Exploring South Seattle with Cleo - Weeks 5 to 8

 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.

Always with the stairs.

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.

August in Seattle.

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.

Exploring South Seattle with Cleo - Weeks 1 to 4

 Tyler Reporting: 

Editor's Note: Approximately14 weeks ago, with the kids out of school, I began walking our dog, Cleo, 2 to 3 miles every morning. In order to keep myself from getting bored of the same routes every day, I decided that I would try to do a new route every day, and track it on an old map of Seattle I owned. As I went, the process became more formalized, and I began taking pictures and notes along the way, and posting them on Facebook. 

Now, in order to keep Facebook's feed from Memory Holing the earlier entries, I've decided to copy and paste them here. I feel that these walks have become an extension of this blogs goal of exploring our strange and benevolent world. 

Weeks 1 & 2

With the kids out of school, I've begun taking Cleo on 2-3 mile walks each morning, with the idea of exploring all the streets in my neighborhood. We are still less than 2 weeks into this routine, and I'm already realizing I will need to expand to other neighborhoods.

(Sorry this first entry is so short, I hadn't fully grocked what I was doing yet.)

Weeks 3 & 4

Cleo and Tyler Explore South Seattle: Update 2. Two weeks ago, I posted a picture of a map showing all the streets that Cleo and I had explored since the kids got out of school. Since then, I've formalized the process a bit, and we've continued to expand and explore. A couple of my rules:

1) 2-3 miles a day. Avoid re-walking the same street.

2) The goal is the explore, not to be a completionist. We don't need to hit every street but try to cover each area enough that you couldn't walk more than a block or two without hitting a street we've been on.

3) I've begun marking off quadrants. We'll work though one, then move on to another.

So, the last two weeks, we finished off our first quadrant. Strolling through the uniform houses of New Holly, past the Buddhist temple on Graham St (that causes the air in the surrounding streets to smell vaguely of incense, and reminds me of travel), down through Georgetown and exploring the neighborhood between MLK and Rainier Ave. Then it was on to North Beacon Hill, where we've walked long north-south stretches, crawling from the west (over I-5) to the east (eventually dropping down to Rainier Ave again).

I haven't historically been a lover of seafood, but I sort of love this place that feels like a place out of time and so neighborhood-y. Ba-humbug to the fish markets at Pike Place.

A lot of the things we stop to look at are of more interest to Cleo than me.

A mural up off Beacon Ave.

A giant sticker-thing of a taun-taun with an AT-AT head, under I-5. There's also a C-3PO with a Spock head on the next post over.

A rare dirt road. This one between Rainier Ave and MLK. Almost felt like being in the country.

Another mural. This one on Rainier Ave, north of Columbia City.

Return to Reykjavik and the Golden Circle

Tyler Reporting:

Day 7

Reykjavik is only the third international city that I've been back to more than once (the other two being Paris and Santiago). There is something comforting about going back to a city you've been to before (international or not). You don't feel the pressure to "see it all" and instead are able to focus on doing what you'd like to do. 

I think, when initially planning the trip, Sarah and I had sort of presumed that we would spend the couple of days we had in Reykjavik re-showing the kids the city. But, with Stella still feeling under the weather, and Otto being a little burnt out from being drug all over Iceland, we decided to let them off the hook a bit and let them hang in the apartment while Sarah and I ran explored around a bit. 

Otto's default mode, when mom and dad weren't making him walk around Reykjavik. 

That said, Otto and I did start the morning by going to one of Reykjavik's community pools. We'd actually been intending to go to one that we'd been to the previous visit, but we remembered our directions wrong and ended up at a different pool. This one wasn't as fun as the previous day's pool in Akureyi, but with its waterslide, hot pots and large swimming pool, it was still a good way to start the day. 

When we got back, we did make one quickish trip up to the main cathedral. I'd gotten it in my head to recreate a photo that was taken on our original trip. In the original, Sarah and the kids stood hand in hand looking up at the cathedral, all jetlagged from the flight in. I thought it would be fun to show them all in the same pose today. I think it turned out well...

The original. 

...and today.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. After that, we lingered for a bit, taking in the crowds and sun, and enjoying some waffles from a nearby stand.

Rock star posing.

