I went to Seattle for the NTEN nonprofit technology conference. It was a great event but the highlight of my week was sailing and rowing on Lake Union. I just can’t stay away from the water.
The Center for Wooden Boats is a great museum but it’s much more than that: how many museums encourage you to take out the exhibits and have fun with them? The CWB actually loan out their antique wooden boats for the public to enjoy… and encourage them to bump them about. The center also teaches maritime skills and even has a course for families to learn to build their own boat.
On Sunday I joined their free public cruise in an historic sailboat. Quite a different experience to driving a motorised 17 ton steel boat. Afterwards I took a rowing boat across the lake to photograph some of Seattle’s famous houseboats (in the US they prefer to call them “floating homes”), made famous by the film Sleepless in Seattle. Seaplanes take off and land on the water in between the boats, a sometimes unnerving experience when they are speeding in your direction.
Hello Jason,
I’ve added a link to your entry on Center for Wooden Boats to my blog, The MHN Blog. Thanks for the good words on Seattle’s maritime heritage.
Joe Follansbee