Exploring South Seattle with Cleo - Weeks 9 to 12

 Tyler Reporting:

Continuing my explorations of South Seattle, with our dog Cleo, during near-daily 2-3 mile walks.

Weeks 9 & 10

My walks these last two weeks were wrapping up the East Quadrant, then moving on to the South Quadrant where I bump into the city limits with Tukwila, then a little bit of the West Quadrant.

These last two weeks explorations have been slowed a bit because of both a mid-week camping trip and some ongoing knee issues I'm having. Still, we managed to wrap up the Seward Park Quadrant, before moving on the new quadrant to the south, where we explored a wedge of Beacon Hill, around Boeing Field, and into South Park. We even picked up a bit of Georgetown/SoDo yesterday.

You know what area I really enjoyed? South Park. When Sarah and I first moved to South Seattle 14+ years ago, we had a running joke to the effect of "you know you are lost when you realize you are in South Park." But exploring it this week, it reminded me a lot of what appealed to me about Georgetown and Beacon Hill years ago: Diverse, working class and with a noticeable funky, artistic style. Plus, I think it's Seattle's only real community ON the Duwamish.

Sarah joined me on one section, down along the Seward Park waterfront. She's wearing her weighted vest, in preparation for her backpacking trip which would start a couple days later.

A rare self-portrait of me. Taken in the Rainier Valley.

A typical house and view in the Seward Park/Brighton Beach neighborhood.

The International District might be the official neighborhood for Seattle immigrant communities, but most of the more recent immigrants live farther south, near the Othello Station and beyond. There's a lot of shopping centers like this one that definitely aren't catering to dotcom hipsters.

A mural on a Safeway near the Othello Station.

I've got a weird obsession with Military Road. Originally built to connect Fort Steillacoom and Fort Bellingham, in the 1850s, before Washington was even a state. It pre-dates any urban planning, and the remaining sections of it always run counter to any current grid system. This section is on Beacon Hill, but I've encountered other sections farther afield.

Planes and boats. Crossing the South Park Bridge over the Duwamish. When Sarah and I first moved to South Seattle, this bridge was closed, making it feel like South Park was cut off from the rest of the city.

A pedestrian underpass beneath East Marginal Way connecting two parts of the Boeing Plant.

The Big Top Curiosity Shop, in the center of South Park. I've been eternally curious about it, but have yet to go in.

A pocket park on the Duwamish in South Park.

Another view of the Duwamish, and the Boeing Plant beyond, taken from a pier extending out over the river.

A pedestrian overpass, crossing 99.

Obligatory stairs photo. Maybe the longest stairs we've encountered, only about a third of their length is visible here, since they bend and curve out of view.

Going into SoDo, Seattle's massive unhoused population becomes more noticeable. These cement blocks are everywhere, presumably to keep people from parking their campers or setting up tents. This particular stretch has been turned into a bit of an art installation though.

Weeks 11(-ish) & 12:

The map continues to grow. Most of the growth in the southwest, but a little in the northeast.

"Week 11" ended up being spread over about 3 weeks, owing to our trip to Iceland, catching Covid and my ongoing knee issues. But we were back in the swing of things last week.

Most of the last dozen walks were exploring Seattle's SODO neighborhood, South of the West Seattle bridge. And you know what no one has ever waxed poetic about? The beauty of SODO. And for good reason. SODO is largely dominated by shipping, warehouses, long industrial strips, lined with semi rigs and tragic numbers of Seattle's unhoused population. Still, there were pockets of art and life: Murals, pocket parks and random restaurants or rogue houses left over from earlier times.

Rounding out last week, we moved on to the next "quadrant" (can you have more than four quadrants?), and we were back into the giant houses and mansions of North Mount Baker and Leshi.

A view of downtown, from SODO, looking under the West Seattle bridge. It has been closed since the start of the pandemic, but would open again a day or two later.

Cleo found her pack.

Neat (if very neglected) old hangar-style building. This is the type of place I'd point out to the kids and tell them it was where I'd open my board game cafe.

Parked rigs and shipping containers. Pretty much the order of the day in SODO. I thought the colors here at least had a Wes Anderson quality to them.

A pocket park on the edge of the Duwamish River, with its original Duwamish name.

Looking across Lake Washington. Bellevue is barely visible in the haze of forest fire smoke.

Another self-portrait of me and my walking companion.

Some of the humble houses on the North end of Mount Baker.

(At this point, I'm basically now caught up with where I am on my Facebook posts. I just posted the entry for Weeks 13 & 14 there. But I think I'll continue posting entries here in 1-month chunks. So, expect another entry here in about 2 weeks, then monthly going forward. Until I give up on this project.)