Just including this photo because it feels so cheerful and carefree. 

We returned the apartment, long enough to drop off Stella and Otto. Then, we headed back out to explore around a bit. First off The Icelandic Punk Rock Museum! The Icelandic Punk Rock Museum is an old public bathroom that has been converted into what must be one of the smallest museums in the world: Basically, three stalls worth of information detailing the Icelandic punk rock up through Bjork and the Sugarcubes. 

Punk Rock Museum entrance.

Some example text from inside the museum.

After that, without an agenda, Sarah and I just wandered for a bit. Like, "let's just go that way a bit" wandering. Away from the crowds of the main drag, and with the sun out. It was relaxing an dnice to just aimlessly explore. 

Me, at the pond, which lies at one end of the main tourist thoroughfare, with Reykjavik spread out behind me.

A typical piece of architecture. Icelanders love their corrugated metal. 

A mural, just off the main drag. Murals are a pretty common sight, which also helps keep the graffiti down. 

We then swung by the apartment just long enough to collect Otto for dinner at Reykjavik Fish & Chips Company. We'd been there on our previous visit, and remembered enjoying it, but also remember being really jetlagged. So, we thought it would be fun to revisit with our resident seafood connoisseur. It didn't disappoint. 

After that, we decided to hike down to a waterfront portion of Reykjavik we hadn't been to before, to get ice cream. It was neat to see another side of the city, and it was also nice that this portion both a) didn't seem to cater exclusively to tourist, and b) also had a number of small boutique businesses and restaurants. 

On our previous visit, our front Jody had introduced us to the owner of the Icelandic chocolate company Omnom. Since then, Omnom had opened up a storefront where they sold chocolate bars and ice cream. 

The Omnom storefront, with its rainbow wolf logo. 

The Panda ice cream that we got for Stella, and then had to try to race home with before it melted. Semi-successfully. 

Day 8

On the morning of the final day, Stella had begun to rally a bit... but unfortunately, I could feel myself fading a bit. My mantra was "just need to make it 19 more hours, and then I can fall apart at home."

We decided that, rather than linger around Reykjavik, we'd take the kids out to the Golden Circle. We'd been there on our first trip, and hadn't intended to do it again, but decide to call an audible, since it would involve less walking for Stella, and neither of the kids remembered it from the first time.  But first: Hot dogs!

Another thing that the kids didn't remember was the Icelandic Hot Dog stand, so we decided to do our early lunch there. Especially since Otto is a bit of a hot dog connoisseur, too. He maintains New York hot dogs are good... but is critical of pretty much any other dog. 

His verdict? Good. Not New York good. But good.

Hoping back in the Rifter for one last day of driving, we headed out to the first stop on the Golden Circle, Þingvellir. Þingvellir is both the site where the North American and European tetonic plates are expanding away from each other and it was also the site of the annual gathering of lawmakers in the settling time. I'm sure that Sarah or I detailed it in greater detail in our original entry, so I won't bore you with it again. Still, here's some photos of our sunny and relaxed visit. 

One of the other few pictures of the whole family, thanks to a friendly tourist. Not sure why my head appears to be put on crooked. 

Below the rocky rift that is the main tourist draw, there's a small wetlands, with a gangplank walkway. Here's Otto enjoying it.

The kids, on our walk back up the hill to the parking lot. 

After that, it was on to the geothermic area Haukadalur, the site of the original "Geyser" and Iceland's most spectacular geyser: Strokkur. When we'd been there, before, the area consisted of little more than a parking lot and dirt paths. So, we were amazed to find it now posted a fancy interpretive center complete with shop, restaurant and gas station. 

Unfortunately, as we pulled into the parking lot, we also realized we were already running behind schedule, and that not only would we have to skip revisiting Gullfoss, but would have to even hurry our visit here. Still, Strokkur didn't disappoint, and erupted several time while we were there. 

The kids enjoy the geyser, while I make awkward conversation with a tourist who thought it was really important to remind us that -if Yellowstone erupted- it would kill my whole family. 

Having watched the geyser erupt, it was back in the Rifter, and back the way we came. Back past Reykjavik. Dropping off and saying "Goodbye" to the Rifter. Navigating the airport. And, home to Seattle.