This morning, the Olthofs took us for an excellent walk and tour of the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks, often called the Ballard Locks, which link salty Puget Sound with the fresh waters of Salmon Bay, Lake Union, Portage Bay and Lake Washington. After a pleasant - but hilly - 10-minute walk from SiJen and Bryan’s house we arrived at a park with what appeared to be narrow gangplanks and large doors up and down several docking points for boats. The gangplanks rode on top of these hydraulic doors which opened and closed to allow water levels to adjust and boats to go from the very low and salty waters of Puget Sound to the high fresh waters. We watched several boats coming in from Puget Sound. When they entered the Locks, doors approximately 100 yards apart would close. Two or three boats lined up side-by-side and tied themselves together and then to the docks several feet above, with the largest boat closest to the dock to provide maximum stability. The water level filled until the boats were level with the docks and the doors to the Lake would open, allowing the boats to enter.




The Locks were really, really neat! While the Locks facilitated the boats coming and leaving, fish ladders were also built to facilitate the salmon spawning which occurred at the Lake. Fish ladders allowed the salmon to make gradual, 1-2 feet leaps upstream to get to the Lake and to allow them to gradually adjust to the transition from salt to fresh water. Once the baby fish hatched, a port allowed the fish to be tossed tail-first back into the lower waters and not hold back migration because of the Locks. A small, underwater observatory allowed us to see several large sockeye salmon making their trip upstream to the Lake.




Around 2PM, the Olthofs dropped us off at the Holland America Terminal to check in and board our ship. As we drove up to the Terminals, we saw a Norwegian Cruise Line ship, a Princess Cruises ship, and our HAL ship, the MS Oosterdam. The Oosterdam actually appeared to be one of the smaller ships. Nonetheless, it was still a magnificent and beautiful sight.

Abby had been running a small fever over the last few days due to the chicken pox and MMR vaccines she received last week. Holland America’s standard process for anyone who has signs of illness is for the party to talk to a ship medical personnel before being allowed to board. We had a brief, 3-minute chat with a doctor and was all cleared to board the boat.

We were able to go directly to our stateroom as we waited for our luggage to be brought to us. Our luggage arrived fairly promptly and we met our pleasant room steward, Yudi.