Today was a long and very nice day in Seattle. The weather was gorgeous from sunrise to sunset and we were busy practicing, viewing the eclipse and then taking a ferry to Bainbridge Island.

Susan and I got up early and practiced at 6:30am indoors till matches began at 8am. The view of Mt. Rainier was beautiful at 6:20 in the morning when the air was clear and there was still a touch of pink in the sky. By 8am I had managed to misplace my phone (thank you to the orchid man who picked it up and turned it in!) and to the referee who offered to retrieve my water bottle for me (which I left on our practice court).

The eclipse started a bit after 9am here in Seattle and the lawn at the Seattle Tennis Club was a nice place ot view it. Susan Lammers, with whom Susan is staying, had an extra pair of eclipse glasses which Susan and I shared. There was a family there too which had created a multi pinhole camera which was reflected on a board so we could follow the path of the eclipse. We also found time to take portrait photos of each other. It was fun and relaxed. It was interesting how shadows reflected the partial eclipse. It also got really cold during the apex of the eclipse.

After lunch, we decided to head off to Bainbridge Island which is about a 30 minute ferry ride from downtown Seattle. The hardest part about that adventure was finding parking which wasn’t exorbitant. Seattle imposes about a 10% tax and $3 on to of already expensive parking, so we failed to find reasonably priced parking. However, the views from the ferry were worth the trip. When we got to the island we wandered around the shops…the shopping street felt like one in Coronado or maybe Del Mar, CA but not as big or crowded. It was relaxing. If we had had more time we could have walked longer along the water and had dinner there.

After we returned to the mainland, we went to the nice player dinner at the home of Pat Kennedy and Melissa Reis. The house overlooked the lake and the view was beautiful.

Susan starts singles tomorrow and I have one more day till we play our first match Wednesday.