West Seattle, Washington
16 Thursday
Yes, by the time 3 o’clock approached, it was all too much for that West Seattle Junction trick-or-treating munchkin. But in the preceding two hours, such excitement:
That’s the view looking over the Thrill the World dance encore toward the adoring crowd on the southwest corner of the Walk-All-Ways intersection. (See video of their Occidental Park “official” performance here; they’re at Admiral Theater tonight at 9.) Earlier at that same intersection:
All along the streets of The Junction, businesspeople were waiting to hand out treats. Any guesses who this is?
That’s Dawn Leverett, president of the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce board – for today, the Cham-BOO! of Commerce – outside Windermere Real Estate. We also found potentially shadowy characters outside Shadow Land:
Here’s who greeted trick-or-treaters at Zamboanga:
Back at Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor), Thrill the World-West Seattle organizer Lora Lewis was still in zombie garb, attacking her “Project Runway” star barista Blayne:
As for the West Seattle citizenry, a little cooking humor for Chris and Steve (with baby Owen):
Having been to a few conferences lately, we could appreciate the costume on the left side of this pic:
The Junction event was the first of three business-district trick-or-treating events this Halloween season. The other two are on Halloween, next Friday — the Admiral merchants welcome you 3 to 6 pm (see the WSB Holidays page for full details on the giveaway that’s involved) and Westwood Village 5-7 pm. Here’s hoping Friday has weather like today’s … like these two from Forsythe Studio, the sunshine was truly, well, groovy:
‘Cause if Halloween isn’t nice too, there will be just one thing to say: D’oh!
With that, we bid you adios:
(That photo is courtesy Meredith; all previous photos by WSB co-publisher Patrick and Junior Member of the Team Torin)
Thanks to Melissa for that photo of her window decorations on 42nd north of Fauntleroy in Morgan Junction. You’re welcome to send us a pic of yours – and/or your jack-o-lantern – westseattleblog@yahoo.com – meantime, this gives us an excuse to remind you that the big wave of West Seattle Halloween events starts TOMORROW, continuing through this weekend, and on to the “real” Halloween in eight days. On the WSB Holidays page, you’ll find the times/locations for events for all ages, including three different sessions of business-district trick-or-treating – The Junction this Saturday, Admiral and Westwood Village on Halloween. (P.S. A recent addition is the West Seattle Helpline Fall Masquerade and Wine Tasting a week from today; RSVP by tomorrow.)
Our first sighting of sub-$3 gas in this price-drop cycle – California/Charlestown 7-11. (Tuesday afternoon addendum – have since seen many sub-$3 WS stations, lowest is $2.93 at Arco and “Ruxbury.”) Got the tip from West Seattle Junction Association executive director Susan Melrose, who also revealed that the official Junction Christmas tree has been replaced:
The newly planted Fraser fir replaces the previous tree, which just hadn’t been happy in that spot and had gotten to the point where it was easy to imagine the poor thing catching fire if subjected to this year’s tree-lighting ceremony (even with low-heat LEDs). Elsewhere in The Junction, we spotted Halloween window decorations in the works at the Senior Center of West Seattle building:
Just around the corner, the Stop ‘n’ Shop is closed for several weeks of remodeling, with a grand reopening scheduled for November 15th (more soon on what’s in the works there).
WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH ADDITION: You may have heard that Seattle Police have launched a website with short summaries of major crime incidents around the city, SPD Blotter. They have made RSS feeds available, separated by precinct, so we have added the Southwest Precinct feed from SPD Blotter to the WSB Crime Watch page (automated links, similar to the format you’ll find on our Blogs and More pages).
HOLIDAYS PAGE UPDATES: Thanks to everyone who’s sent word of more West Seattle Halloween events since we announced the WSB Holidays page, which starts with Halloween happenings (lots next Fri-Sat-Sun plus of course Halloween night itself) and continues through the winter holidays. If you’re planning something to which West Seattleites are welcome, please e-mail us the who/what/when/where, editor@westseattleblog.com, any time.
FROM PARTNER SITE WHITE CENTER NOW: After two and a half months, White Center Now continues to update White Center news and information seven days a week, with multiple updates most days – like today: Here’s news of a new men’s salon coming to White Center; and here you’ll find new photos from the ongoing pier-removal work at Hicks Lake (now there’s a MASSIVE crane on the job).
