West Seattle Blog…

Expanded citywide traffic alert: Blue Angels’ I-90 closures, more

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli, after Blue Angels’ arrival Tuesday)
The city’s weekend traffic alert expands to four days this week – today through Sunday – since the I-90 bridge closures for Seafair Blue Angels practices and shows are about to begin. (Today’s practices – with two I-90 closures – are not the official show maneuvers, but rather the “get acclimated to the area” flights.) Also in the alert – though no roads will be closed or blocked – is an Alki event, the Festival of India on Saturday and Sunday. Read on for SDOT’s full alert list: Click to read the rest of Expanded citywide traffic alert: Blue Angels’ I-90 closures, more…

West Seattle Wednesday: Driving-range meeting; Seafair fleet

2 highlights from the WSB West Seattle Events calendar: If you’re interested in the new $3.4 million driving range planned for the West Seattle Golf Course, tonight is the first public design meeting, 7 pm at the WSGC (4470 35th SW). … You can watch Elliott Bay for the Seafair Navy Fleet “parade of ships,” after 1 pm (ships/schedule here) … Speaking of Seafair, today’s only scheduled Blue Angels aerial activities are media/VIP flights in #7 this morning.

Video: Blue Angels’ arrival at Museum of Flight/Boeing Field

(WSB video of Blue Angels’ flyby before landing at the Museum of Flight @ 3:15 pm today)
ORIGINAL 3 PM REPORT: We are on the second-story balcony at the Museum of Flight, overlooking the Boeing Field runway from which the Blue Angels take off and land during their annual Seafair visit. Semi-official word here at MOF – subject to change, obviously! – is that the latest estimated time of arrival is 3:23 pm. Updates if/when we get them. And visuals once they’re here! P.S. A 787 is about to taxi here, too, bonus for aviation fans. P.P.S. KIRO TV promises a live feed here.

3:24 PM UPDATE: They arrived a few minutes earlier than predicted. We’re uploading the MOF flyby video now. They’ve just finished taxiing into their Seattle HQ “parking” spots on the south side of the MOF.

ADDED 3:44 PM: The flyby clip’s been up for about 15 minutes, and we’re adding one more – the jets taxiing, as seen from the MOF balcony (thanks to MOF for the surprise invite – we’ve never been up there before.)

Back to West Seattle for us – we’ll be on the road for Night Out block-parties coverage in two hours. Meantime, the Blue Angels’ schedule for the rest of the week is here; I-90 bridge-closure info for Thursday-Sunday is here.

Seafair: ‘Early’ fleet sighting; Blue Angels arrival update

SEAFAIR FLEET, EARLY SIGHTING: G. Jones shares that photo, taken before the morning “marine layer” started burning off, reporting that it shows”the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser, USS Port Royal (CG 73) entering Elliott Bay to participate as part of the Seafair fleet … West Point lighthouse in the background.” The official Seafair Fleet”parade of ships,” including the Port Royal, is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, with tours Thursday-Sunday (here’s the info on the Seafair website).

BLUE ANGELS UPDATE: Per several sources, they’re currently expected to arrive at Boeing Field between 3 and 3:30 this afternoon. Note that this may change. We’ll add updates to this item if/when we get them – barring major West Seattle breaking news, we’ll be on scene (and tweeting at @westseattleblog).

Seafair updates: Blue Angels tomorrow, Navy fleet Wednesday

(July 2009 Seafair fleet “parade” photo by Mark Rhea)
Not specifically West Seattle, but widespread interest, and you’ll see some of these Seafair spectacles from here, so here goes: We’re awaiting a specific time-frame for the Blue Angels‘ “mid-afternoon” arrival tomorrow – here’s their previously announced schedule for the week. Then on Wednesday afternoon, you’ll see the Seafair fleet arrive in Elliott Bay, en route to where they’ll dock for tours: 4 ships are expected from the U.S. Navy, 3 from the Canadian Navy – this page on the Seafair site has full details (including tour times). 6:24 PM: Ryan reminds us via Facebook that we should include the link to the I-90 bridge closure times for the Blue Angels’ flights Thursday-Sunday – here it is.

