West Seattle, Washington
14 Monday
Pix of this morning’s swim, courtesy of Dan E (thanks!):
Water temperature, by the way, was 48 degrees (warmer than the air, though!).
Also happening on Alki this morning – Harleys gathering for their annual New Year’s ride, south through Burien and on to Federal Way. Video of that in our next post; meantime, a few more Alki Polar Bear pix from Dan E:Read More
From WSB contributing photographer Matt Durham: Tuesday morning, “Dan” walks and feeds the pigeons on Alki Beach. Dan can often be seen walking Alki Beach with two or three pigeons perched on his shoulders or tucked under his arms.
(Prints of Matt’s WSB photos and his other work are available through his site, MattDurhamPhotography.com.)
Seen on the Alki promenade/boardwalk/whatever’s your preferred term:
By the way, tomorrow’s forecast is looking better, according to the fourth paragraph here.
A comprehensive update at Fauntleroy.net tells the tale of the Fauntleroy Creek “Reach to the Beach” project, all finished except revegetation, just south of the ferry dock …
Next step: Awaiting the salmon. According to the Fauntleroy.net writeup, some coho already have been seen off Lincoln Park, so they “are optimistic watchers will have fish to watch” when the annual Salmon Watch begins along Fauntleroy Creek next month. Sign-ups for volunteers are under way now; scroll to the bottom of this Fauntleroy.net page for contact information, and also mark your calendar for 5 pm Sunday, October 21st, when the community will gather at the creek’s fish-ladder viewpoint for drumming to call the salmon home.
We keep trying to catch up with the Seal Sitters who have been keeping watch for weeks to protect the baby harbor seals that turn up to take a break on the beach at Alki. Almost connected after hearing about their 1 pm picnic on Sunday — then rain forced them indoors — but at least our videographer found one of the seals. Adorability awaits:
One WSB reader asked us if the Seal Sitters are on duty 24 hours a day. Seal-sitter organizer Brenda Peterson says they’ve been trying their best to cover most of the clock, as volunteer availability allows. (If you’re interested in volunteering, e-mail us and we’ll forward her your contact info.) Wondering why Seal Sitters are needed? Here’s just one anecdote underscoring the need. You can read more about harbor seals and the laws protecting them here.
That’s really all we could say when we saw what was going on at Alki during a brief stop before our below-documented search for breakfast. Just west of The Statue, crews are setting up what appeared to be stage, scaffolding, bleachers, etc., for tonight’s Mars Hill mass baptism. Two photos are below (wide shot, then closer in); up on the street, several parking spaces are blocked off, likely for the promised shuttle buses. To steal a ’60s term, this is gonna be “a scene.”
That’s the headline for the latest Mars Hill-WS blog post about this Friday’s Alki mass baptism (which we told you about last week). 2:10 PM UPDATE: They’ve posted about it again, with an attempt at humor suggesting that lightning might strike any MH’er who ignores the “don’t park at Alki, take the shuttle from WSHS” pleas.
… the second September weekend begins with a beautiful evening, as seen below from the shore at Lincoln Park:
Just south of the ferry dock, work has begun in earnest on a project Fauntleroy Creek stewards call “the reach to the beach.” Over the next 2 weeks, with the help of EarthCorps, they are working to transform the last stretch of FC into something more natural. Judy Pickens tells us major work won’t start till tomorrow, but we noticed a definite difference between the view of the beach this afternoon (first photo below) and yesterday (second photo below):
The coho salmon of Fauntleroy Creek need all the help they can get, after a disappointing year; here’s hoping this project does the trick. By the way, the FC fish ladder on the other side of Fauntleroy Way celebrates its 10th anniversary next year!
Two beautiful sights, both from Lowman Beach: Most recently, that’s where we happened to be when we spotted fireworks across the Sound, over Bainbridge (visible no doubt to anyone with a north- or west-facing West Seattle water view). Turns out the fireworks were part of the Town & Country Market 50th anniversary party. Earlier, here’s tonight’s sunset scene from Lowman, in a photo sent by Maria Esztergalyos (thank you!):
Today’s beach volleyball on Alki wasn’t just any old sporting day at the beach — this was the first time the EVP Tour stopped @ Alki, and the first time Comcast taped beach volleyball for broadcast. We dropped by the women’s championship match in late afternoon; it featured local standout Bri Murray, one of the Northwest’s top-ranked beach-volleyball players:
Bri and her partner Wendy Stammer (from Tigard, OR) won the first set; we couldn’t stay to see how the whole match turned out, but expect to find it online later.
The weather was iffy, with light showers passing through early on, but the sun prevailed, gracing scenery including the Golden Princess passing by after sailaway for its Alaska cruise:
You may see some of the players around WS tonight, as an afterparty was planned at Rocksport. Video of today’s games is supposed to be available via Comcast Digital “On Demand” programming starting September 10th.
We were so hoping to snag a pretty summer sunset photo tonight for the first time in a while. The clouds refused to cooperate. So instead, in case you didn’t get to go out and enjoy it, here’s actual proof that summer returned for a while this afternoon …. honest.
Dropped by the Bench Press and Dead Lift Championships happening right now at Alki (between the Bathhouse and the sand). We caught a couple of the more senior lifters in action (their ages were announced with their names), lifting somewhere around 200 pounds. First, Richard, 75 years old, before and during his lift:
This is Leroy, 67, before and during:
Goodnatured crowd on hand, some sponsor freebies, and demonstrations between lifters’ “flights” — as we left, a group of young martial artists was about to show their stuff. ALSO HAPPENING IN WS RIGHT NOW: The first annual C & P Coffee arts & crafts fair, till 3 pm. One WSB reader already has written in with a rave review – “some great stuff.”
Per 1 of 2 dueling press releases, WS will be in a pilot plan for recycling bins at beaches & parks next spring. (2 councilmembers suggest it’s their idea; Hizzoner says it’s his.)
First, a reader question for anyone and everyone in WSB-land. After that, three photos — not related to the reader question except that they are also things seen on/over Puget Sound. So here we go —
i’m curious if anyone else has seen a mysterious man, paddling STANDING UP on the Sound. we saw him last night about 6 pm, couldn’t believe our eyes! then, at 9 am this morning, we saw the same guy (we’re assuming). when we looked through our binoculars, it appeared that he was standing up on something resembling a surfboard as he paddles. has anyone else seen him or knows what it is he is doing?
If you do, leave a comment. Now, three photos we took around sunset tonight from the northern shores of Lincoln Park. Some of the folks on the boat in the first photo (which appeared to be related to an outdoor party at one of the waterfront homes just past the park) were actually jumping into the water. Brrr!
The weather’s more beautiful than expected and there’s a good crowd browsing the Art Fair booths at the beach. Dozens of booths, plus a bouncy toy for kids ($1), are on the blacktop promenade, both sides of the bathhouse. Live music, too! Here’s a few scenes we caught while strolling through — first, the obligatory overview:
Two pix from our favorite booth, on the west end of the Art Fair — Hoppy’s Garden Art, lovely and reasonably priced creations (the rectangular trellises in the second photo were $79 & $89):
Not part of the fair but part of the scenery — with a low-ish tide down on the beach itself, boogieboarding was in order:
Art Fair signs say it’s 10-5 today and tomorrow; city website says till 6; just an fyi in case you’re not planning to go till late in the day.
The weather looks relatively good, knock wood. This is the weekend that Alki is awash in art, Shakespeare in the Park holds court at Camp Long, and we WSers are “Stuffing the Bus” at the Farmers’ Market for WestSide Baby‘s biggest annual diaper drive, among many other things (including a few events outside WS that might interest you) — click ahead!Read More
Tribal canoes on the region-wide Paddle to Lummi 2007 are stopping over at Alki. Read more about the journey here; if you can’t get down to the beach, check out some of the photos kindly sent to us by WSB reader Margelyn:
Three meetings in less than two weeks, including the Alki Community Council last night, and now we know there won’t be a decision any sooner than fall about whether the Alki Statue of Liberty — removed for recasting exactly one year ago today — will return to its old base, or to a new plaza like this (all architects’ art here):
Both the couple leading a drive to restart the plaza project, Libby & Paul Carr, and the city Parks Department project manager for the statue, Pamela Kliment, are in difficult positions, to say the least. They all spoke at last night’s ACC meeting, but since it was just one item on a busy agenda, there wasn’t a ton of Q/A time. What’s difficult: For the Carrs, the fact they and their volunteer assistants are working hard on something completely unofficial, since the final say lies with the Parks Department; for Parks, the fact they have to be the “reality check” on a volunteer effort that inarguably is full of enthusiasm, vision, inspiration, and hope — Kliment noted that for one, it’s “distressing” that the statue spot is empty, after one full year, and for two, the situation is larger than the statue itself. Which the Carrs likely would not dispute, as they have a larger vision as well — they hope a grand new home for this “Little Sister of Liberty” could spark a nationwide revitalization project for the many other similar statues that have fallen into disrepair in the half-century since the Boy Scouts donated them. So for now, the Carrs and their group — which is not yet officially certified as a nonprofit — will continue their work, including a new logo they debuted last night (shown below; copyrighted by local artist Phil Jones) that they plan to put on fundraising items such as T-shirts and posters; and the Parks Department will look ahead to a public meeting announced last night, 7 pm Thursday, Sept. 13, location TBD (Kliment said she’s hoping for the Bathhouse but it’s got a “temporary hold” for that night).
The Stranger’s bodacious blog paid a visit to The Beach and concluded that anyone whining about Alki nightlife trouble should pretty much just shut their pie hole. They checked back on last year’s controversy spots; guess they hadn’t heard about this year’s radio-fueled controversy spot, which the Alki Beach Community group on Yahoo! has been discussing for a couple weeks.
Summer Fest is of course the headliner, but this weekend also features the dinner/auction to save the Community School of WS site from going condo, DNDA’s big art auction, Sunday morning classics at Admiral Theater, low tides, and more … Click for the full list, as always:Read More
-One last reminder, the Alki Statue of Liberty meeting is 7 pm tonight, by the statue site. Up for discussion: Put the new statue on the old base and call it good, or keep the new statue in storage till a “plaza” for it can be paid for and built. (“Do it now” supporters are running this on Craigslist.)
-Tonight and every Wednesday night through Aug. 22, West Seattle’s megachurch is inviting its flock to weekly Lincoln Park barbecues.
-Not only will The Junction be jumping for Summer Fest this Fri-Sat-Sun, but tomorrow night has two big events as well: “Hair” opens at ArtsWest; and Divina plans a “post-construction celebration” to commemorate the completion of the paving project, with art as well as live music by Brazilian singer/guitarist Kiko Freitas.
-Art is also in the picture for the south edge of WS tomorrow night @ 7 pm, as Cafe Rozella premieres a photo exhibit, described as “native youth look(ing) at their environment.)
-And if you like low-tide beach walking, enjoy four days of midday low tides starting tomorrow.
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