On Saturday, May 12th, twelve adventurous souls set off from Duamish Head in West Seattle and began the trek across the city. I was one of these daring climbers. ;) Okay...it wasn't that dangerous, but it was pretty grueling. The group of us met down by Salty's on Alki (where the divers always are) at 8am and took off on a walk around Seattle that lasted for most of the day. After posing for a few group photos, we were ready to start off on our "mini-adventure".
Our first "summit" was the watertower near Charleston Street in West Seattle. We almost reached the tower, when two of our group members mysteriously disappeared. They spotted a garage sale and once they saw tackle boxes & fishing reels, there was no stopping them. Of course, one of these men was my father and the other his good fishing buddy and my aunt's boyfriend, Clarence. We lost them for a good 15 minutes. They finally returned having purchased a tackle box with all sorts of "amazing flies" inside. Guys. They are all the same. Complain about how much women shop...honestly!! ;)
From the water tower, we walked across the overpass that marks the entry into West Seattle...by the "people playing on logs"...if you're from West Seattle, you know what I'm talking about. ;) I did discover that it is apparently against the law to hang banners from the overpass bridge...I of course, being the law breaker that I once was (I outgrew it) have hung a banner from the bridge before....it was years ago, so maybe that law didn't exist back th
en? I honestly don't see the harm in hanging a peice of paper from the bridge exclaiming things like "Happy Birthday, ----!" or "Welcome Home, Sgt. ----!" I mean, where's the harm in that? Are we going to ban everything fun? Okay...random tangent!
Back to the walk!
After crossing the overpass, we headed down to Spokane Street and walked to Beacon Hill...this was probably the worst stretch of the walk, simply because the entire trek is underneath the West Seattle Bridge and is just dirty, smelly, and loud. I didn't exactly feel safe down there. But I also know that God is always watching out for me, so I really had no reason to be afraid. Plus I was with a large group if anything did happen... ;) My cousin and I ended up caught in the center pack, but were spread out between the trailers and the leaders...almost like we were walking alone. We didn't know the route we were going, so we were just guessing based on our knowledge of the area...and glimpses of the front runners.
Finally, we made it to the second summit: Jefferson Golf Course in Beacon Hill.
I should say we reached the second summit after taking an added stroll through the Veteran's Hospital parking lot that looped us around the actual golf course...this only added another .5 miles to our walk. No big deal! ;) So...we reached the golf course & of course Clarence had to buy some Rainier cherries (that guy is a shopper!) Although, admittedly, they were delicious! After hitting the restrooms, eating some granola bars, and taking more photos we were ready to proceed to First Hill. Oh, and Laura & I donned our Tie-dye for some photos at Jefferson Golf Course...we're hippies at heart. :)
As we were departing the golf course, Laura, Max, & I spotted a playground. Our eyes lit up with excitement. Then it was a race to the merry-go-round (where you run around while pushing it & then jump on). There was pushing, shoving, even some tripping. But we made it uninjured...bruised but not bleeding. ;) We spent a good 10 minutes playing on that thing! I'd forgotten just how enjoyable it was! After getting 10+ photos on my dad's camera, we were ready to make the trek through the lovely area that is Beacon Hill/Rainier...but not really! One of the highlights of that particular stretch of the walk was the "party" house that Laura & I gifted to Max...it was a rundown home with a front porch that had a torn up couched (that looked like mice or rats were living in it) on the porch...the paint was peeling...the steps were rotten. And did I mention there were Bud Light banners plastered all over it??? Not to mention all the abandoned beer cans & bottles in the front yard. Yeah, it was a keeper.
As we were descending the hill to cross over I-90, Laura, Max, & I began to feel someone stalking our steps...by this point our group had stretched out again & we were left alone with no other walkers around us. We glanced over our shoulders and saw a guy tracking us a few yards back...he had mysteriously appeared at the beginning of our stretch in Beacon hill. Trying to play off the fact that we were a little scared, we gave nervous smiles to reassure each other that we weren't worried and then made a mad dash for the next stopping point, where Bob, Ruth, and my mom were waiting for us to catch up. Breathlessly, we told them what had happened and they just laughed at us! Of course, our fears were completely unfounded, but a little compassion would have been appreciated!!
Stopping for now...still gotta write about making it to First Hill, Capitol Hill, Denny Hill (no longer a hill due to the massive regrading of Seattle), Queen Anne, and finally Magnolia.