Almost Blue Angels time! Museum of Flight announces schedule

(WSB photo from August 2007, watching the Blues’ takeoff from the Museum of Flight)
Almost that time of year when longtime WSB’ers know we go a little crazy for the Blue Angels during their Seafair visit. The not-too-far-away Museum of Flight is their home-away-from-home while they’re here – a great place to watch the takeoffs and landings (and you can glimpse some of the maneuvers too) – and they’ve just sent their official announcement of “Blue Angels Week” activities. Read on if you’re a fellow fan (or if you want to know when to get the earplugs out): Click to read the rest of Almost Blue Angels time! Museum of Flight announces schedule…

2 Blue Angels pilots’ whirlwind winter Seattle visit

If you’re in eastern West Seattle, or somewhere close to Boeing Field, you might have seen/heard a familiar summertime sound today – yes, that was a Blue Angels jet (the two-seater #7); here’s KING5 video with the proof. Seafair says pilots #7 and #8 were here for the annual winter briefing meetings. This year’s air show is set for August 6-8.

Blue Angels, one last time: Yes, they’re really gone

Thanks to David DeSiga for sharing, via Facebook (with permission to republish here), his photos of the Blue Angels‘ departure from Boeing Field a little more than an hour ago. His angle is about the same as the one from which we watched, just south of the airport’s tower. They took off heading south, no flybys back around the city, so some have asked “Are they gone?” Yes, and here’s the proof. Click ahead for a few more pix (also, KING has just posted the video shot from its chopper, which hovered just a bit to the west): Click to read the rest of Blue Angels, one last time: Yes, they’re really gone…

Today/tonight: Blue Angels leave; Night Out; High Point garden

(iPhone photo taken during final Blue Angels flyby Sunday, north of Boeing Field control tower)
BLUE ANGELS’ DEPARTURE: Finally found some ballpark time info, for anyone else interested in seeing them leave: Len Anderson IV — aka @lead_solo on Twitter, a former Blue Angels pilot traveling with the group and providing behind-the-scenes info, came through again: He says Blues 1-7 are scheduled to leave Boeing Field around noon today; check his Twitter page for the latest. Their next stop: The California International Airshow in Salinas (near Monterey/Carmel).

NIGHT OUT: Neighborhoods all around West Seattle will close their streets and get together for block parties during tonight’s annual Night Out celebration, in the name of building bonds and fighting crime. We’ll be reporting “live” as it happens, thanks to the dozens of WSB’ers who answered our second annual call for locations we can visit. If you’re not participating – since arterials aren’t eligible for block-party shutdowns, you shouldn’t find any major traffic effects, though your favorite side-street route might be off-limits for a few hours.

HIGH POINT MARKET GARDEN: Lots of rave reviews since this once-a-week produce stand opened last month. 4:30-7 pm today, 32nd/Juneau (map), fresh and reasonably priced produce grown in the gorgeous “market garden” right by the stand.

So long, Seafair Sunday 2009; till next year, Blue Angels

(iPhone photo that doesn’t do justice to tonight’s sunset – send a photo if you have one that does!)
As the sun sets on another Seafair Sunday, we have one last look at those six blue-and-yellow U.S. Navy jets that have either mesmerized or maddened you for the past four days – there don’t seem to be many people whose opinions fall inbetween. Thanks to everyone who shared their views of the high-flying Blue Angels – this one from Jim Clark:

And there’s the seventh Blue Angels crowd fave – this view of Fat Albert is from David Rosen of SlickPix Photography, who was out along I-90 today:

David also shares this view of two Blues:

Our lingering memory is always the sound of the cockpit covers closing, and the jets’ engines firing up at the Museum of Flight - this clip from the M-o-F fence today is more about that sound than the visuals:

And we never leave without a snapshot of the ever-cool crew:

Last update we got, the Angels were scheduled to leave Seattle on Tuesday. If we get any more specific information than that, we’ll let you know. Meantime, lots of video of today’s events, including other airshow acts and the hydro races, can be found at kirotv.com – their TV station has the Seafair television contract, so they have the most “behind-the-scenes” stuff to share.

