MB Public Post

Today BluSup took a new turn north.

For twenty years, the Seattle area was not just a place on a map for me. It was home. More specifically, Kent was home. That was where I worked, where I raised Riley, where I learned those roads, those routes, those rainy days, and those South Sound rhythms that become part of a person after enough years.

I drove paratransit for ATC VanCom, and eventually became Lead Supervisor based in Kent. That work mattered to me. It was transportation, yes, but it was also responsibility. People depended on us. Drivers depended on each other. Families depended on the system working. I was Lead Supervisor there on September 11, 2001, a day when none of us really understood what was happening at first, but we understood very quickly that people still had to be cared for, moved, protected, and brought home.

So when I started thinking about the next BluSup city project, Seattle made sense. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized this should not be a downtown Seattle tourist guide. That would miss the heart of it.

This one is SeaBlu.

SeaBlu is Seattle, yes, but it is also Kent, Federal Way, Orting, and the South Sound. It is the thread between the city and the places where real life happens. It is the drive up for a family day, the practical stop in Federal Way, the memory of Kent as home base, the small-town warmth around Orting, and the ferry-water-mountain feeling that makes the Pacific Northwest unmistakable.

There is a family connection too. Riley, his wife, and their two little girls still live in the area. That gives SeaBlu a living reason to exist. I like building things that could actually help someone I love, and this one feels like it can.

SeaBlu also has its first respectful business spotlight: Monarch Collision Center in Federal Way. Riley shares that business with another owner, and I am proud of what they have built. Monarch won the 2025 Gold Award for Best Auto Collision Center in the Best in the PNW community choice awards. On SeaBlu, I want to emphasize the shop professionally and respectfully: a strong local business, a South Sound connection, and a place that deserves to be seen.

The first SeaBlu foundation is now live. It has categories for Kent Home Base, Federal Way, Orting family ideas, Seattle day trips, rainy-day family fun, parks and trails, transit/access notes, and the Monarch spotlight. We also added a new set of generated images in the same spirit as BluSup 250, with zoom tools so the visuals can be opened, studied, and enjoyed instead of just glanced at.

This project feels personal in a good way. It reaches back to where I raised my son, and forward to where his family is now. It connects work, memory, family, local business, and practical usefulness.

That is the kind of thing BluSup was made for.

:::