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rebeccmeisterI grew up 2 blocks away from the Washington State Arboretum, which is to say I basically grew up in the Washington State Arboretum. From a young age friends and I were allowed to just run over there and play. Apparently the Arboretum is turning 90 years old this year. Over the past decade or so, there have been some major efforts to improve parts of the Arboretum, most especially through the addition of a paved cycling path. I'm happy to see so many people continuing to appreciate the park and spend time there.
But I still mostly just love it for the old, familiar spots.
The pedestrian bridge which is how we would get into the main portion of the park from where I lived:
Of course, when younger I also spent a lot of time just playing underneath this bridge, too.
A sense of the wintry views along/near Azalea Way:
Apparently now Forest School is an organized activity instead of an unsupervised free-for-all. The sign is to request that passers-by not photograph the children when school is in session.
A favorite pond:
A good little beach near the bridge to Foster Island, where there are often great blue herons to watch, and ducks to feed (except now, it's no longer appropriate to feed the ducks I guess):
Where the path travels beneath the 520 bridge it has changed tremendously due to bridge reconstruction, but also including the appearance of this beaver mound, one of two in the area:
Looking out at Union Bay from the Foster Island Point. It's amazing how calm the lake water can be some days.
I swear that the floating sections of the Foster Island trail have had an outsize influence on my dreams over the years. It is most fun to see the water from boat wakes slop up between the cracks, although this particular day there was hardly any boat traffic at all. This is also a good spot to watch ducks and also swallows in the summer as they fly around catching insects.
A view of the actual ASUW Shell House on the far side of the Montlake Cut:
If you read The Boys in the Boat or see the movie, this is the boathouse that the University of Washington rowers used to row out of, where George Pocock had his boatbuilding workshop upstairs. The film wasn't actually filmed in Seattle because of how much of the shoreline around the boathouse has been developed as compared to 1934-36. For example, the Husky Stadium behind the Shell House got rebuilt when I was a kid, after the first build crumpled midway through the construction process. The filmmakers reconstructed the Shell House at the film site in England.
Historic plaque about the nearby Montlake Bridge, which I think has also inspired a number of dream elements for me over the years - the Bridge, not the plaque:
If you can't read it, it notes that the Montlake Cut was completed in 1917, with the bridge built in 1925-26. You can see the bridge in the background in a couple of shots in the Boys in the Boat. The Montlake Cut connected Lake Washington to Lake Union, creating a shipping channel between the lakes, and also creating a dramatic 500m sprint race course finish segment that I still haven't ever personally gotten to race along.
View from the top of the Montlake Bridge:
This year, the winter mosses, lichen, and fungi really stand out to me.
Quietly lush.
Plus the fact that apparently it's already spring in Seattle.
This is likely too soon. New York will be cold and snowy when I return.
But I still mostly just love it for the old, familiar spots.
The pedestrian bridge which is how we would get into the main portion of the park from where I lived:
Of course, when younger I also spent a lot of time just playing underneath this bridge, too.
A sense of the wintry views along/near Azalea Way:
Apparently now Forest School is an organized activity instead of an unsupervised free-for-all. The sign is to request that passers-by not photograph the children when school is in session.
A favorite pond:
A good little beach near the bridge to Foster Island, where there are often great blue herons to watch, and ducks to feed (except now, it's no longer appropriate to feed the ducks I guess):
Where the path travels beneath the 520 bridge it has changed tremendously due to bridge reconstruction, but also including the appearance of this beaver mound, one of two in the area:
Looking out at Union Bay from the Foster Island Point. It's amazing how calm the lake water can be some days.
I swear that the floating sections of the Foster Island trail have had an outsize influence on my dreams over the years. It is most fun to see the water from boat wakes slop up between the cracks, although this particular day there was hardly any boat traffic at all. This is also a good spot to watch ducks and also swallows in the summer as they fly around catching insects.
A view of the actual ASUW Shell House on the far side of the Montlake Cut:
If you read The Boys in the Boat or see the movie, this is the boathouse that the University of Washington rowers used to row out of, where George Pocock had his boatbuilding workshop upstairs. The film wasn't actually filmed in Seattle because of how much of the shoreline around the boathouse has been developed as compared to 1934-36. For example, the Husky Stadium behind the Shell House got rebuilt when I was a kid, after the first build crumpled midway through the construction process. The filmmakers reconstructed the Shell House at the film site in England.
Historic plaque about the nearby Montlake Bridge, which I think has also inspired a number of dream elements for me over the years - the Bridge, not the plaque:
If you can't read it, it notes that the Montlake Cut was completed in 1917, with the bridge built in 1925-26. You can see the bridge in the background in a couple of shots in the Boys in the Boat. The Montlake Cut connected Lake Washington to Lake Union, creating a shipping channel between the lakes, and also creating a dramatic 500m sprint race course finish segment that I still haven't ever personally gotten to race along.
View from the top of the Montlake Bridge:
This year, the winter mosses, lichen, and fungi really stand out to me.
Quietly lush.
Plus the fact that apparently it's already spring in Seattle.
This is likely too soon. New York will be cold and snowy when I return.
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Date: 2024-01-04 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-04 12:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-04 02:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-04 02:21 pm (UTC)Great photographs! My grandfather's house was right around the corner from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, so I know what it's like to grow up in one of these cultivated urban wildernesses.
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Date: 2024-01-04 02:40 pm (UTC)I need to visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens one of these days!
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Date: 2024-01-04 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-05 02:30 am (UTC)