

Sushi on Friday night - octopus arms are fun to draw.

And mom that's another sketchbook filled, and as soon as I get to a post office, it's on it's way!