Bellingham built Hybrid ferry boat Vessel of the Year

In my continuing effort to chat up new and interesting electric vehicles, here's a local winner. 

Built by All American Marine, Inc.,  the Enhydra is a 128-foot, 600-passenger boat which was built on Bellingham's downtown waterfront and launched in Squalicum Harbor. The Enhydra is the largest lithium-ion battery electric hybrid-powered vessel in North America. Last week at the International WorkBoat Show in New Orleans, Enhydra was named the “Boat of the Year, 2018.”

I've been following the story locally and am thrilled to see it being launched.  It will be part of the Red and White Ferry service in the Bay Area, I believe.  And here's the youtube video showing it off.

Recent museum visit: Endangered Species exhibit

To give me an outing despite almost a month of cold/bronchitis, Jeff and I went out for lunch and then to the Whatcom Art Museum to see Endangered Species:  Artists on the Front Line of Biodiversity.  This is an interesting exhibit created for our very own museum here in Bellingham which is nice in a way but disappointing in that others won't see it because apparently it's not traveling. 

But there is a catalog for the exhibit.  Catalog link on Amazon here.

Overall, the level of art is excellent, several of the artists caught my attention (and I'll be talking about them individually over the next few postings), but both Jeff and I were emotionally overwhelmed at about 2/3rds of the way through the exhibit.  If it were here past the end of the week, I'd go again to get a good look at that last third.  Instead, I'll probably be ordering the catalog.

First artist that caught my eye was this big piece right at the beginning of the exhibit.  Nin Maminawendam by Ton Uttech. 

Take a closer look at this piece (size is 67 x 73 inches so it's big) and you'll see an amazing number of birds.  Uttech focuses on the woods of his native Wisconsin and the wildlife that lives there.  His style expresses the same spiritual connection to nature that I try to express so I spent a significant amount of time taking in this wonderful piece.  I look forward to exploring his work further.