It's rare to find a line so clearly drawn, a cultural DMZ, as exists in Seattle's University District along University Way.
January 31, 2008
So it was about 9 a.m. when I arrived by bus at Third Avenue and Bell Street in downtown Seattle. Awfully early to be doing this, but at least I had decent weather — chill blue skies, air filled with tornadic swirls of red and yellow leaves. Outside the window I saw a much-trampled dog-run park, mutts everywhere with people trotting behind, one hand gloved in plastic awaiting the blessed event so they could get to work.
November 29, 2007
Getting around in life should be a pleasure, and three superior routes come to mind: Highway 101, Route 66 and the Burke-Gilman Trail.
The trail, which together with the Sammamish River Trail covers about 27 miles from Redmond west to Ballard, is one of the most traversed paths in the nation. And part of what makes it popular are the trailside artwork, waterside rest stops and urban vistas right in the middle of Seattle.
July 21, 2005
MOUNT ST. HELENS Tourist season is long gone, so how come the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center eight miles from the smoking maw of Mount St. Helens can still pack them in on a clear autumn weekend?
"I want to see a big blast, " laughed Tracy Boeholt, 38, who a few weeks ago drove from Olympia with her family to set up lawn chairs in the center's parking lot, waiting for the show to start.
November 11, 2004
"The goal tonight is to learn a roll cast," says Peg Van Natter, teacher and volunteer with Northwest Fly Anglers. Facing about 30 fly-fishing students standing along the shore and a dock at Seattle's Green Lake, she demonstrates with an elegant flip of her long, lithe rod.
"Now, when you get that line out there, just give it a whomp!"
This describes a decisive move that plops the line into the water without having to sling it behind your back, a handy trick when avoiding snags on bushes and trees.
May 27, 2004
OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK I've driven to Hurricane Ridge before, but never like this, never with traveling companions of this caliber: an anthropologist, a naturalist and poet, a couple of park rangers and two Native American storytellers.
September 11, 2003
About now you may feel the need for respite, a welcome distraction from the 24/7 embedded coverage of war. To unwind, try a tour through a forest of rose trees (in Latin, that's "rhododendron").
There are noteworthy rhodie gardens across Western Washington, but perhaps the easiest reached from Seattle is the Rhododendron Species Foundation and Botanical Garden in Federal Way.
April 10, 2003
If you really want to get away from it all, try this: Unfold a map of Washington and run your finger across the state, ending in the far northeast. Give it a tap. That's it, a place even people who live there describe as "the forgotten corner."
Alongside a hefty north-flowing river, small towns with odd names dot the region, places called Usk, Cusick, Ione, Metaline and, as if they ran out of ideas, Metaline Falls. The county itself sounds foreign a French name that I first mispronounced "Pend Or-ee-elle," but quickly corrected to "POND-uh-ray."
July 25, 2002
OCEAN SHORES When considering a horseback ride along the Pacific by Ocean Shores, you might think there are only two experiences possible one ecstatic, the other absurd.
The fantasy version, in slow motion, is all hooves pounding, kicked-up surf, aqua foam on bare legs (the water's warm). It's the primal huff of a powerful animal and your own excited gulps of salty air. And you are glorious in the gallop, hair in a tumult, joy itself on a horse running free.
June 13, 2002
TACOMA The sun never sets on the British Empire, the old saying went. But beyond its own shores and a few far-flung islands and garrisons, Britannia now rules squat.
Nevertheless, outposts of former British glory and enterprise still exist, one of them in our own back yard: Fort Nisqually. And on May 18, this replica of a British trading post nestled within a mossy forest at Point Defiance Park will flaunt its heritage.
As the fort does every year, it will celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday.
May 9, 2002
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