Seemed like a lot more people IN the water, waiting to greet the Seafair Pirates as they landed on Alki today, than in years past. We waded right in with them (our video was in an earlier WSB update, but if you missed it, click here to see it). Meantime, thanks to Gary Jones for sharing his perspective from a bit further away:
Our partners at the Seattle Times talked to some of the pirates and spectators, as you’ll see in their clip here:
Remember 13-year-old Joseph, the Make-A-Wish kid who became an honorary Seafair Pirate in that amazing pre-landing event on Alki Friday night (WSB coverage here)? Today, he became Captain Kidd Jr. He’s the fifth photo in the Times’ gallery – click here to go there directly. Two more photos to share – these are “pirate portraits” from today by Dave Estep from Estepworks Photography:
You will of course see the Pirates at many Seafair-sanctioned events in the next month or so – here’s the Seafair events list; among them, the West Seattle American Legion Post 160 Grand Parade coming up two weeks from today – Saturday, July 24th, 11 am, from California/Lander in the Admiral District to California/Edmunds in The Junction.
Story and photos by Christopher Boffoli
Reporting for West Seattle Blog
That’s Diane Venti (left), who owns Alki Arts with her husband, Tom Wyrick, who is also a metal artist whose work is currently featured in the gallery. She told me this afternoon that their first day is going very well. There was certainly a steady stream of visitors while I was there.
She said that even before they opened, while they were in there painting the walls, people were knocking on the door to ask about it. And she said she has had to clean plenty of “nose prints” off the windows as people have apparently been peeking in to get a better look. They had their garage-style doors fully open today.
Venti tells me that she came up with the idea for a gallery in early June. (We first reported on the new business last Tuesday.) She is an artist herself, has experience working in galleries downtown, and wanted to own a space for real West Seattle working artists. The current crop of artists was assembled in about ten days. The way the system works is that artists rent the wall space from the gallery by the month. The gallery takes no commissions on whatever the artist sells. In addition, each artist can host an event/opening there on one night during the month their art is on display. The gallery can also be rented by the night for anyone who wishes to have events there.
Venti says the mission of Alki Arts is to feature West Seattle artists, sculptors and glass artists (but not photographers). Artists wishing to sell their work at Alki Arts are welcome to send an e-mail for more information, though there currently is a waiting list. Venti says that she works to carefully curate the art to make sure it is right for the gallery. Wall spaces rent out for between $500-$700 per month, though she said she has the flexibility to work with artists on a case-by-case basis if they just want to display a couple of pieces on commission. She said she is hoping to find some more sculptors and glass artists to fill some of the open floor space in the gallery. Venti says their goal is to have pieces that range in price from $200-$2,000.
The photos are by Christopher Boffoli, who spotted a few unexpected sights while out covering some non-Summer Fest news for WSB today. He explains:
If people saw a convoy of classic Triumph cars driving through West Seattle or at the Fauntleroy ferry today, it was the Seattle-based Tyee Triumph Club, headed to Vashon for a monthly meeting. They assembled in the future Trader Joe’s parking lot before heading out to catch the ferry.
P.S. Speaking of classic cars – several people asked about upcoming car shows while we were helping in the Summer Fest Information Booth again today (11 am-5 pm tomorrow). The Alki Car Show is next Saturday, 8 am-4 pm (here’s our recent preview); the West Seattle Junction Car Show (which we’re co-sponsoring again this year) is September 19, also 8 am-4 pm.
(Photos by Christopher Boffoli)
Till 8 pm – produce from Clean Greens is part of the first-ever “Night Market” outside the Super 24 on Delridge – another event to offer more healthy food to people living in an area that needs more access to it. There’s a bit of garden showcasing going on, too:
And entertainment:
This is the kickoff to a season of Friday and Saturday produce markets, with Clean Greens, in the same spot, as reported here two weeks ago – so you should see the team back at Super 24 (5455 Delridge Way) 9 am-5 pm next Friday and 10 am-6 pm next Saturday.
(scroll down for the latest updates, including photos/video; morning coverage is here)
(Dancers from Momentum Dance Academy in Burien)
Things are truly jumping at West Seattle Summer Fest this afternoon. The Alaska stage next to our spot on the west side of the Information Booth has seen dancers and jump ropers just in the past half-hour – here’s our iPhone clip of the team from West Seattle-based Ropeworks, including proprietor Rene Bibaud, a five-time world champ:
All that followed up this morning’s wildly popular appearance by Caspar Babypants (you can see video in our morning report). This is our running afternoon coverage – more to come, with frequent updates this afternoon on what’s going on and what’s ahead! Vendors are open till 6, but the festival continues with music into the night, including the always-popular Street Dance.
