A Visit to Ballard

Wednesday we arranged to meet up with Jake in his neighborhood of Ballard after he got off work.

We used this as an occasion to go in early and stop in at Swanson's Nursery, where we enjoyed looking at all the beautiful plant displays, and bought a couple of things too. I didn't take any photos there. Sorry.

It was 81 degrees, and we were getting warm, so next we sought the green coolness of the gardens at the Ballard Locks on the Lake Washington shipping canal. 

Across the canal, in the grove of trees, Great Blue Herons have set up a nesting community, a rookery. 

We didn't expect to see any nests because of the foliage, but I did have my little Canon camera with me, and it has a powerful zoom lens. Look what I found. 

The zoom lens is more powerful than my ability to hold the camera still, so these are blurry, but there are either three or four quite large youngsters in this nest. It must be quite a job to keep them fed. 

It is believed that the herons have moved here in an attempt to escape the marauding eagles. Placing their rookery so close to human activity might discourage the eagles. 

Then we moved on into the shade of the many large trees here in this mature garden. 

We took a leisurely stroll through the garden

And then sat on a bench in the shade and watched the geese. 

At 6:00 we met up with Jake at the Giddy-Up Burger joint, where we enjoyed a visit along with our big, fat burgers and beer. 

Jake now has a regular route in Ballard with the USPS, and while he says the management is totally messed up, the job itself is great. He works six days a week, usually up to ten hours a day, with a rotating day off each week. Sundays he delivers Amazon packages. It was good to have a chance to connect with him and catch up.