Blue Angels “behind the scenes”: Boeing Field, and more

Those are the Seafair-provided Corvette convertibles that Blue Angels pilots and entourage use to get around while they’re in Seattle each summer, leaving downtown – with police escort – Saturday morning. The video is from former Blue Angels pilot Len Anderson, who traveled to Seattle with the team on Thursday and has been sharing behind-the-scenes photos, video and observations via his Twitter account (@lead_solo) all along the way (here’s a link to his photo of the pilots in the parking garage, pre-Corvettes, and a photo of the SPD motorcycles awaiting them). But you don’t have to be an ex-pilot to get “behind the scenes” to some degree; that’s the feeling we always get when watching the Blue Angels’ arrivals, takeoffs and landings at the Museum of Flight, including the crew preps before the pilots show up:

To get any closer, you’d practically have to be flying yourself, which might provide a view like this one that David Hutchinson shared, after taking photos from Ruby Chow Park on the north end of Boeing Field:

For the timeline of this year’s Boeing Field/Museum of Flight viewing (from our experience so far), and more photos, read on: Click to read the rest of Blue Angels “behind the scenes”: Boeing Field, and more…

Blue Angels weekend: Another Boeing Field place to watch

Continuing our 4th annual collection of reports from Temporary WSB HQ East, aka Boeing Field during the Blue Angels‘ appearances at Seafair: If you are thinking about going to see them today, but not necessarily determined to watch from Lake Washington, we happened onto another option for watching their takeoff, landing, and significant Angels-glimpsing inbetween. On Friday, since we didn’t extricate ourselves from the desk soon enough to go hang out “on the fence” (explained here) at the Museum of Flight, we had to find an alternative spot along the Boeing Field runway. A turn opportunity presented itself just north of the Boeing Field tower, and we wound up here:

The turn is at South 81st Place and East Marginal (map). It’s a small Boeing lot but as with the Boeing lots closer to the Museum of Flight, nobody seemed to be checking credentials. Drawbacks: A road parallels the runway-boundary fence, so you need to stand on or behind the fairly short concrete barrier. Advantages: You’re right there as the Angels go wheels up – and you get the Fat Albert (C-130T support plane) flyby, too:

Not to mention the multiple Blue Angels sightings during the show:

These folks ON the runway (across from “our” spot) had an even-better view, but somehow we doubt that spot’s publicly accessible:

The Blue Angels took off just before 1:30 on Friday, with a ground-shaking opening act from other airshow performers, particularly the F-15E Strike Eagles. Today, we’re hoping to get to the Museum of Flight in time to wait “on the fence” and see the walkdown, the synchronized crew moves, etc. And remember, the I-90 floating bridge closes 12:45-2:40 pm.

Seafair today: Blue Angels’ practice show, and where to watch

(photo taken from south side of Boeing Field before yesterday afternoon’s practice takeoff)
If you’re not interested in watching those six bright-blue jets tear through the sky, the main effect of today’s practice that you’ll want to know about is the 12:45-2:20 pm I-90 bridge closure (tomorrow and Sunday too). If you are, today’s what we dubbed “Free Day” – you can go to Lake Washington and watch the air show (the Blue Angels are the stars but other acts perform) and hydro time trials without paying admission, unless you want to sit in the grandstands. (We wrote in 2006 about how to get to the lake shore.) For other Blue Angels-watching options, our preferred option remains the Museum of Flight, where you can arrive early for a spot on the fence to watch the “walkdown” (here’s our “on the fence” story from 2007) before the ground-rumbling takeoff; always hard to tell how the fence crowd will be, but we wouldn’t advise getting there later than noon. You can also watch the takeoff from other vantage points around Boeing Field – cars line the frontage road on its east side, and yesterday we wound up on its south side. Our fellow independent-neighborhood-news-site operators at Central District News have published not-so-well-known free viewing options in their “Blue Angels bonus” report. Also part of Seafair: Fleet tours continue today.

