After Rock Climbing Adventure: Ballard Locks

Yesterday, Evan and I had a fun day. After I got done with all of my teacher meetings, we headed up to Seattle with the hopes of buying Evan a wetsuit for surfing in Washington. He got a great deal on a PERFECT wetsuit from a cool guy off Craigslist. (Side note: I STILL need a wetsuit so I can use my surfboard again! If you know a good place to get one or someone selling one, let me know.)

After we got done with that, we drove around Green Lake. Driving around Green Lake made me want to live in Seattle just so that I can run around Green lake everyday. It is just a picturesque setting and very accessible and runner-friendly. Maybe someday I'll live by it. See image below for a view...



Once we navigated our way around Green Lake, we headed over to Stone Gardens (a rock climbing gym in Ballard) to hit up some rock climbing. It's such a great place for bouldering with a ton of different bouldering problems to work on. Sadly, I wasn't very prepared for rock climbing. I had just come from work and grabbed a pair of old jeans to throw on instead of my high class dress pants. Unfortunately, said jeans obtained a rip in the crotchal area as I was stretching my leg out for a hold. I kept climbing anyway until my jeans ripped so badly that I could no longer climb. Next time, I'm leaving pants better suited to rock climbing in my car just in case of spontaneous climbing adventures. (Usually I am fully prepared for such an occasion. However, since purchasing my new car, I've been a little lax about restocking my car with adventuring necessities.) Evan and I still had fun anyway and at least I got a little bit of climbing in!



Once we were finished with Stone Gardens, Evan and I headed over to the Ballard Locks. I've been wanting to go there for some time and since it's just a block away from Stone Gardens, we walked over. There are some beautiful, botanical gardens you can also walk through. Once again, if I lived in Seattle, I'd come down to Ballard to run or read in the park. It was a nice little adventure to go see the Locks. Plus, there were some cool buildings that really reminded me of Europe. I loved it!



For those of you who don't know what the Locks are, essentially they are dams created in order for ships to go from the Puget Sound (ocean) to Lake Washington. Since the elevation is different between the two, the Locks help boats and ships to gain elevation and travel between the lake and the ocean. If you're interested you can find more details about the locks here.



This was a really unique bridge on the West side of the locks... I wish the picture wasn't so backlit.



Dam goes below the bridge we were standing on... that is Fremont through there.


Evan and I by the fish ladder... The fish ladder allows salmon smolt (small salmon) to go back to the ocean after they hatch. Yearly, salmon travel from the Puget Sound up to Lake Washington to make fish babies. There were some pretty big salmon in the underground observation tank. There are underground "windows" set up so you can see the salmon. It was interesting.


I loved this rose bush that just creeped up out of nowhere. This is next to a building on the middle of a man-made island structure. It reminded me of stories I've heard about roses or other flowers popping up between the sidewalks in NYC. Here's the rose up close...


And here's the rose next to the building.


We have a plethora of Canadian Geese here in Washington...


Evan looking hot as we walk across the Ballard Locks.


Me in the beautiful botanical gardens...


So, that's it! Those were some of our fun day/afternoon adventures! Oh, one more thing... after we left the Locks, Evan saw a struggling motorcyclist on the side of the road. Evan stopped and helped the guy get his bike going again by push-starting him. It was funny to watch them finding the closest hill and Evan running while pushing this guy down the hill on his motorcycle. Even though I was laughing, it still made me proud of Evan for serving random people he doesn't know, which actually happens a lot. He's a good guy!