1:45 PM UPDATE: While you’re here, don’t miss what’s a tiny bit off the beaten path.
Besides the free kids’ activities, for example, as mentioned in our morning report, under the Wells Fargo drive-thru roof (shady!), there’s the Community Groups area on SW Alaska east of the main festival zone – right now, besides the West Seattle Emergency Communication Hubs…
…you’ll also find information on the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network. Then if you head south in California, just off to the west side of the south end of the festival zone, you’ll find the GreenLife gardening/sustainability zone. where you’ll find GardenCycles and many others (Sustainable West Seattle and West Seattle Nursery are co-sponsoring this new feature):
And to the north, just past the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival float north of Oregon, you’ll find the Art Dive, with cool local arts/crafts creators.
Then, right here in the heart of the festival, the Info Booth has not only folks from theWest Seattle Chamber of Commerce answering your questions (we’re helping too), but all sorts of brochures and flyers – the official Summer Fest program, Water Taxi info, the West Seattle Outdoors Movies lineups, West Seattle Farmers Market Bucks info (a promotion with Junction merchants), Junction Car Show (coming up Sept. 19) cards, and while they last, somebody just dropped off a few 10 percent discount cards for the new Beer Junction by the east end of the festival zone (on 42nd SW south of Alaska).
3:17 PM UPDATE: Minute to Win It just had another round on the stage – and a cake-eating contest is coming up. But first, we’ve got some candidate photos to add – four visits so far today. Marcee Stone (34th District State House Position 2, Democrat) was first to visit, this morning when temps were cool and the Info Booth was still in the shadows:
Mike Heavey (same race, also a Democrat):
From the 7th Congressional District race, Bill Hoffman:
And from the King County Council District 8 race (nonpartisan), Shawn McEvoy:
3:37 PM UPDATE: The Rat City Rollergirls dunk tank is up and running over by Junction Plaza Park – quick clip of one RCRG’er getting dunked:
4:21 PM: Most-inquired-about music act so far this afternoon, Massey Ferguson, should be playing right now up on the California stage. We’re heading that way. (video added later)
4:45 PM: Hi-Yu candidates are passing by – if you see the folks in the red polo shirts with white inscription, buy a button or pin, support Hi-Yu! Meantime, here’s a section of the crowd, photographed by Junior Member of the Team a little while ago:
5:04 PM: Music mode on both stages now – Marc Olsen has kicked off the evening slate on the Alaska stage next to us. Booths are open till 6 pm and that’s how long we’ll all be here in the Information Booth too, right at Walk All Ways, between Easy Street Records and Super Supplements. Some West Seattle merchants from districts outside The Junction are here – notably, Admiral District’s Click! Design That Fits, longtime WSB sponsor, where visitors are trying out the famous Solair Chair:
5:30 PM: Checked in again with Lt. Smith. Everything’s still been peaceful, no problems, he says. Looking forward to tonight’s street dancing and the rest of the slate. Speaking of music, just added the Massy Ferguson clip back up where we mentioned them. We’ll have some separate coverage later this evening, and we’ve got other stories to publish on the site – the first-ever “Night Market” on Delridge is under way now, for example.
(Photos by Christopher Boffoli)
Also under way now and continuing till 4 – still time to get your ticket and map and go see the gardens – the 3rd annual West Seattle Edible Garden Tour, raising money for Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle. The photo’s from a Gatewood garden that’s among the stops on the tour. More photos later.
ADDED: In hats, Shawn and Amy Carlson showed off their garden:
From Urban Land Army, Sandy Pederson‘s garden, where you’ll find 28 varieties of heirloom tomatoes.
And next, Lisa Hlavsa, with son Ben (right) in their garden during the tour:
Community Harvest has much more going on, pretty much year-round. Drop-in gardening on Thursday nights, and lots more. Keep in touch at gleanit.org. (And you can find out more about sustainability – including edible gardening – again today during West Seattle Summer Fest, at the GreenLife zone, on the west side of California SW just north of Edmunds.)
