Tyler Reporting:
As mentioned in my previous post, I've been walking 2-3 miles every day with our dog, Cleo. My goal being to explore as much of (South) Seattle as possible. I've been posting every other week about it, on Facebook, and I'm not transferring those posts here.
Weeks 5 & 6:
Our progress so far. I think this weekend, we'll start a new quadrant to the East of the original one.
Week 5 found us wrapping up the North end of Beacon Hill, in the shadow of the Pac Med Building; before dropping down to Rainier Valley and Mount Baker beyond it. Moving from Southwest to Northeast, Mount Baker's aggresively cute craftsmen houses slowly gave way to mansions as we approached Lake Washington. Then it was back up to Beacon, where we hiked across the Jose Rizal Bridge and zig-zagged through Little Saigon in the International District. The last few days have been moving down Jackson and Yesler, slowly closer to the reclusive community of Leshi. We probsbly only have one or two more walks in this quadrant before moving on to a new one.
Bridge extending over Rainier Ave, near where it intersects with MLK.
If you are hiking around Seattle, you are probably hiking stairs. Seattle is maybe overly fond of stairs.
For the first time, our walks take us along the shores of Lake Washington.
Most of the stairs between streets are pretty utilitarian. But, these neat stairs featured a rain gutter running alongside of them that terminated in this gargoyle.
One of the big discoveries on this leg was this pedestrian tunnel directly above the I-90 car tunnel connecting downtown with the floating bridge. It's roughly a quarter mile of dimly lit graffiti.
A lot of graffiti in the tunnel was just random tagging, but there's also a few well-done pieces.
Crossing the Jose Rizal Bridge that connects Beacon Hill with the International District. A lot of our walks just feel like random strolls through the suburbs, but this view was a nice reminder that, oh yeah, we are in a city.
A statue of a Buddhist Pilgrim across the street from a Buddhist Temple in the ID.
More stairs!!
Another pleasant surprise was Coleman Park, wedged between Mount Baker and Lake Washington. Lots of winding roads and pedestrian paths under them.
Weeks 7 & 8:
Our walks so far. Weeks 7 & 8 have all been in the green square to the right.
As predicted, we wrapped up our 2nd Quadrant the day after my last post, and moved into a new area, between Beacon Hill and Seward Park. Week 7 was largely spent exploring north from Genesee, toward the multi-million dollar homes overlooking Lake Washington. During that week also happened to be the ramp up to Seafair, so each day the neighborhood became increasingly hectic. While during Week 8 we began most of our walks on MLK, and headed East, across Rainier, before turning around at Wilson and heading back West on a neighboring street. At this point in my explorations, I'm beginning to feel like I could write a paper on the Topography of Inequality, where I propose that if you tell me a lots elevation, proximity to a body of water, and distance from a major thoroughfare, I could likely tell you the type of house you'd encounter.
Taken on our last walk in Quadrant 2. I was just amused by the idea of someone saying they lived on the corner of King & King.
A humble home, overlooking Lake Washington.
Cleo encounters geese on the shores of Lake Washington.
A memorial on the side wall of the Royal Room, a jazz club in Columbia City.
Not 100% sure if these stairs were city stairs, or if I accidentally cut through someone's yard. But they were cool.
Hitt's Hill Park. A tiny park almost within walking distance of my house. Just one trail through a shady couple of blocks, but still a nice surprise.
I encountered a number of these while walking in these neighborhoods. Images of spiritual, cultural or civil rights leaders with famous quotes by them. This one being Ram Dass.
This house, on an anonymous street, a quarter mile or so from the lake is definitely the exception to the rule. Most of the houses around it were significantly humbler.
The passage of some animal, captured in time.
More street art of mysterious origins. I'm not sure if the lady with word balloon is the same series as the other images I'd encounter, but I found a few like her, too. In addition, the dragon/creature head to the right is part of a series of similar art hanging all over the area.
(Editor's Note: In the comments, an old friend, Jer, found more information on the dragons. You can read about them here.)
A 1970's split level home that's apparently been converted into a Buddhist Temple of some sort.
1 comment:
So neat to see our neighborhood through someone elses' eyes! I've taken a photo of that downspout because it struck me as so unusual. & I've walked that i90 tunnel exactly once. Too creepy as a woman alone.
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