Journeys›Photograph

Riding the Ferries Around Elliott Bay in October

·Elliott Bay·#travel#seattle#cityscape#puget-sound#ferry#washington
Skyline of Seattle with the Space Needle prominent, a bay with boats, and buildings under a cloudy sky.

Up early in Seattle to spend the day riding ferries around Elliott Bay, which was the whole plan and needed no improving. Caught the Space Needle from the highway on the way in, then down to Pier 50 while the sun was still burning through the cloud deck over the Sound.

The state boats were already working — one green-and-white ferry crossing out toward Bainbridge with another behind it, gulls cutting across the pier. From the water, downtown stacks up in a way it never does from the street: the whole wall of towers from the Washington Mutual building down to Smith Tower's little pyramid at the south end, with the viaduct running along the base of it.

On the return leg a Holland America ship, the Zaandam, was tied up below the Space Needle, dwarfing everything on that stretch of waterfront. The radio towers on Queen Anne were the last thing to fade into the haze behind it.

A bright sun illuminates a cloudy sky and reflects on water with a distant ship and a dark wooden pier.A bright sunburst through dark clouds illuminates water, silhouetting a pier, distant island, ferry, and a flying bird.A bright sun reflects on water with distant ships and coastline, viewed from dark foreground structures.Two large ferries traverse a body of water under a cloudy, bright sky, with a blurred rope in the foreground.A city skyline with multiple skyscrapers overlooks a harbor with a docked boat and waterfront buildings.A cityscape of tall buildings from a body of water, with a yellow and green building on a pier and boats.A waterfront city skyline with many tall buildings and a large white ferry boat on the water.A large cruise ship sails on water in front of a city skyline with the Space Needle and tall antennas.

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