Today/tonight: Heat, Blue Angels, concerts, King County’s future

FORECAST: It’s improved a tiny bit. Today is now projected to reach into the 90s (previously, there was a projection we’d hit triple digits again).

(WSB photo from Angels’ arrival at Boeing Field Tuesday)
BLUE ANGELS: Today’s the first of two days that they’ll be practicing, before the two official shows Saturday-Sunday over Lake Washington. While tomorrow’s practice is the same show they’ll perform over the weekend, today is somewhat looser, with maneuvers and geography familiarization, and it also means the I-90 bridge will be closed twice today – 9:45 to noon, 1:15-2:30 pm.

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli, from last Tuesday’s concert-series kickoff)
ADMIRAL CONCERT: 2nd show in the free outdoor-concert series at Hiawatha, 6:30 pm, Tom Colwell and the Southbound Odyssey. See the preview here.

FAUNTLEROY CONCERT: “Sweet, Sweet Music” tonight at Fauntleroy Church – Sarah Ackers, Betsy Boyer and Bronwyn Edwards Cryer are in what’s promised to be a “cool” Fellowship Hall, 7:30 pm, music and desserts, $5 (more info here).

KING COUNTY’S FUTURE: Across the street from that church, you’ll find The Hall at Fauntleroy, where a 6:30 pm meeting is the last in a series of discussions around the county, about the county, and where it should go from here.

Tuesday afternoon notes: Heat; USCGC Bertholf; Blue Angels late

That photo just looks so cool and blue … thanks to Gary Jones for sharing his pic of the US Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf as it arrived in Elliott Bay for Seafair (as previewed here). ADDED 6:25 PM: Gary has video of the arrival too:

Meantime, this afternoon’s biggest Seafair arrival, the Blue Angels, are reportedly running late – latest estimate, 3-3:30 pm at Boeing Field. Now, as for the heat: The newest forecast is still calling for up to 100 today, even hotter tomorrow; we’re compiling a keep-cool list in the WSB Forums (read it and/or add your suggestion/s here). Meantime, the mayor’s having a media briefing about the city’s heat-wave response in about an hour.

Happening today/tonight: Produce, playfield, plans, plus …

HIGH POINT MARKET GARDEN’S WEEKLY SALE DAY: Every Tuesday through the summer, 4:30-7 pm, fresh produce is on sale at 32nd/Juneau (map), grown in the big beautiful “market garden” tended right there. Here’s our story from opening day two weeks ago.

MUSIC AT ALKI PLAYFIELD: Can’t wait until Thursday night for the next installment of the Admiral Summer Concerts at Hiawatha (6:30 pm, Tom Colwell and the Southbound Odyssey)? Get an early fix of outdoor music tonight, 6 pm, Alki Community Center Playfield.

PLAN WEST SEATTLE NEIGHBORHOODS’ FUTURE: We’ve been talking about this for weeks (here’s last night’s preview) and tonight’s the night. After talking to local neighborhood advocates, we can tell you we are not exaggerating when we say it’s the most important meeting you’ll attend all year. 10 years after the oft-referred “neighborhood plans” for five West Seattle neighborhoods (and Georgetown) were created, are they working? What’s the best course for those neighborhoods’ future? Even if you’re not sure you have anything to say, come to listen, to understand, to support (or even oppose). 6 pm, Delridge Community Center NEW LOCATION: YOUNGSTOWN ARTS CENTER – air-conditioned! (updated 3:23 pm)

BLUE ANGELS’ ARRIVAL: For our fellow fans of the Navy aerial demonstration team that’ll be performing during Seafair (practicing Thursday, shows Friday-Sunday, remember the I-90 bridge closures), #7 arrived Monday (here’s KIRO video) and the other 6 are scheduled to land at Boeing Field this afternoon (2 pm estimate but could be earlier or later) *3:55 pm update, they’re running late, sometime in the next hour to hour and a half…

PASSING WEST SEATTLE’S NORTHERN SHORES TODAY: Another Seafair sight you may see – the U.S. Coast Guard’s first Homeland Security cutter, USCGC Bertholf, is scheduled to arrive today to be part of Fleet Week. (We’re checking with USCG District 13 to see if there’s an approximate time.)