Zombies on California Ave! A “ghostly gala”! Trick-or-treating in The Junction and Admiral business districts! And looking beyond – dates for the Christmas Ship‘s West Seattle visits! All part of the WSB Holidays calendar page that’s now up; many thanks to those who already have e-mailed us about scheduled events to include on that page and our regular Events calendar – if you know of something that’s scheduled for Halloween or the winter-holiday season (November through New Year’s) and it’s not on the Holidays page, please e-mail us the basic info! We’ll continue to add info to the page as it comes in. (And also, for the holidays page and elsewhere, we’ll feature photos of West Seattle jack-o-lanterns and holiday lights again this year – e-mail your photos and/or your sightings!)
We’re still putting the finishing touches on our Holidays page (Halloween through New Year’s; but all the events we know about are already on the WSB Events page, if you can’t wait for a sneak peek) – and we have word that the West Seattle Eagles still have room for vendors at their holiday bazaar THIS Saturday – and at a turkey dinner afterward!
The West Seattle Eagles are having a holiday bazaar Saturday, October 18th, from 10 AM-5 PM. The Eagles are located at 4426 California Ave SW.
We are currently looking for vendors. Cost for a table is $15. We would like to keep the bazaar for arts, crafts, gift items, and baked goods for the holiday season. There will be no “White Elephant” or “Garage Sale” tables allowed. If interested in a table rental, or for general questions about the event, please contact Mary Lou Wilkerson at (206) 938-4426.
The Children’s Orthopedic Guild will be preparing a wonderful turkey dinner with all the trimmings to follow the bazaar at 5:30 PM. Both the bazaar and dinner are open to the public.
You can find the Eagles online at westseattleeagles.org.
Our first WSB’er jack-o-lantern photo of 2008 – and appropriately enough, it’s a political pumpkin. Thanks to HunterG and family, who report this is their way of combining their excitement about Halloween and the election. Yes, if you send a Palin or McCain pumpkin, we’ll show that too, not to mention pumpkins that have nothing to do with politics. We featured West Seattle jack-o-lanterns this time last year, both the photos you sent and the ones we picked up around town, and we’re doing it again this year, so if you’ve got a pic to share or a location to report, please e-mail us. Meantime, back to politics — first-time events listing so it’s a special shoutout: The West Seattle Democratic Women invite all to their October 23 lunch, 11:15 am at the West Seattle Golf Course, with a program including King County Democrats Chair Susan Sheary speaking on I-26/Non-Partisan Elections (perhaps the most complicated measure on the November ballot, and we’ll be writing separately about it later this week), as well as West Seattle school-board rep Steve Sundquist and the Democrat running for state treasurer, Jim McIntire. To make a lunch reservation, e-mail wsdwomen@yahoo.com or call (206) 935-3216 before 10/22. More election info later today (and here, anytime) – if you vote by mail, start watching your mailbox, because ballots are going out this week.
BANKS: Most if not all closed
MAIL: Regular delivery, no; Express Mail, yes.
SCHOOLS: Open (public schools had Friday off for a “professional development day”)
STATE GOVERNMENT: Open
LOCAL GOVERNMENT: Open (including courts)
PARKING: Regular weekday rates/hours
TRANSIT: Regular
LIBRARIES: Open
Didn’t want to wait too late to share these, since so many folks nail down Halloween plans early. First – while at West Seattle Bowl this afternoon, we found out about half a dozen lanes are left for Halloween Family Glow Zone bowling on Sunday 10/26, 5:30-7:30 pm – $70/lane, up to 6 people, shoe rental, pizza, and soda included – plus there’ll be a costume contest, with prizes. Call 932-3731 to ask about reservations. Second – a P-I blog points us to this nefarious plan for that same day; looks like the 4th annual Seattle Zombie Walk is targeting West Seattle. (No known relation to the Thrill the World-West Seattle zombies who’ll be dancing in the world-record attempt downtown on Saturday 10/25, with a Junction encore at 2 pm that day during Junction trick-or-treating.)
That’s one of our clips from the 2007 edition of Skeleton Theatre, the intricately staged animatronic Halloween show in a West Seattle yard, mobbed last year – just checked back on their Web site to see what’s in store this year, and it seems they’re plotting “a bigger concept … the 7 animatronic creatures this year (including a parrot) will be on two large pirate ships.” They’re planning shows 6-9 pm Halloween night and the night after.
Halloween’s just four weeks away, pumpkins are at the stores and produce stands, and you might be starting to think jack-o-lantern. We want to showcase your creations like we did last year (see some examples here), so once you get around to it, be sure to get pix and send them to us — editor@westseattleblog.com — so we can share.
