Saturday, July 10, 2010

Seafair & Ballard Seafood Fest


Salmon
Photo & Text © 2010 Kim- Seattle Daily Photo. All rights reserved; no use, alteration, reproduction or republishing in any media.
It's that time of year when the sky is still light at 11 PM and a Seattlite's fancy turns to fun on the water and eats in the streets. Seafair is a multi-week, multi-event festival that Seattlites have adored for 60 years. This year the huge Ballard Seafood Fest where alder smoked salmon is cooked right on the street is taking place a couple weeks earlier than usual, making for an even more jam packed first day of Seafair events today. The Seafair Pirates will land at Alki Beach. There will be a dedication at the Fisherman's Memorial, a popular kiddie parade in Wallingford with decked out wagons, strollers, and family dogs. Over at Greenlake it's the annual Milk Carton Derby with $10,000 prize for the most creative floating vessel constructed from hundreds of milk cartons. Meanwhile in Uptown/Lower Queen Anne there is a mobile street food chow down. And yes, there will be dancing in the streets in Ballard. The Seafood Fest runs today and tomorrow with plenty of live music, food and drink, arts and crafts, and fun family activities, like this giant salmon with an interior mural showing the life cycle of these lovely fish.

15 comments:

Stefan Jansson said...

Sounds like fun for everyone. Nothing better than salmon. Watch out for those pirates!

Kate said...

Yup, it does sound like lots of fun. I hope that none of those kids are named Jonah!

brattcat said...

Looks like a whale of a good time.

Halcyon said...

How I wish I was there!

Anonymous said...

Alder smoked salmon?
Sounds yummy!
Where did those kids get out from that giant fish?
Ha ha!

Life Is A Road Trip said...

I didn't realize it stayed light so late there. It's kind of weird and interesting that here we have a fish that eats people. :-)

Luis Gomez said...

Great shot. It shows so much fun!

Bob Crowe said...

Bite me?

We just saw a performance of The Pirates of Penzance so we're in a nautical mood.

Boom Nisanart said...

Cool !!! ...wanna be kid again : )

Pat said...

These fairs are always fun, though I've been disappointed with the Milk Carton Derby in recent years; will miss it anyway this year.

That's quite a salmon you 'caught'!

Jazzy said...

i always get pleasantly surprised whenever i see your photos.
you made me laugh with this one.
love it

Maya @ Completely Coastal said...

Your photography is awesome! I'm so sorry for the picture I used..., thought that linking back to your site was enough -thanks, and my apologies!

Chuck Pefley said...

That must be a big-mouth bass posing as a salmon for the Ballard festival. Didn't realize it was happening this weekend.

Janet said...

Great photo. My Seattle family told me they were going to a children's performance of a play related to the Pirates of Penzance. Will there be any events this coming weekend? Or will the festival be over? I'm due to arrive Friday night.
Janet in Connecticut

Kim said...

@ Steffe: I'm always watching out for a pirate that looks like Johnny Depp! ;^)

@ Kate, Brattcat & Londoncalling: That poor Salmon has to regurgitate a LOT of Jonah's, I'm afraid :-).

@ Halcyon: Well, we wish you were here, too!

@ Tracy: Yes, we're at latitude 47 and it does make a difference. Right now it starts getting light at about 4:30 AM and our warmest time of the day is at dinner time. The sun isn't setting until around 9 PM. That will change swiftly now as we come off of high summer. In winter, of course, we are craving light as just the opposite happens and we are in the dark all those long hours.

@ Luis: Thank you so much. I always think of you in shots like this. I would like to be a photo journalist when I grow up :-).

@ Boom: It is fun watching the children's willingness to explore and experience things enthusiastically (or with trepidation as was sometimes the case with entering this fish). Kids are so beautiful to watch.

@ Bibi: Wish we were seeing you this summer. There is so much of Seafair that I haven't attended in years past. I hope to get to the parade and the hydroplane races and air show. I must say that the Blue Angles did an airshow in SF every year for so long that I sort of ignore them now. They would practice on days beforehand and buzz my workplace (a hospital) with such a racket it was almost intolerable. And once were were out on the Bay sailing and they came streaking low over the water. Not very settling to the nerves, more like a war zone feeling :-).

@ Jazzy: Glad you got a smile!

@ Maya: Hey thanks for understanding! No prob.

@ Chuck: Hehehehehe :-). Yeah, they switched up the schedule this year. Can't say that I like it earlier. . .made for a jam packed day just trying to go to two of the many events.

@ Janet: Plenty of fun still to come. Hope we can meet and go for a walk while you are out visiting!

-Kim