Results tagged “washingtonstateferries”

Say goodbye to Washington's once-trusty fleet of steel ferries, the Klickitat, Quinault, Illahee, and Nisqually. Announced on Monday, the eighty-something-year-old Steel Electric-class vessels were sold off to California's Eco Planet Recycling for $200,000. The four ferries, launched in the 1920s, have led a good life, having carried many generations of commuters, travelers, and cars. Retired in 2007, those four ferries have had one of the best views watching the city and its skyline grow into what it is today. Now they are off to Mexico to be scrapped. Bon voyage! Err...adios?

First of all, may we just say it's great to be back in the Seattlest saddle again after a somewhat extended absence! We actually...*sniff*...missed you guys. Alright, back to business. Thanks to Twitter, we now know about a neat local cooking site named, appropriately, CookLocal. They're covering the very important rutabaga and sunchoke baked chips beat this week. West Seattle Blog passes along news about South Seattle Community College's new scholarships, money set aside to help out anyone who's ever been in the U.S. foster care system. The Weekly's Sara Brickner reports on N.A.S.A.'s show at Nectar last night on Reverb, with photos and all ("go-go dancers, a giant visualizer screen and aliens" is part of the write-up, reason enough for you to click on that link). And over at the Seattle Post-Times, they're upset about the new, unsightly ads on Washington ferries. Of course, the pictured ad supporting the Post-Times' case is for the Woodland Park Zoo's flamingos exhibit--not exactly the devil incarnate.

Jason over at Eat Sleep Publish has a beautiful post on net neutrality and the old vs. new economy. In Greenwood, the Food Network stopped by with cameras and Guy Fieri to film at Georgia's Greek Deli; PhinneyWood has photos. Don't try to pawn off your foreign currency on Washington state ferries, because they're not having it, reports Seattle Metblogs. Even if it is Canadian. Even Canadian quarters. Not allowed. And Slog is thinking about shoplifting, Whole Foods, and sausages in pants. (As are we all.)

The state ferry system could float two ways in the next chunk of the future: either stay pretty much as is, full steam ahead with plans to build ten ferries, or slim way down and increase fares. It's hard for us to get too worked up about this, maybe because we can't even imagine leaving the house, let alone driving to Mukilteo, this week. Or maybe because we've been reporting on the multi-millions of dollars cut from Washington state health and human services, for God's sake, and we'd rather see the ferry system build only five new ferries and kick up the fares than to see more cutbacks in health care for kids and poor people.

At the Port of Seattle's "Ship Canal 101" tour last week (the tour so nice we're posting it twice) they handed out a little quiz that you were supposed to be able to complete by the time the boat returned to the dock. Questions like "What was the name of the woman who founded one of the featured companies over 115 years ago? (Hint: She was the inspiration for the movie Tug Boat Annie)" only scratched at the surface, though. The candid and all-knowing salts narrating the tour actually revealed so much more. Here's what we took away:

"Reading Time" by M.V. Jantzen

Generally, because we're a bit of a scaredy-pants, we can't sit through episodes of Ghost Hunters (or other such shows) without closing our eyes or plugging our ears. But we will most certainly make an exception if they do an episode on the ghosts of Washington State Ferries past.

Man, the ferry system is really having a time of it this year. First they realize that 80-year-old ferries might not be seaworthy or even worth fixing. Then no one wanted to buy a used ferry on eBay and mechanical issues put a ferry on the Pt. Defiance route out of commission earlier this month.

WSF is still dead to us, but Governor Gregoire could make our "holiday card" list if she keeps it up. First the viaduct course correction, now she's scrounged up $100 million to pay for three new ferries. Budget, schmudget! She's all action! Plus, the Port Townsenders, come January, will be reunited with their cars on ferry trips, says the P-I:

Pierce County has agreed to loan one of its boats to the Washington State Ferries, beginning in January, to resume car service between Keystone and Port Townsend.

When have you gotten your money back on a ferry purchase? After 20 years? 40? 60? How about 80? Washington State Ferries still had plans to fix at least three 80-year-old ferries before the magnitude of their decay was uncovered. Now, because WSF never imagined the day would come when the ferries would have to be replaced, it'll be a year or more before new ferries can be built and car-ferry service returned. Our favorite...

Is it just Seattlest or is this the Fridayest Thursday in a long time? We'd like to comment on how the first of the ELF guys has been sentenced down in Oregon and how he's going to do 13 years for his acts of terrorism despite turning in other members of The Family, but the only thought that will stick right now is how we're going to get the hell out of here tomorrow. I'm headed west, hopefully on an early ferry, and then up to a forest service cabin on Hood Canal; a plan (and a reservation fee) that I was more than willing to ditch entirely had the Beastie Boys panned out on Friday night, but unfortunately I was a little too aggressive on the refresh button and got shut out.

Washington State Ferries is cancelling free WiFi and attempting to convince us that they never actually offered free WiFi - That was a beta program..that lasted for a year. Starting next month, WSF will be charging for access to the internet. WiFi Networking News has more: