2012.7.4. Last day at the Wooden Boat Festival. A beautiful day. Warm and sunny. Quite fun. Lots of people. Kids running around in dancing fountains, or testing out their newly built little boats in the big pond. Lots of wooden boats that you can walk in and chat with the owners. I liked schooner WN Ragland the most, who earned my token. Its interior has some fine pieces of furniture and fun decoration. Kitchen counter top has slots built in for knives. Carol M let's you wonder in its twin engine room. Steamship Virginia V's engineer room IS the main floor, huge. 4 pistons, a fuel-injected boiler, and many pipes and valves. There was a guide happy to explain how things work. Tug boat Arthur Foss also opens its engine room. You have to take shoes off to walk onto Zanzibar, a very nice yacht. M.V.Lotus is draped like a floating B&B. Orion sail boat runs overnight school programs. Of course, half of the boats were just moored there for the show and the fireworks. They don't let you in. But enough to look around, and I only visited those parked to the west of MOHI. 4 canoes were being built in a hut near the Wooden Boat center. At 4pm, 3 small semi-finished boats built in less a day did their run (Quick and Daring Boat Building contest). The 3rd one (made of cardboard and duct tape!) tipped when launched. Both guys fell in the lake. One of them knocked a hole on the side, which disqualified the boat. The other 2 (made of cheap plywood) finished the round, managed to put the sail on the way back.
Fireworks started ~10:20pm on Lake Union. A bit chilly. The roof top of my building was somewhat crowded, even though each unit was limited to 2 guests. A couple of fun designs including smiley face, half balls, cubes. Too far to have the real experience. Colorful nonetheless. Elliott Bay didn't seem to have a fireworks show this year.
