Seen around town 831 results

West Seattle weekend scene: No, that wasn’t a car show

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.

Since you asked: Checking into the street-corner fruit vendors

They are being seen more frequently on West Seattle street corners – people standing for hours, selling fruit from boxes. (There’s been one at the busiest corner near WSB HQ, three days during the past week, standing there from morning till late in the day. A nearby resident who speaks a little Spanish tried talking to her, and learned only that the vendor was “from the mountains of Mexico.”) Some people have messaged us to ask about the law. One of the first results we found in an online search reminded us that this is not a new phenomenon – there was even a discussion last year in the WSB Forums. While a permit is required to sell on the street, it’s a moot point in many of these cases, because it’s outright prohibited in single-family zones (as is the case of the one near us). Is anyone enforcing the rule? So far, we haven’t heard from anyone who has officially complained. The method for doing so is on this SDOT web page. (SDOT is checking for us to see if they’ve been getting complaints, and how they’re handled.) We haven’t found much past coverage of the fruit sellers in this area, but it’s been a hot topic in the Bay Area, where this story suggested some of them may be more victim than violator.

ADDED: SDOT’s Marybeth Turner tells WSB they don’t get many street-vending complaints; when they do: “An SDOT Street Use Inspector responds to these complaints during normal work hours on a priority basis. If it is a matter of public safety, a Seattle Police Officer may also respond, also on a priority basis– this occurs mostly in the SODO stadium area or nightlife areas” such as Belltown.

West Seattle street food: “Treats” truck bound for Alki

Diane Skwiercz of Street Treats says her “entire family” lives in West Seattle – so it’ll be a homecoming when she brings her dessert truck to Alki tomorrow night. She says she just recently launched Street Treats, baking cookies, brownies and bars every morning, and carrying “homemade ice cream and handheld pies from two local businesses.” She’s not sure where they’ll park but they’re hoping to be at the beach for a few hours starting around 6 pm tomorrow (Thursday). We asked for a photo, so you’d know what to look for; you can also check Twitter to see if she tweets where they wind up – @StreetTreatsWa.

Flag Day 2010: Old Glory in The Junction

West Seattle Junction Association guy-of-all-trades Don told us during Sunday’s Health Fair that he would make sure Old Glory graced California SW for Flag Day today … and the promise was kept. No fluttering in the breeze so far since the air is fairly still, but if you go to The Junction, you will see the Stars and Stripes all along the way. Today is the 233rd anniversary of the day the flag was adopted by the Second Continental Congress.

West Seattle scene: Why DID the chickens cross the road?

After 30+ years in news, we finally get to use the old joke in a headline. Actually, Susanna Moore suggested it, sending these photos with this report:

Returned from a preschool pick-up to find these two in front of our house on Walnut Ave. in Admiral district. Who is missing these pretty chickens! Here are a few pictures – they’re still out there pecking at the grass and sidewalk….

Yes, we’ll add them to the lost-and-found Pets page too – but couldn’t resist; on a showery day, you would expect to see ducks wandering instead of chickens …

West Seattle mystery? Searching for the meaning of the purple fish

We haven’t been able to find the answer to this question – so we’re hoping maybe you know. Karen shared the photo above, earlier this month, after seeing fish like that all over The Junction; in a note tonight, Mark is the latest to ask:

Does anyone know what is the meaning of the “purple fish” graffiti that has been sprayed on many different walls and surfaces at the Junction and other places? I’ve also seen them at the 35th & Fauntleroy intersection. They may well be other places around W. Seattle, and maybe other places in the city as well. They are about 12-18 ” long, and look like they were made with a fish-shaped stencil and a can of purple spray paint.

We’ve tried search phrases from purple fish to purple shark. No luck. But maybe you know the story…

West Seattle scene: Wedding wrapup at Alki

For better or for worse, through richer or poorer … through rain or shine … Mark shared that photo taken over the weekend after he spotted the truck on Alki.

