Street Fair in the U-District, 2009

Saturday, May 16th from 10-7 & Sunday, 17th from 10-6, 2009!
"The U District Street Fair is the kick-off event for the festival season in the Seattle region. It is also the longest running street festival in the nation! Self-described as "country fair meets urban retail corridor", the Street Fair attracts more than 50,000 people and over 300 craft and food booths to the District on the third weekend of May each year. The Street Fair is an energetic and exciting celebration of arts and crafts, community information, music, and food."

It was a beautiful, sunny weekend for this years fair. Not as blazing hot as Street Fair, 2008 . It was every bit as crowded though. Shoulder to shoulder up many parts of the Ave. A lot of great street musicians and a couple of freak shows. What bugged me were the morons who brought their dogs. Note to dog owners: a densely packed street fair is NO PLACE for dogs on leashes. Leave the dog at home.
Here is a 3 minute 39 second slide show with a few of the highlights...

The University of Washington Botany Greenhouse.

Today was the perfect day for a field trip to the Botany Greenhouse on the campus of The University of Washington. It was overcast, cool, and a little drizzly. The curator pointed out that yesterday, a sunny hot day, a student passed out in the greenhouse from dehydration.
Led by entomologist temporarily-turned-botanist Elizabeth Goulet, we visited three separate ecosystems: Swamps, Temperate Rainforests, and Desert. The lighting in the greenhouse was iffy, so I only got a few good pictures which I have compiled into a slide show below.


Click the "HQ" button on the lower right of the panel after the slide show starts for a sharper picture. It takes longer to load but it's worth it for the better quality.

Note on the slide at :52...

"Considered the world's largest seed, weighing up to 30 kgs, it's commonly called "Coco de Mer" which is French for coconut of the sea, but better known in the herbarium by it's scientific name, Lodoicea maldivica (J.F.Gmelin) Persoon - or - Lodoicea callipyge Comm. and as a member of the Arecaceae or Palmae (palm family). These palms grow to a height of 25-34 meters and are native to the Seychelle Islands off the coast of Africa. The species name callipyge is from the Greek, meaning "beautiful rump" because sailors who first saw the double coconut floating in the sea imagined that it resembled a woman's buttocks."

Seriously.