ZOMBIES, AKA “THRILL THE WORLD WEST SEATTLE”: An update from Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) proprietor Lora Lewis and her Thrill the World/West Seattle corps of dancers practicing to join the world-record attempt on October 25th: For the actual performance counting toward the record, they’ve joined up with the Seattle Thrillers, and will be in the 200-plus crowd dancing that day at Westlake, with an encore to follow during Trick or Treat in The Junction the same day and at Admiral Theater later that night. You can still join the dancers at the next edition of what Lora calls the “newbie zombie” class – tomorrow (Wednesday), 8:15 pm, West Seattle Christian Church (the full list of rehearsal times and places is on the Thrill the World/West Seattle blog home page).
GHOSTS AND WITCHES: West Seattle-based The Anunnaki Project has announced its annual Halloween event: “The Ghost Game: Tales of 13 Witches,” 8:30 pm Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at Youngstown Arts Center, described as follows: “This year’s production, which focuses on tales of witches from world folklore and mythology, features performances by members of The Cabiri performance troupe along with several guest artists including aerialist and butoh dancer Mary Cutrera and Courtnee Papastathis (aka Zita the Aerialist). Steffon Moody, an outrageously engaging humorist, physical performer and songster who has entertained audiences regionally and nationally for the past 20 years, will be playing Guto, the horribly charming yet sinister master of ceremonies. Steffon is a founding member of the UMO Ensemble (Vashon) and is currently a performer with the Big Apple Circus (NYC). Guests at the event will be woven into the evening’s festivities as storytellers, soothsayers, and supplicants as a procession of witches both entrancing and terrifying is presented. On Halloween night, the performances will be followed by a costume contest and reception with the artists.” Dessert too. Age 16 and up. Tickets are being sold by tables of 5, online via Brown Paper Tickets.
Even though Christmas decorations are on sale at Costco already (anywhere else? no, wait, we don’t want to know) – it’s not that we’re trying to rush you into holiday mode too soon – we just happened to notice King County is inviting businesses to sign up RIGHT NOW to be part of “Waste-Free Holidays” – here’s the link.
-Trash/recycling is on a normal schedule
-Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth ferry runs are on the holiday schedule; other routes vary (get details here)
-The Elliott Bay Water Taxi and its shuttle buses (Route 773) will be on the Saturday schedule
–Metro and Sound Transit buses will run on the Sunday schedule (per this Metro infopage and this Sound Transit alert)
-Most City of Seattle facilities, including libraries and community centers, are closed
-State-run liquor stores are closed (reminder, as reported here last week, the Morgan Junction shop shuts down for good 9/20)
-If you’re going into a parking-meter/pay-station zone (downtown etc.), today is a “free” day
-If you’re driving state highways, WSDOT has put up one of its cool “worst/best times to drive” pages based on past stats.
-Today’s the last scheduled day of wading-pool season (Hiawatha and Lincoln Park are open) and the last weekday for Colman Pool (which will end the year with a final “post-season” weekend next Sat.-Sun.)
In case you’re taking off for a long holiday weekend shortly, we wanted to mention some of this now: Seattle Public Utilities just sent a reminder that trash/recycling is on a normal schedule for Labor Day pickups next Monday, but many other services are NOT on a normal schedule: Ferry schedules differ depending on route (all listed here; Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth is on the holiday schedule); the Elliott Bay Water Taxi and its shuttle buses (Route 773) will be on a Saturday schedule and Metro buses will run a Sunday schedule (both per this Metro infopage); libraries and community centers are closed. We’ll add more as we get it; by the way, if you’re driving state highways, WSDOT has put up one of its cool “worst/best times to drive” pages based on past stats.
Thanks to Susan Grossman of Singing Pixel Photography (who contributed the Space Needle lightning shot the other day) for that shot from Harbor Ave. And thanks to Amy, who answered the request in the comment thread from last night’s Alki post, and sent these photos of that unusual sight in the sky:
(Now the obvious question before we launch an extensive round of Googling … what exactly is that? Hang-glider with pontoons? Ultralight?) ADDED LATER: A look at neighborhood chaos after dark, further northeasti – this is from Meredith:
She wrote in part, “… the FUN went on for about 2.5 hours. You can see the pileup. The pedestrians, the family getting out at the road closed sign. The silver SUV (Lexus LX, I think), just parked there as the driver walks away. This left the incoming traffic STUCK between Admiral and Grayson, Grayson St. traffic couldn’t get out, and no emergency vehicle could get into the area AT ALL if needed.”
