After Friday’s celebration, Saturday dawned late. Not too late, but not time to go to work early.
It may have been a late start, but it quickly picked up speed.
After Friday night’s rains, Saturday was clear and dry. So we took off walking.
The first stop on the walk was the Montlake Cut.
You see, the first Saturday in May is the opening day of boating season in Seattle. The Seattle Yacht Club puts on a boat parade through the Montlake Cut. This is the waterway that connects Lake Washington to Lake Union (which then goes through the locks, and out to Puget Sound).
The Cut is a cut. Manmade.
When the cut was made, it lowered the level of Lake Washington about 10 feet, and the Black River (the prior outlet for Lake Washington) ceased to flow. At least a good part of it ceased.
The bridge over the Montlake Cut is a drawbridge.
The days events start with the bridge down, but closed to car traffic.
It is instead home to folks that line the edges to watch the Windermere Cup.
The Windermere Cup is a series of crew races.
The University of Washington is always represented, and there are frequently invitees from distant ports. I am not sure who was in town this year, but we stopped by to see the set-up for the races. We did not stay, as our schedule did not allow for that and a walk.
So we continued on. Our next goal was to get up onto Capital Hill.
Capital Hill is a hill, and we were at water level at the Cut, so the question was which route to take up to the top.
In looking at maps I noted a trail through a green space that looked inviting, so we aimed in that general direction.
For those that know a bit about Seattle, our path took us past the Greek church on Boyer. (Home to the Greek Festival in September) We did not pass it on Boyer, but along its east side, and then crossed Boyer to follow 19th Ave, which is flat for about one house, and then goes straight up. (It seemed straight up, anyway.) We intersected with Interlaken Blvd for a bit, and then after a hairpin turn saw our trail to the south.
The boulder at the trail entrance proclaims it to be established in honor of Louisa Boren. The Boren family is one of the founding families of Seattle. Louisa passed in 1912. This trail is a path, rather than a wide trail, and winds through the woods and up the hill. There are indications of past attempts at definition of the trail and holding the hill. Pieces of concrete, logs, etc.
If you read the post for Friday, you might recall that there were record rains on Friday night. Saturday was sunny, but the runoff from the rains was still very evident along the trail. In a few places the trail could have been termed a drainage. Finding foot falls that did not sink in the mud was occasionally challenging.
In the end, we declared this a fine route choice. Good views, quiet, and very private (no other walkers). It also warmed us up in the morning chill.
Capital Hill provides many opportunities.
We started through Volunteer Park. As it happens, there was a Cinco de Mayo based 5K race on this morning. We picked up a free drink (Fuze) as we walked through. We enjoyed the views as we traversed this high point on our way towards the commercial center of the Hill.
Our two stops today included a Starbucks (first cup of the day), and Panera (home of loaves of bread – and a bathroom).
From Panera’s we started to descend towards downtown. We took Madison Ave this day. The previous week we went through Yesler Terrace.
Our first big destination was CenturyLink Field, home of the Sounders.
The game started with our seats in the sun, but by the end of the first half we were in the shade. The Panera loaf (Asiago Cheese Foccacia) provided sustenance. The second half included the Sounder’s scoring their goal for the day, and holding the Philadelphia Union scoreless. One game – one win. A good start.
After the games (baseball, football, soccer), the vendors outside of the stadiums usually offer 2 for 1 dogs and sausage. It is interesting to me that they do this even when the post-game for one venue is the pre-game for the adjacent venue. But they do, so we grabbed a sausage on our short walk to Safeco Field. After about 15 minutes, we were inside Safeco, watching batting practice.
Since it was the “late game” (at 6 PM), our seats were already in the sun. Felix Hernandez was the pitcher for the game, so there was a buzz in the air, and yellow shirts in the left-field corner. The temperature dropped with the sunset, but Felix was hot – pitching 8 scoreless innings. The Mariners won 7-0.
We managed a ride home with Kevin.
Pictures from our day in the sun. A very happy, relaxing day.
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