3 Monday midday notes: Alki Cafe, Blue Angels, heat-beating tips

*From today’s city Land Use Information Bulletin: Alki Cafe‘s new owners have applied for a sidewalk-cafe permit. (The online notice says the city will accept comments till August 10th and explains how to send a comment.)

*Blue Angels update: The news release we quoted in last night’s story said #7 would be here at 9:30 today, but David DeSiga (who took the awesome photo we used in that story) says it actually landed before 9 am. So we should add the caveat, times approximate, which would go for tomorrow’s expected arrival of the other 6.

*Seattle City Light has issued its own set of heat-beating tips – with a focus on electricity, how not to overuse it, and what to do if you lose it. Read on: Click to read the rest of 3 Monday midday notes: Alki Cafe, Blue Angels, heat-beating tips…

Keep your eye on the sky: Blue Angels start arriving Monday

(Blue Angels fly over Boeing Field, photo shared by David DeSiga via Facebook)
If you have been a WSB’er for a year or more, you know that one of our summertime digressions from West Seattle-specific reporting involves the annual Seattle visit of the U.S. Navy’s aerial demonstration team, the Blue Angels. They even have their own WSB coverage archive. They start arriving tomorrow, so we’re publishing the schedule for starters (as distributed by their home base for the week, Boeing Field, though the Angels are here under the auspices of Seafair):

MONDAY: #1 Blue arrives at 9:30 a.m.
TUESDAY: Blues #1-6 arrive at 2 p.m.
THURSDAY: Blue Angels practice times: 10 am-12 pm, 1:30 pm-2:30 pm
FRIDAY: Blue Angels performance: 1:20 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
SATURDAY: Blue Angels performance: 1:20 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
SUNDAY: Blue Angels performance: 1:20 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
TUESDAY: Blues #1-6 and Fat Albert depart

“Fat Albert” is their support plane, which usually flies right before they do, for one last survey of the area:

While the Blue Angels are primarily here to perform over Lake Washington, we highly recommend the experience of watching them take off and land at Boeing Field – adjacent to the Museum of Flight, an attraction in its own right, with special Blue Angels-related activities all week. To see the choreography of the pilots’ “walkdown” (WSB video here) and the maintenance crew Friday-Sunday (Thursday is a little looser since they don’t do the official show), you need a spot along the fence south of the Museum – it’s something like a parade stakeout, so be there a couple hours in advance (here’s our “On the Fence” story from 2007; note there’s overflow parking at the Boeing facility across East Marginal Way from the MoF’s main driveway – map). Once they start taxiing, everyone bolts northeast toward the museum/runway; the takeoff shakes the ground like an earthquake. On Friday, you can see the show at Lake Washington for free (except for the grandstands, which charge admission all three days), since technically it’s “rehearsal” and the hydros are in time trials, not races. If you want to go to the lake Saturday/Sunday, here’s all the official ticket/schedule info. Last reminder: The I-90 bridge closes for a few days each day Thursday-Sunday because of the Blue Angels; here’s the schedule.

Scenes from the Blue Angels’ finale at Seafair 2008

JayDee caught five of the six Blue Angels during a flyby at Costco on 4th Ave. S., a Blue Angels-viewing spot that’s been discussed here before. And shortly after we originally published this post, David Hutchinson sent photos from the north side of Boeing Field – here’s #5 coming in:

As for us, yes, the Museum of Flight one more time – for the up-close-and-semi-personal look before and after the airshow:

Fat Albert, the Blue Angels’ support plane, is a U.S. Marine Corps C-130, and it flies just before the Angels; as it taxis before and after that flight (which ends with a thrilling nosedive landing at Boeing Field), a crew member always spyhops from the top hatch to wave a flag and just plain wave. From the fence by the FA-18s’ parking spot, you can wave to the BA pilots themselves, too:

More scenes from today, and what’s next for the Blue Angels, ahead: Click to read the rest of Scenes from the Blue Angels’ finale at Seafair 2008…

Blue Angels’ Seafair ’08 finale today (and scenes from Saturday)

