West Seattle, Washington
02 Wednesday
Time for a reminder about fireworks: Inside the Seattle city limits, they’re off-limits — yes, even though you can buy them a stone’s throw away in White Center (they’re legal in unincorporated King County and fireworks stands were allowed to start selling them as of yesterday). If you plan to buy some and fire them off where it’s legal, note that you’re only allowed to do that on the 4th of July.
One week till the 4th of July! Even if you don’t want to tell the world about your “secret spot” for fireworks watching — we would love to hear about any WS 4th of July traditions you don’t mind sharing — fireworks related, or not. (We’ll start: We love to watch the fireworks from the seawall by the Alki Bathhouse — not only can you see the Jul-Ivar’s show on Elliott Bay, you can see some of the Lake Union fireworks peeking up behind the east flank of Queen Anne Hill, and often some fireworks from the other side of the Sound.)
Flags grace The Junction for Memorial Day — glad some traditions stay strong:
If you see this before 2 pm: that’s when the major WS observance happens, at Forest Lawn.
–Forecast: Still calling for sun Monday afternoon
-Forgot your margarita/daiquiri ingredients? List of liquor stores open Sunday (none in WS but one in Burien)
-Fresh corn 5 ears for 2 bucks @ Tony’s (per signboard along 35th)
-Misty Isle beef back ribs $2.59/pound @ Thriftway (per weekly-specials ad)
-Macrina brioche buns (for burgers or whatever), 4-pak for $2.99 @ Metro Market (per weekly-specials ad)
-New picnic table/grill area in the grassy meadow north of Colman Pool @ Lincoln Park:
-Remember our West Seattle Cams page
-Ferry schedules here
-State highway traffic alerts here
–Memorial Day “driving tips” from WSDOT
-Traffic cams for the entire city plus all of King County
–Real-time flight info for anything going through Sea-Tac Airport
–National Weather Service forecasts for all of Western Washington
Now the National Weather Service thinks Monday will be sunny. Might just dare to haul the barbecue out of basement storage after all.
Might be too early in the morning for you if you’re still up as we post this, but worth a mention anyway, however belated: West Seattle does have a bonafide Easter sunrise service, with several churches participating — 6:30 am @ Forest Lawn (east of High Point).
Busy weekend in store for West Seattle — Saturday morning has a holiday-weekend event at each and every one of our city-run community centers, and that’s just a start — lots more, just a click away:Read More
Our usual visitor volume was down by several hundred last night, so we rolled over to Alki to see if you were all at the Celtic Swell. The outdoor space was stuffed and the sidewalk too, almost as much of a backup as we saw outside Fado downtown as we approached the Viaduct from Columbia yesterday afternoon. However, the more interesting sight at Alki last night was the minus tide (new moon approaching); made for a nice flashlight-enhanced beach walk. Tide tables say no more minus tides at night for a while, but looks like some good ones at midafternoon next Thursday and Friday.
Great Presidents Day article in the P-I, set at the retirement home near Westwood Village.
That’s the wish to all of WS from Kelly — who took this photo tonight to capture a view you may have spotted from the waterfront or the bridge (it’s the WaMu building):
During lunch today @ Duke’s, suddenly the decorations came down before our eyes (and those of everyone else dining at the time). Strange to have the staff do it at a relatively busy time, instead of before opening or after closing; when they started reaching up between the tables to peel away the light-embedded garlands, we wondered if we would wind up with greenery in our chowder. No moss growing on the next holiday, though; Westwood Village Rite-Aid was unboxing the Valentine’s stuff as of a few nights ago.
If any Christmas-light nuts are still lurking out there … one last sight worth seeing, just happened onto it tonight. On the north side of Roxbury, just west of 35th (across from the ex-Safeway-now-church), someone’s covered a tree in red and white lights shaped to perfectly simulate a giant Santa hat.
Looks like our neighborhood is still in one piece this morning, despite thunderous midnight explosions (even saw a red flare in the distance, as if someone was sending up the signal to say YO! NEW YEAR! WE’RE OVER HERE!). Now a day to recover, before we start looking ahead to the next “holiday season” (summer, of course — 4th of July! parades! Blue Angels! and so on). Meantime, some practical information — here’s what to do with the tree.
Staked out your fireworks-watching spot yet? Ours is in front of the tv; much as we enjoy the West Seattle waterfront, we won’t be out on it this night, this year. The internet also makes New Year’s Eve more interesting for us homebodies; here at WSB World HQ, that dates all the way back to ’94, when we shared NYE virtually via the original mainstream chat program, IRC, with all sorts of folks hopping on and off to report on the New Year’s status in their part of the world/country. Now things are more compartmentalized and sophisticated online; already this morning, we can watch video from NYE celebrations already complete, like Sydney, on computers much faster than the one we used in ’94. We’re also still working on our West Seattle 2006 Year In Review, which you’ll find here by midafternoon. First, a few last things to procure for tonight’s party!
At WSB HQ, the holiday season isn’t considered over till the Super Bowl party. So there’s more than a month of fun left. In the short run, New Year’s Eve is just days away. We’ve got some of the local festivities listed on our Holiday Stuff page (which otherwise was emptying out now that all the pre-Christmas excitement is gone) — including a few that sound 100% family-friendly. And of course, non-official festivities will be numerous, especially the gatherings at Alki, Seacrest, Don Armeni, and other prime spots to watch the Space Needle fireworks. The forecast so far is a little vague, so here’s hoping for a beautiful night.
Just out for a Christmas night drive … saw a few places with people inside; on Alki, Celtic Swell and Pepperdock — in The Junction, we’d already heard about Poggie’s plans from Slog — and besides the convenience stores you’d expect to see open (including indies like Juneau St. Market), both Rite Aid branches are open.
The proof: QuickTime version or Windows Media Viewer version. (So that’s who brought us the brightly wrapped box of those elusive D batteries!)
In our extreme youth we scoffed at “practical” presents. But in light of what we’ve all just gone through … there was no sweeter sight under the tree than this. Now, it’s time to go find that Christmas morning latte. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
You hear claims that Seattle is more “unchurched” than other major U.S. cities. Yet somehow, at least for the major religious celebrations, we Seattleites manage to fill the pews, if we so choose. Example in point, Holy Rosary 4 pm Christmas Eve service tonight, overflow SRO crowd by quarter till. Speaking of HR, its former pastor Father Jeffrey Sarkies continues to blog at least weekly, beautiful musings (as we’ve mentioned before) on faith and humanity, among other things, and we found his Christmas Eve message particularly touching. (Checking links for this post, we learned Fr. Sarkies moved to Arizona last month, after a surprise going-away party here in WS. Godspeed.)
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