2000-11-08 - Bellevue, WA - Other

Strange object floating above the Bellevue Mall

On August 30, 2000 at about 12:25pm I noticed an interesting object slowly descending above the Bellevue Mall. From an upper floor in the Rainier Tower, I watched it descend moving slightly north-west over the next few minutes to just above the Bellevue Mall where it held stationary for a couple minutes. I have 8x23 binoculars in my office because of my view, so I was able to watch this object and see it in decent detail. The object looked like a large ballon in the shape of a butterfly, except that the "wings" of the butterfly were not part of the balloon, but attached to the sides. It was symmetrical, with "wings" on either side, and was very colorful, as you would expect a butterfly to be. I thought it was interesting that a balloon would descend from the sky, but I assumed it wasn't impossible. I was very surprised to see it start ascending, and headed slightly south-east, the same path from which it descended. This seemed strange for a balloon, to descend from high, stop close the the ground, and then begin ascending again. I know the time and date of the event because I took pictures of it with a Mavica digital camera which recorded the date and time. Unfortunately because the object was small and distant the only thing in the pictures is a gray blot. No detail to be seen. I can provide the pictures if necessary, but they really don't show much. I didn't think much of it until today (11/08/2000). Again, at about 12:20pm (this time I looked at the clock and did not take pictures) I noticed the same object above the Bellevue Mall. I looked at it through my binoculars and it appeared the same as I remembered the previous object. It descended slowly, heading north-west (note that the prevailing winds in the area are north-east, but it's a calm day) until it was below my line of sight (high in the Rainier Tower). I called a co-worker over and asked him to look at it. We then went to another office on our floor because we knew of a telescope we could use to image it better. Sadly, it's a crappy telescope and although I was able to track it for a while it didn't produce any better picture than the binoculars did. This time, instead of heading back up, it floated just above the tree line out over Medina and moved north slowly in between trees. I eventually lost it just south of NE 8th. I estimate the size to be beachball to basketball size, but it's hard to guage size from the distance from which I observed both events. Right now I'm watching several different helicopters flying above and around the Medina area. Helicopter traffic isn't unusual around here, but the timing is interesting to note. I've seen three thus far, two look like private, small helicopters and the other a larger news-chopper breed, but too far away to see any markings or color. All three have been flying up and down the east shoreline above Medina.