A slice of Seattle life at Green Lake

I’ll be honest, I’m not much of an athlete. When it comes to that, I’ll leave it to my Flying Salmon cohort, Louise (you may have already read about her adventures running at Mount Si and Fort Steilacoom). However, when the sun comes out in Seattle, I do try to pull myself away from the computer screen and get outside to enjoy it. Case in point: last week. My baby boy was fighting another cold (they get a lot of them, apparently, during their first year), and I knew that the best thing I could do for him was to get him to sleep. Since he’s not much of a napper, I took him to Green Lake in North Seattle, hoping that the gently bumpy ride in the stroller would do the trick.

It happened to be a gorgeous day—the sun was out, the daffodils and cherry blossoms were in bloom, and there was barely even a breeze. At any other time than on a Monday afternoon, the lake would have been packed on a sunny day like this. But the workday was still in session, and I managed to snag a coveted parking spot on the east side of the lake by the Green Lake Community Center. It was perfect.

While my little boy napped, I took in the sights, the sounds, and the smells surrounding me. I’ve almost always gone to the lake with a friend, but this time, rather than being immersed in conversation, I noticed the crunch of tennis shoes on gravel, the faint hum of the cars on the nearby Highway 99, the metallic clicking of bicycle spokes. As parents strode by me with their children in jogging strollers, I took my time and observed the couple having a picnic on the grass, the young man playing his guitar, and the bicyclist weaving through walkers with his cat riding on his shoulder. The fragrance of the first blossoms of spring was a gentle perfume carried on the faintest breeze, and the sky was pure blue. My son may have been the impetus for this trip to the lake, but the walk was equally restorative for me.

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It is a holiday tradition of mine to run up a mountain. I am not sure why. Perhaps this came about when holidays meant work breaks. Heading for the hills to enjoy the day off and time away from an office seemed a perfect option. Perhaps it is because holidays come with good food and a good metabolism boost before a big feast never hurts. Conquering a mountain has become my holiday celebration of sorts. I have also found, that people are very friendly in the woods, especially on holidays, where an ice-breaker/greeting is a given. So if you want to give and receive some festive well wishing, some well traveled woods provide a good location. Today’s greeting was of course, ‘Happy Easter’.

The mountain, more often than not, tends to be Mount Si. Mount Si is located East of Seattle in North Bend, Washington. In about half an hour, I am at the base, ready for an 8 mile run with 4167 feet of elevation gain. I have this ongoing goal of running it twice, but halfway up I tend to convince myself that once might just be enough. This is a popular climb for mountaineers training with their loaded up packs, poles and Yak Trax. The ultra-runners go up and down. I am passed by another runner heading up fast with long strides, on the way down, I ask him, “how many times today?” “Today I do three, Happy Easter!” he yells.

The climb is worthwhile, the views at the top are spectacular. It is warm and dry at the start, t-shirt and shorts weather. It is amazing to experience the climate changing as elevation is gained. The breezes get chillier then the trail is wet. A young woman passes me on the way down at this point and giggles saying, ‘good-luck!’. I know then it will be slippery from here to the top. There is still a blanket of white slushy snow just below the haystack. The scramble up the haystack yields far reaching views on a clear day. I decided it was a little too slippery for me to take this on today. A fun group of hikers made the best of the slickness and skidded down in a crouching glissade position, their descent expressed with lots of giggling and laughter. Soon the trail is dry again. The run down is fast and light footed, over roots and scraggly rocks, and some careful dodging of fellow hikers as well.

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This time of year, Seattle awakens from its hibernation. The gauzy blanket of gray clouds starts to dissolve, exposing blue skies and sunshine. When that happens, spectacular things occur. Buds form on trees, bulbs break through the soil, and a formerly gray and green landscape becomes dotted with color. One of my favorite signs of spring is the explosion of cherry blossoms at the Quad at the University of Washington.

The blooming trees have been an annual attraction for decades, drawing visitors from near and far. In the years since I started making a yearly campus visit with my husband, I’ve seen it all: families taking in the sights with their children, students sunbathing on the grass on an unseasonably warm day, and a bride and groom getting their wedding photos taken.

This year we visited on Friday, in the late afternoon at the start of a weekend. Classes were out, students were few and far between, and we had the Quad almost to ourselves with a few exceptions, including a couple taking self portraits while sitting cozily under a tree. We had captured a break in the rain in an otherwise wet week, and the slowly setting sun bounced brilliantly off the blossoms.

The 31 Yoshino cherry trees in the Quad have been a fixture at the university since the early 1960s, when they were transferred from their prior home at Washington Park Arboretum. They bloom each spring for about three weeks. This year, some of the trees started blooming in mid-March, so if you want to catch them before the petals fall, you’ll want to act soon. The UW Information & Visitors Center has been posting updates on its Facebook page, so you can use that to help plan your visit.

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