West Seattle Easter scenes: Peep-le do the craziest things …

Richard e-mailed WSB to share these photos, explaining:

Every Easter Sunday morning for the past few years, we’ve awoken to find the fences, shrubbery and landscaping in the alley between 36th/37th/Findlay and Juneau [map] artistically festooned with hundreds of yellow marshmallow ‘Peeps’. We have have a couple neighbors who we think are the ‘Peepers’, but we’re not sure (and we don’t feel like getting up in the middle of the night to catch them in the act!). The kids and families along our block love this, and we think it’s a great and fun tradition. I’m attaching some pics of their ‘artwork’. Happy Easter! (p.s.–I took all the pics this morning at 8:30)

ADDED 2:26 PM: And from somewhere else in West Seattle – Karen sent a photo, saying her daughter discovered the chickens love Peeps too:

ADDED MONDAY MORNING: We got one more batch of photos from a mystery sender. This is our favorite:

Slice of West Seattle life: Car meet under The Bridge

Your WSB co-publishers and freelance reporters/photojournalists go out and “cover stories,” but the spice of the site is so often YOUR contributions – whether a wildlife sighting, a breaking-news photo, kudos for volunteers, or something else entirely. The latter category might be the most appropriate for this story, with photos, shared by Kevin McClintic:

I took the low bridge home from downtown Seattle and came upon a large gathering of car enthusiasts assembling under the West Seattle Bridge around 17:15 Sunday evening, February 21. Most of the cars were Hondas, with a few other makes and models mixed in for variety. One Honda even sported right hand drive. The drivers were all in their late teens to early twenties and very well behaved. Young men and women – and their love affairs with cars.

I managed to find the leader, Daniel Vargas, who was happy to take a moment away from his own photography to explain the group and their purpose.

Daniel is the sort of official leader of the group and spokesperson. He explained that the group comes from all over the Puget Sound area once or twice a week when the weather is nice and cruises around to different locations and then parks and talks cars, taking turns photographing each other’s rides. Daniel went on to explain that they DO NOT race – they just simply enjoy cruising around. The events usually draw a crowd of about 40 to 60 cars. I estimated perhaps 30 at this gathering.

Daniel has a My Space account called “Big Brown Photography” where he evidently showcases pictures from the weekly events [it’s set to “private”]. While I was busy taking a few pictures, Daniel motioned for me to come over, and he had arranged for one of his friends to put on a little demonstration.

Meet “Nick” in the blue plaid shirt.

Nick was using a laptop to “tune up” his engine from the driver’s seat. I was not really sure what was going to happen next. Nick revved up his engine while he made some adjustments from the laptop that resulted in a half dozen or so loud bangs (similar to gunfire) that was caused by his purposely causing the engine to backfire. Some might say juvenile – but this 50+-year-old writer was suitably impressed with the fact that it was all controlled by a laptop. Demonstration now over – the car sounded like any other Honda that you might see around town.

It’s not hard to see that organizer Daniel takes his interest in autos seriously. Just take a look at his forearm and you will see that he is a die-hard Honda owner.

I asked Daniel about his car – what does his car do? He began to tell me about his 4000 (yes – four THOUSAND) watt stereo, and asked me if I would like to hear it. I looked at my watch, thanked Daniel for his time, and told him I had to get home in time for dinner.

West Seattle scene: Putting it all on the line at Alki

Eric Shalit of Box Turtle Design shared that rather grabby shot of a “slackliner” he encountered today at Alki. So, we asked, how high off the ground was he, and what was the “slackline” tied to? In reply, Eric sent another photo; to see it, click here.

West Seattle scene: The “fishing” cat, again

This cat has meme potential. We caught a photo of him/her outside Alki’s Spud Fish and Chips two weeks ago; just now, someone sent us this sighting via cameraphone. Smart kitty!

West Seattle weekend scenes: At the beaches

Three beachside scenes to share as the weekend ends – First, thanks to Colby for sharing the rainbow sighted at Lincoln Park, by Colman Pool. Next, while strolling Alki this afternoon, we spotted what appeared to be a wise and patient cat:

And a bit further south along Alki, the signs are up for the future pho restaurant we first told you about in October:

(We’ll check soon on the cafe’s progress toward opening.)