That was the Beach Fire From Hell. As the evening progressed, its stokers started throwing in the furniture they brought for their day at the beach. A chair, another chair, a table. Flames roared skyward. Black smoke billowed seaward. Embers danced toward nearby log-sitters’ backs. Parks crew came over immediately after the fireworks and doused it, about the same time two officers broke up a simmering squabble nearby. Speaking of officers:
They wasted no time clearing the beach as soon as both fireworks shows (Jul-Ivar’s started first, followed by Lake Union, both quite clearly visible from our spot toward the west end of the sand) ended. “LET’S GO, LET’S GO, TIME TO GO, PEOPLE, BEACH IS CLOSED, SIDEWALK TOO,” they shouted (and loudspeakered from a slow-moving car). 10:40 pm is earlier than the usual beach-closing time, a few people were heard grumbling. (We stopped briefly to send a Twitter message for the previous post and we were quickly told in no uncertain terms to get a move on.) Now, the pre-fireworks sights:
Brief appearance by the crescent moon, visible over Bainbridge before clouds moved in from the south. Nice sunset too:
Long night ahead; our windows are open and it still sounds fairly thunderous out there.
We’re computerless for a few hours but able to update Twitter via mobile phone, so we’ll post updates (particularly breaking news, but maybe some Alki observations too) this way. Otherwise, check out our coverage from earlier, and HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
(Early Saturday note: The “live” Twitter feed has gone back to its home in the sidebar. What’s below is a screengrab of the four updates we posted while away)
The space above this line will show our four most recent updates. Doesn’t look like there’s a way to go to the archives from there but the Twitter “what am I doing” box halfway down the right sidebar does access archives via the lower-right arrow (if necessary).
On the north side of west Admiral, we caught these scenes around 6:30:
A few minutes later, we noticed the entrance to Harbor wasn’t blocked off yet, but we had traveled it around 6:15 and it looked like the detour up California Way was being readied (downhill traffic on that street already was being stopped). The police presence was very much in evidence just about everywhere we traveled in the area, including a group of bicycle officers conferring near the Harbor 7-11 just after 6. Our most recent update on police’s Alki-area traffic plans is here; we’ll be offline for a while later this evening to go see the fireworks ourselves (guessing we won’t be able to park any closer than Cormorant Cove, the way things were looking during our drive-by) but as mentioned earlier, we’ll post any breaking news via Twitter (if you’re not a Twitter member you can still see our most recent posts on any WSB page, in the blue box halfway down the right sidebar – the little arrows in the lower-right corner of the box click through previous updates – update, looks like we’ll be able to add a Twitter area to the top of this page for a while so you may not have to use the sidebar).
A party’s under way celebrating the official opening of High Point’s Commons Park; we went up the knoll on its southwest side for these views that show how sweeping the park is:
The mini-amphitheater on the south side of the knoll had live entertainment – we were there for the end of a jazz combo and the start of these young performers:
Commons Park is most easily reached from Graham, at 31st (map).
That’s just a small stretch of the hundreds of kids (and grownups!) who participated in this morning’s Admiral 4th of July Kids’ Parade. Despite 17 years of living in West Seattle, we have to admit we’d never been before – but it’s unquestionably the biggest West Seattle event of the holiday aside from fireworks viewing. Here’s a photo of organizer Sherri Chun just before the parade, with Mayor (and Admiral resident) Nickels and West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival court members off to the left.
We also have video of what Hizzoner had to say (including a presidential-campaign joke), plus a local pediatrician singing the national anthem (he’s good!), a click ahead:Read More
Lots of folks working today – like Seattle Police. Not just the ones on the bridge mentioned earlier, but the car shown above and other officers who kept the Admiral 4th of July Kids’ Parade safe. We’re showing you that car from the end of the parade because of something we overheard a few minutes later – as it passed a home further west on Sunset, a man yelled out to the officer(s) in the car, “NICE JOB ON THAT BANK ROBBERY!” The car paused, and the man continued, “Really! Great job! You guys deserve those raises you just got!” (WSB coverage of the incident in question is here.) Now, speaking of people working today:
That’s John and Frances Smersh at Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) in Admiral, having a 4th of July sale till 3 pm, including some items you’ll see outside the store:
More shopping and other events, on the 4th of July page. Now a photo not taken on the 4th, but we just received it this afternoon, and it fits in the Admiral theme since it was taken from Hamilton Viewpoint, so what the heck: Another great view of this week’s lightning – this one from Kris at szimages.com:
Tonight’s forecast sounds a bit chilly.
That’s video of participants gathering for the start of the informal “parade around the park” this morning at brand-new Ercolini Park west of The Junction (map). The neighborhood volunteers who worked so hard to make the park a reality (here’s our coverage of the playground installation in April) are understandably busting with pride today, plus they have another big celebration ahead – the official dedication ceremony is scheduled for 10:30 am July 12th, one week from tomorrow. Here are some other Ercolini parade pix, courtesy of Scott Cronk:
(Meantime, our West Seattle 4th of July coverage continues — Admiral Kids’ Parade video coming up next; tons of helpful holiday info can be found on our 4th of July page.)
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