Christmas Ship in West Seattle: Back tonight; more Saturday photos

| Holidays | Seen at sea | West Seattle news

Thanks to Michelle Edwards for that photo of the Christmas Ship sailing toward West Seattle at dusk Saturday, before its first stop (at Seacrest – here’s our report on that). After three Saturday stops, it’s back tonight for one more West Seattle stop, Don Armeni Boat Ramp at 7:15 pm. Its second Saturday stop, at Lowman Beach, drew a crowd that stretched out onto the rocky low-tide-exposed shore. Linda Ann Cox, whose snow-dusted photo from last year graced our previews this year, photographed the Lowman visit again last night:

As Linda Ann noted in her e-mail – and as we saw for ourselves – the Lowman Beach visit ended with fireworks (not an official part of the program, but fired in notable quantity from both the north side of the crowd and what looked to be somewhere in the residential area to the south). Even better, though, astro-expert Alice Enevoldsen says there was a meteor show too; she wrote about it on her Alice’s Astro Info website, and included photos – click here to see the tiny dots in the sky, captured by Jason Gift Enevoldsen, and then click here to see a labeled version of the photo. And one more look at the ship itself, which the rest of the year is the Spirit of Seattle, run by Argosy Cruises:

That photo was taken by Ian McKay, who has a few others in a Flickr gallery you can see here. From Lowman, the Christmas Ship and seven accompanying vessels moved on to Alki before returning downtown. Again, it’s at Don Armeni at 7:10 tonight; here’s a map. (Many more holiday events today/tonight – all on the West Seattle Holidays page – we’ll preview some of them later this morning, too.)

Duckitude December 13, 2009 (8:26 am)

Thanks, WSB, for keeping the Christmas Ship photos and stories front and center. I absolutely love Michelle’s photograph of the Christmas Ship moving towards the sunset! Beautiful!

Also, thanks, WSB, for noting the Sterling Images Gallery hours for the Lowman Beach Christmas ship visit on your blog. We had close to a hundred visitors to the gallery and gave away all the free Holiday Ducky Decorations. Even more adults and children had a great time with the Main Stage Lulu Ducky characters and were often singing along and dancing to “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” In other words, good fun was had by all! Ducky Holidays!

For those who have not been by Sterling Images or the West Seattle Ducky Reserve, I have posted a video of the Main Stage characters at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqeaPFqn7Yw the video of last years snow-covered duckies is at http://www.youtube.com/user/ADuckyLife#p/u/16/s27_x2ybUv8

Duckitude December 13, 2009 (9:51 am)

Just a word or two more about the fireworks after the Christmas Ships at Lowman. I am kind of a fireworks lover myself, but, I was not involved in this particular display. I have to say, it was fun, EXCEPT FOR the people who set off aerials from the tennis court at Lowman while many, many people were still around. Maybe they had the aerial tubes weighted down so that they could not fall over or jump up and fall over, but, sometimes people don’t think enough about safety. Aerials set off in the midst of a lot of people are known to cause injuries if they fall over and fire horizontally… be safe out there, okay?

If you are going to set off illegal fireworks, and people are going to (I guarantee it), be safe about it, at least, and be brave enough to do it on your own property and not other people’s property. The fine you might get should be your own… at least be accountable and responsible and willing to pay the $1,000 fine if caught.

To hire a pro will cost you way more than $1,000 and they won’t set off your fireworks that you bought… they will only set off their own.

The city should likely look at a different kind of certification for “amateur” fireworks instead of, in a very significant way, ignoring the fact that fireworks will happen no matter what you do, so maybe you should find a mechanism for letting the “little people” get certified and get permits instead of it being way too expensive for the average Jane and Joe.

miws December 13, 2009 (9:57 am)

Duckitude, have those Devil Duckies been hangin’ around your computer, causing glitchy stuff? ;)

I still need to get down to the Ducky Reserve, to see the Christmas display!

Great pics! The top one is especially nice! A beautiful shot, in and of itself, but even more special, with the added message of “PEACE“, on the back of the Christmas Ship! :cool:

Mike

WSB December 13, 2009 (10:05 am)

The motorized display is quite the sight. Duckitude has sent us a pic and it will be the highlighted Christmas lights pic of the night maybe as soon as tonight. As for the fireworks, we too are fireworks fans but I’ve never seen someone fire them at the Christmas Ship gathering (we missed Lowman last year, though, because the snow had started) so it was a little startling and safety was the first thing I thought of – TR

k December 13, 2009 (10:21 am)

thanks for the meteor shower info! i thought the city sprang for a serious holiday light show ; )

pam December 13, 2009 (10:29 am)

wow! I love the photo of the christmas ship with peace and the sunset… any chance that I can get a copy? what’s your asking price michelle? :)

MargL December 13, 2009 (10:47 am)

So -that’s- where the fireworks were coming from! We heard them go off from here in Arbor Heights and I was wondering “why in the world are they setting off illegal fireworks now?!” I figured someone was cleaning out their garage while trying to find Christmas decorations and ran across a cache of fireworks they decided to light up for the heck of it.
Love the sunset Christmas ship photo!

Kristina December 13, 2009 (10:57 am)

Our family, with friends, went to Seacrest to watch the early run of Christmas Ships on Saturday. I ask, what is more festive in Seattle than eating fish and chips or smoked salmon Caesar salad at the Crab Shack, then sitting on a dock watching sparkling boats go down the Sound, singing carols all the while? It was perfectly lovely, and a tradition that we feel so lucky to have.

The Velvet Bulldog December 13, 2009 (1:23 pm)

That photo is Christmas card worthy.

sam December 13, 2009 (1:32 pm)

did any one send you any photos of the sunset reflecting off of all the downtown bldgs? I thought that was so beautiful, and I don’t see it that often

Jim December 13, 2009 (1:49 pm)

Nice picture Michelle…. Dad

Michelle Edwards December 13, 2009 (1:51 pm)

Thanks for the photo complements! Pam, my email address is: edwardsm6@gmail.com if you or anyone else would like to contact me about the photo!

Mom December 13, 2009 (2:42 pm)

Wow! The sunset picture of the Christmas Ship is extraordinary Michelle! I would like an 8×10 for Christmas!…Mom

WSB December 13, 2009 (2:48 pm)

Sorry, didn’t know till your comment here that the spam filter ate the original one – maybe because of the two YouTube URLs – it’s an aggressive spam filter but it catches a lot. Unfortunately, the bycatch sometimes includes non-spam. Have rescued it – will delete the newer one if it’s OK with you – TR