Bye-bye, ’00s: Christopher Boffoli’s 2009 WSB photo retrospective

Some stories were joyful – like the last one in the slideshow – and some were painful. Photojournalist Christopher Boffoli assembled this group of more than 30 of the hundreds of memorable images he produced for WSB news coverage this year. He put them together in a black-and-white slide show (just hit “play” on the first frame and they will automatically advance). Many are from breaking-news scenes, where Christopher often arrived before your editor here even got word something had happened, but you’ll also see wildlife, volunteerism, aviation, and even JP Patches. Many of these scenes, you will probably remember; if not, there are brief descriptions on the photo set’s home Flickr page. We’ll have more to say about ’09 in the hours ahead, as well as a couple lists with New Year’s Day practicalities. And, once more, if you’re STILL not absolutely certain what you want to do tonight, we’ve added two more venues to the New Year’s Eve list on the West Seattle Holidays page.

West Seattle scenes: Christmas party on the run; solstice sunshine

WSB contributing reporter Keri DeTore tells the story behind that photo:

I was driving home along Fauntleroy at about 9:15 (last night) and saw, going north, two groups of runners–one group per side of Fauntleroy, tricked out with Christmas hats and blinking blue lights. I managed to catch up with one group and ask them about it.

Cathleen Knutson
(center, with Macbeth Watson at left and Lori McConnell at right) came up with the idea of an “Alternative Christmas Party.” The group of nine friends ran from Knutson’s home on Avalon, to see the Christmas lights on Charlestown, then to Celtic Swell for “beverages,” and then back to Knutson’s home. A total of eight miles!!

They are calling it the “1st Annual Holidazzle Run.”

Keri caught up with that group on the longest night of the year – which began shortly after this photo shared by Diane:

She took it a short time before sunset, from the 37th/Hinds vicinity, other side of the peninsula from where Alice Enevoldsen and fellow sky-watchers gathered at Solstice Park (photo here).

West Seattle scenes: Volcanic sunset; moonrise sequel

December 3, 2009 9:58 pm
|    Comments Off on West Seattle scenes: Volcanic sunset; moonrise sequel
 |   Seen around town | West Seattle news

Two more gorgeous photos tonight, following up on the great ones shared earlier – thanks again to EVERYBODY. Top photo is Mount Baker, as captured by David Hutchinson tonight from Alki with the pink light of sunset/dusk. Next, Max caught tonight’s moonrise:

Photos: That spectacular moonrise, seen from West Seattle

Thanks to those who answered the call for photos of the full-moon-rise that brought photographers to West Seattle viewpoints in droves last night, looking for a shot like … that one there! Thanks, Greg! (He’s also wondering if anyone can identify the specific peak in front of the moon in his image.) Also just in, Derek’s view from a little while later:

ADDED 11:11 AM: Two shots from Alki photographer extraordinaire David Hutchinson. For the technically minded, he includes this note:

The full moon photo is actually a combination of two taken on a tripod. The first was at a shutter speed of 1 second to expose for the downtown skyline and the second taken immediately afterwards at 1/60 of a second to expose for the full moon. At 1 second the moon shows as a white featureless disk and at 1/60th second the downtown lights are hardly visible. Our eyes do a great job of compensating for this difference in brightness.

David photographed from the Seacrest area, and went back for this morning’s sunrise:

ADDED 3:24 PM: Thanks to Sean for this closeup of just the full moon:

Thanks again! If any more come in, we’ll add them to this item.

West Seattle scene: Have some Apple Cup with your apples

Thanks to Kate K for the tip about the Apple Cup-apropos flag flying over Metropolitan Market. WSU’s won the last two; will UW break the streak? Big game’s at 3:30 pm, Husky Stadium (here’s a preview from our partners at the Seattle Times) – via Twitter, just caught a little Husky spirit video from @despeaux – best Coug spirit image we’ve seen on Twitter so far is this one. Game time: 3:30. 7:55 PM UPDATE: If somehow you missed it elsewhere – final score UW 30, WSU 0.

