Layers and colors

I was going to show you another cool Art Deco building today, but the natural phenomena on the river were irresistible. It's been warm the past few days, and that's typically followed by the "marine push," the layer of cool air, often formed into a dense cloud bank, that wends its way up the Columbia like a snake. It was a gorgeous day; it was strange to have visibility on our side of the river, and yet hear the deep booming of a ship's foghorn. But out on the river, the visibility was changeable, and the ships needed to make sure they they didn't surprise fishing boats and pleasure boats that were out in droves. There were even a couple of jet-skiers, which is rare for this part of the river. Above the lower cloud layer, you can see the hills in Washington. Above that is sky, and above that you can see a second layer of clouds at the top of the photo; above that, and outside the frame of the photo there was blue sky again. The position and density of the cloud layers ebbed and flowed all day long.

We're also having red tide, which I understand is typical of August. It's not an illusion, but the water you see further out is really green, and the water close up is deep red-brown. It flows in and out on the tide almost as quickly as the clouds change formation. From the back deck today I could see the red come in and flow out several times in a matter of hours. I'd never watched this happen so closely before, and I was surprised by how discretely the colors remained separated. In the space of a couple of feet, the water changed color dramatically from red to green.

Many of the boats were out today because the salmon are making their way upstream. The gulls seemed to find the whole thing interesting, too, as you can see.