WSB contributor Randall G. Hauk sends that photo with word from the West Seattle Little League All-Stars car wash/pancake breakfast/etc. fundraiser that there’s also Terrace Club tickets being auctioned for tonight’s game. It’s all happening at Bar-S Field on the back side of Alki Point, Admiral Way west of 63rd SW. They’re wrapping up soon, so hurry! (added) Randall shared video of the car-washers in action:
Meantime, you have till 2 pm to get to the Help for Hannah sale in Gatewood:
Among the items donated for the sale at 39th and Othello, framed prints by longtime WSB contributor Christopher Boffoli:
And of course, the Seafair Pirates are back in West Seattle this afternoon, landing on Alki within the past hour after last night’s amazing Make-A-Wish event (WSB video coverage here). Here’s our clip – we’ll have a separate report with more visuals later:
Yes, we waded in with the Pirates. Cool way to spend part of a hot day with a big crowd!
(scroll down for frequent updates – we’ll start a new running-coverage story after noon) Today, it all revs up early at West Seattle Summer Fest. It’s 10 am and booths have just opened; music starts early, with Caspar Babypants on the Alaska stage (in front ofKeyBank, next to our spot in the Information Booth) at 11 am. Here’s the music schedule (street dance tonight!); here’s the schedule of other entertainment/activities; here’s the vendor list with map; use the links in the sidebar at right to check out our coverage from yesterday and last night, as well as “what’s different” plus info on road/bus closures. Frequent updates as the day unfolds!
10:23 AM UPDATE: The number one question here at the Info Booth yesterday was “where do you buy tickets for the kids’ bouncers?” Here’s the answer: Over by the West Seattle Farmers’ Market parking lot (above photo), just west of the food booths. When you head that way, also head under the Wells Fargo drive-thru roof for the coolest FREE family events, right next to all the bouncy stuff (which requires tickets) – Pathfinder K-8 is sponsoring this area, including face-painting and arts/crafts:
Sighting of the day, already: King County Executive Dow Constantine is here, helping with the setup forCaspar Babypants, who he’ll be introducing at 11 am, at the Alaska stage right next to the Info Booth:
10:49 AM UPDATE: Before the concert – there’s a veggie-dog eating contest under way at this moment, with contestants including Spring Hill‘s renowned Mark Fuller, West 5 also-legendary proprietor Dave Montoure, and Georgetown beer mogul (fabled too!) Manny (whose wares are on hand for washing down the dogs).
The winner: Marcus from Double Mountain, formerly of West Seattle-founded Schooner Exact (that’s him above, high-fiving Dave). And the remaining veggie dogs have been given away to the gathering crowd.
11:11 AM: Caspar Babypants is under way. (The grownups are bouncing almost as much as their kids.) *video added @ noon*
He mentioned a contest to help the nonprofit Kids Helping Kids and potentially win your own custom CB song – check that out here. Meantime – we’ve just chatted with Southwest Precinct Lt. Ron Smith, who was here all day and most of the night last night – he says the crowd was well-behaved – three fights but all resolved without too much trouble. Also playing shortly: Rat City Brass, at the California stage on the north end of the festival zone. (We’ll have video of them a bit later)
12:05 PM: We’ll continue the morning report at least another half-hour, before launching the afternoon coverage – we’ve also got folks out covering the Seafair Pirates’ Landing and a few other things right now. TILA is continuing its “Minute to Win It” contest hourly – sometimes here at the main stage, sometimes over at their booth by Petco – winners are entered into the drawing that’ll be held right about this time tomorrow for $10,000. When you’re here roaming the festival, check out the merchants’ sidewalk sales as well as the visiting (and not-visiting) vendors’ booths – among those we heard from pre-festival is Cherry Consignment, celebrating their first anniversary soon on the north side of The Junction – as they have tweeted, “$5 & $10 dollar racks will be out ALL weekend!”
We hope to see you (again) today at West Seattle Summer Fest in The Junction. But it’s not alone in the “big things happening today” arena, so before we get back to continuous festival coverage (and breaking news) later today, we wanted to remind you about other cool events on tap:
(Photo just sent by Kathy, from the sale site)> HELP FOR HANNAH: 7228 39th SW (map) in Gatewood, under way now and continuing till 2 pm. First previewed here; friends and relatives putting on a yard sale (they’ve even got two homemade quilts!), bake sale and lemonade stand to help the family of Hannah Grage, a 4-year-old West Seattle girl diagnosed with leukemia last April. Also see this post in the WSB Forums.
LITTLE LEAGUE BREAKFAST/CAR WASH:West Seattle Little League is raising money for its 10-11 All-Stars, who are going to the state tournament after winning the district championship – but it’s in Yakima, and the travel is expensive for kids’ families. 10 am-1 pm, pancakes and car washing, all happening at Bar-S Fields on Alki Point (map); here’s our original preview.