Usually David Hutchinson contributes great Alki-area photographs – this time, he sent shots from the east side of Boeing Field, where he captured the Blue Angels‘ post-show, pre-landing flyby (which we usually see from the Museum of Flight at the other side of Boeing Field) as shown above, and on the runway, as seen here:

(#6 is the one that, as we reported yesterday, came back a few minutes after takeoff, with a mechanical/operational problem requiring its pilot to switch to a backup plane.) As David pointed out in his e-mail to WSB, that view is as close as you can get to the planes on the runway. But if you want to see the pilots up close and personal, you have to be at the Museum of Flight’s far-south fence – right next to where the jets are headquartered during their Seattle visits – and even though you have to watch through a chain-link fence, it’s a front-row seat to the “walkdown.” Standing in front of Blue Angel #1, we caught the first part on video Saturday (listen very closely to hear the commands):

Click pic to play video

There’s one other element to the pageantry – watching the crew. A video clip of that, plus a few more Saturday photos, just ahead: Click to read the rest of Blue Angels’ Seafair ’08 finale today (and scenes from Saturday)…

Blue Angels, Saturday report #1: Plane swap midshow

That’s Blue Angels jet number six getting inspected after its participation in today’s Seafair airshow abruptly ended after just a few minutes: It wasn’t long after all six took off that this one came back in to Boeing Field to land; once it was parked, its pilot got into one of the two #7 backup jets, took off, and rejoined the show. More than a dozen people were last seen working on #6 after it was towed to a spot on the east side of the area where the jets are headquartered during their Seattle visits. For our fellow Blue Angels fans, more later on today’s Museum of Flight/Boeing Field sightings.

Today/tonight: Something old, something new, something Blue

That represents the “new” … the photo was sent by Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle (photo credit: Jason of “The Shibaguyz”) to entice you to today’s first-ever Edible Garden Tour of West Seattle. This garden tour is free – go here to get the map – tour any and/or all of the 10 spotlighted gardens between 10 am-2 pm today (including the one that produce came from). Now, something “old” …

That’s another scene from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” the 1988 pioneering live-action/animation hybrid classic that we at WSB are presenting tonight (in conjunction with Click! Design That Fits [WSB sponsor]) at West Seattle Movies on the Wall, dusk (8:45-ish) in the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) on the north edge of The Junction. Free, but in the spirit of Jessica Rabbit’s “Why Doncha Do Right” song in that clip – you can “do right” by bringing nonperishable food to donate to West Seattle Food Bank and $ for the West Seattle Christian Church (WSB sponsor)-presented concessions benefiting WSFB, plus a fundraising raffle (with the help of Hotwire boss Lora Lewis and some other fine folks we’ll tell you about at the movie, we’ve collected a bag of completely cool West Seattleness). Last but by no means least, something Blue …

As described in our “Seafair secrets” post, we always watch the Blue Angels at Lake Washington on Seafair Friday. But now, the weekend is here. You can watch them from the lake – or you can catch glimpses from West Seattle (WSB’er “Hopey” reports a great flyby at Westcrest on Friday) – and then there is our preferred method of viewing, at the Museum of Flight, their HQ while visiting Seattle. It’s a sort of “behind-the-scenes” view, when you stake out a spot on the fence that faces the area where the jets are parked (read our “On the Fence” post from last year, with pix), and spend the hour and a half or so before showtime watching first the maintenance crew’s arrival and activities, then the pilots themselves, leading up to the “walkdown” as they go to their planes – this 2007 photo is from their lineup pre-walkdown:

Once they’re in the jets, the sights and sounds include the whine of the cockpits closing, the engines roaring awake, then the groundshaking takeoff; the show is just over a ridge to the east, so you can see the high maneuvers from the MoF, and there are flybys – followed by the landing, and the walkdown in reverse, and your chance to applaud the pilots once they’re out of their planes. The practice show yesterday started around 1:45 pm, later than usual; wherever you’re going to watch from, you’ll want to be in place no later than 12:45 pm which is when the I-90 bridge closes. Full Seafair info on the official site; here’s our Blue Angels coverage archive.