West Seattle scene: “Birdmen of Alki”

That’s how Chas Redmond captioned this scene from Alki. (There’s probably also a “different way to stuff the bird” joke lurking in there too.) By the way, the forecast is calling for “more of the same” for the foreseeable future.

West Seattle (and/or West Seattleite) scenes: Catching up

Alki Point’s Guy Smith – known most recently for the tale of the newly returned brant as well as for the Joy D. Smith Wildlife Raft – photographed the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis this morning as it headed back to Bremerton. Further east along the shoreline, we stopped by the West Seattle/Alki Wildlife Habitat Project demonstration garden weeding/planting party on Saturday morning.

If you hadn’t guessed from the photos, the garden’s at Seacrest:

Now to the rainforest – actually, Arbor Heights second graders doing a rainforest ballet as part of a recent event at Pacific Northwest Ballet:

Teacher Angie Nall explains the McCaw Hall performance: “Kayti Bouljon, Manager of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Community Education Programs, led Arbor Heights’ students in a 2-month study of dance that connected ballet with a rainforest unit. What culminated was a rainforest ballet!” Not far from there, last week a group of West Seattle moms and babies were at Seattle Center to join in a call for action against toxic household products:

Those are some of the moms and babies in the West Seattle Stroller Strides group. Proprietor Athena Frederick says more than 40 Stroller Strides moms from around the city showed up to join in the “Million Baby Crawl” event – she shared photos including this one of West Seattle rocker Chris Ballew, performing his family-friendly music as Caspar Babypants:

West Seattle Weather Watch: Rain — then sun — then this!

No wide-angle lens so we couldn’t get the full arc, but there’s most of it, looking northeast from Gatewood a few moments ago. As for the afternoon forecast – looks like the gusty wind, up to 40 mph, may return as soon as tomorrow afternoon.

West Seattle wildlife: Name that bird

Hutch sent the photo, wondering if the bird is a peregrine falcon. We couldn’t say for sure from consulting various online sources, so thanks in advance to any of the many expert birdwatchers of West Seattle who might offer an opinion. ADDED 11:18 PM: Rob sent this next photo he took near Schmitz Park a week ago, thinking it’s the same bird and hoping the photo might help with ID:

More Halloween Eve scenes from around West Seattle

October 31, 2009 2:39 am
|    Comments Off on More Halloween Eve scenes from around West Seattle
 |   Holidays | Luna Park | Seen around town | West Seattle news

Blustery outside but ghoulishly warm inside at Feedback Lounge (WSB sponsor) tonight, for the second consecutive night of pre-Halloween partying … last night, Nightmare on Morgan Street to benefit West Seattle Helpline; Friday night, Zombie Dance Party on behalf of local roller-derby teams. P.S. Congrats to The Feedback for winning “Best Cocktail” in the “Best of Western Washington.” Now, off to Luna Park Cafe for a dayside scene:

Heleyna Holmes photographed Batman and Batgirl after they found the Batmobile at Luna Park. Also in the costume realm, a scene from a classroom:

That’s Seattle Lutheran High School English teacher Leslee Myers taking the occasion Friday morning to dress in period garb as if the classroom were a radio studio, playing the classic “War of the Worlds” from exactly 71 years ago. (That classic, by the way, also happens to be the inspiration for West Seattle High School Drama Club‘s fall play, which has a 2:30 pm matinee today.)

West Seattle pre-Halloween scenes: Trevor-O-Lantern and Elvis

A creative entry in this afternoon’s pumpkin-carving contest at Keller Williams in The Junction – his name’s not Jack but you can call him Trevor-O-Lantern. The pumpkin contest was coupled with a chili cookoff, and look who we found sampling the entries:

Next up on this pre-Halloween Friday: Admiral Treats or Treasures (official map here), 3-6 pm, with participants including WSB sponsors Click! Design That Fits and Merrill Gardens-Admiral Heights, plus more than two dozen others!