West Seattle’s Torchlight night

Back from seven hours downtown (if you start parade stakeout around 3 pm, you can still get a great spot not too far south of Westlake Center, and catch up on reading). A few pix of WS relevance — first, West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician, back in the parade this year after skipping last year:

In honor of West Seattle’s many longshore workers, we snapped our first-ever sighting of the ILWU Drill Team:

Then there were the fine folks from the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival, cheerily waving from atop and alongside the “Pearls of the Sea” float:

Their good cheer was extra-brave, considering the float was tow truck-powered by the time it got to our spot along the route (did the overheating problem rear its ugly head again?):

Next: Blue Angels mania! (Here are this year’s I-90 closure times, if you need ’em.)

Tim Winston July 29, 2007 (9:04 am)

At least we made through the TV area before breaking down and our generator kept working. Poor Sequim royalty had to walk by the cameras. Tulalip Casino went dark about halfway.

The float looked great, even behind the tow truck.

The 40 year old engine has a myriad of issues.

miws July 29, 2007 (9:33 am)

And your vantage point was in front of the Cobb Building (if not, then Puget Sound Plaza, nee Washington Bldg)

Ah yes! after more than nine years of only getting Downtown a few times a year, instead of just about every day at varoius jobs going back to the mid ’70’s, I can still identify some locations, just by seeing a relatively small chunk of a building in a photo! :)

Mike

Admiral Janeway July 29, 2007 (9:52 am)

I hope parade floats will not be a thing of the past. Also, a Seafair Commodore told me the Torchlight Parade is the largest evening parade in the country. The Orange Bowl Parade was shut down ten years ago.

WSB July 29, 2007 (10:12 am)

AJ — another factoid from the Times story we linked to yesterday — and this one bears out anecdotally with all the parade-watching we’ve done — West Seattle is the only community in Seattle that still sends a float to parades! Pretty amazing. Last night we recall two floats from BC, one from Leavenworth, at least two from Puget Sound tribes, the Masons, Marysville, the Pike Place pig, the Pierce County daffodil folks, Southwest Airlines, a few we’re forgetting, but Hi-Yu had the only actual Seattle neighborhood float.

WSB July 29, 2007 (10:41 am)

Mike — we don’t know the building names in that part of downtown but you appear to be right. We were in front of the Tall’s Camera storefront. According to online address lookup, Tall’s is 1305 4th; Cobb Building is 1319.

Dis July 29, 2007 (11:13 am)

WOW miws, you can make out a building just from a patch of concrete! There should be some kind of prize for that. I am curious what kind of reception the mayor got. Did people clap and cheer? Did they boo, or was it generally subdued????

WSB July 29, 2007 (11:33 am)

Parade reactions are hard to read too much into, as you get kind of stoked just sitting there on the sidelines. The mayor got applause, as did the police chief, as did Ron Sims, as did Sheriff Rahr, as did all the military commanders who rode in the parade, as did former Governor Locke (riding with his wife Mona, who is this year’s honorary Seafair “Queen Alcyone”) and so on. Unlike every other parade we’ve ever seen, JP Patches did not get a crowd squeal, but we believe that was thanks to his unfortunate placement right in the middle of the Seafair Clowns, who tend to be distracting as they have even more people working the sidelines in person, both sides of the street, than the Pirates.

miws July 29, 2007 (7:45 pm)

Yeah, I could tell that the portion of the building in the background was part of Rainier Square, on the 4th Av side. Tall’s is in the southern section of the Puget Sound Plaza.

Down at the north end of that bldg, at Union St, Key Bank has a location. From 1974 until about 1986 or ’87, Rosellini’s Other Place Restaurant occupied that space, although the main entrance was on Union St, with a “back door” off of the then Washington Bldg lobby. Before that, it was the Dublin House Restaurant. I worked at the O.P. from around late Sept. ’77 until June ’80.

Then throughout most of my career in the parking business from May ’83-June ’98, I worked in the garages at various in, or near, that neighborhood, known as the “Metropolitan Tract” (bldgs on property owned by the UW, their original location, and managed by UNICO Properties.)

So yes, I know that area particularly well! :)

Thanks for the suggestion of a prize, Dis! I think the best prize would be for our city to not change so drastically, that there be absolutely nothing that I recognize anymore.

Mike

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