EDIBLE GARDEN TOUR, CHICKEN-COOP TOUR: 11 am-4 pm, some of West Seattle’s greatest edible gardens are open for the 3rd annual Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle Edible Garden Tour. Here’s how to get a ticket and map; for a bit extra, you also will get admission to the West Seattle stops on the Seattle Tilth Chicken Coop Tour. (Also note, as previewed here, CHoSS has a seed sale during the tour hours too.)
SEAFAIR PIRATES LANDING: Arrrr! They’re scheduled to come ashore in the noon hour – always fun to look out toward the water and try to figure out how they’re going to do it this time – but there are also booths and activities open earlier if you get down there sooner to stake out your spot.
NIGHT MARKET: As part of the push to bring healthy food to Delridge, fresh produce will be on sale – and entertainment is planned – during the first-ever Night Market event outside Super 24 (map), 4-8 pm (previewed here).
OUTDOOR MOVIE: Outside Coastal boutique on Alki, the second of their three monthly outdoor movies is screening tonight – “Goonies,” at dusk.
More on the event that captivated Alki on Friday night: Phase 1 of the Seafair Pirates‘ Make-A-Wish treat for Joseph, a 13-year-old Ellensburg boy with a life-threatening heart problem – Phase 2 happens during today’s Seafair Pirates Landing at Alki (noonish). Last night, WSB was allowed onboard the Pirates’ landlubbing Moby Duck for Joseph’s journey to Alki, as they picked him up at his downtown hotel, explaining they needed his help to fend off soldiers trying to take the beach. Upon arrival at Alki – strategy, then battle:
A search for beach-buried treasure ensued:
Joseph subsequently was named an honorary Seafair Pirate, “Happy Joe Rackham.” Proclamations from the city and county were read in his honor. Then, check out his smile as he and his fellow Pirates take a break for general bluster:
What you don’t see in our clips are the dozens of Make-A-Wish volunteers and supporters who were at the beach long before, waiting to greet Joseph and the Seafair Pirates. We caught up with them about half-an-hour in advance outside Alki Tully’s, and our photographer stuck with them as they headed to the beach, then caught even more closeup scenes as Joseph battled the soldiers (you get a better look at them in our photos, too). Here’s our Flickr slideshow:
One photo you might have missed in there if you didn’t know who you were looking for:
That’s Lou Cutler, P-E teacher at Pathfinder K-8 in West Seattle. Without people like Lou, kids like Joseph wouldn’t be able to have their wish come true … as you saw here a month ago, Lou has an annual “birthday run” around the Pathfinder field, raising money for Make-A-Wish. Lou told us the final fundraising total from this year’s run is $5,700. You can of course donate to Make-A-Wish any time – just go here. (And go to Alki at noontime to see what adventures are in store next for “Happy Joe” as he comes ashore with the Pirates today!)
Every week, courtesy of Gretchen Montgomery @ Square One Books (WSB sponsor), we bring you her independent West Seattle bookstore’s 5 best-sellers in each of 4 key categories:
Hardcover:
1. Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson
2. Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain
3. Work Song by Ivan Doig
4. The Ice Princess by Camilla Lackberg
5. Being Wrong by Kathryn Schultz
Paperback:
1. The Secret Son by Laila Lalami
2. Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn
3. I’m Down by Mishna Wolf
4. Lake Overturn by Vestal McIntyre
5. The Last Child by John Hart
Children/Young Adult:
1. The Mysterious Benedict Series by Trenton Lee Stewart
2. The Stink Files by Megan McDonald
3. Can I Play Too? by Mo Williams
4. Savvy by Ingrid Law
5. Dancing Feet by Lindsey Craig and Marc Brown
Teen:
1. Whisper by Phoebe Kitanidis
2. The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
3. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
4. Hunger Games (now in paperback) by Suzanne Collins
5. Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler
You can visit Square 1 Books while you’re at Summer Fest, since they’re in nearby Jefferson Square.
Via its At Your Service website, Seattle Public Utilities announced on Friday that the newly buried reservoir in Highland Park – formally known as West Seattle Reservoir – is now officially “in service.” SPU had told WSB in May that the reservoir was being filled – it’s 30 million gallons, half the size of the old open one. The utility showed the media (and then-mayor Greg Nickels) last fall what it looks like underground; the 20-acre park that’s being created because of the undergrounding is now in the next design phase after another thumbs-up from the Seattle Design Commission (WSB coverage here).
Today, it all revs up early at 
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