West Seattle, Washington
28 Sunday
So before the parade gets to you – whether you’ve set up a creative seating area like those folks we snapped as we walked down the parade route, or whether you’re just standing at curbside – there’s months of behind-the-scenes work, and hours of same-day setup. Participating in the West Seattle Grand Parade for the first time, we got a closer look at some of that setup – and what it’s like to be in the staging area before the fun begins.
That was the pre-parade view westward down Lander, where we were staged on the south side of Lafayette Elementary School with other “community” entries. Same street, other side of California, is where some major marching entries queued up:
The flag-twirlers are from the Calgary Roundup Band, which won first place in the Bands category (and would have won “came from farthest away” if that category existed!). More preparade scenes ahead:Read More
Michale Farrar sent that photo along with one of two WSB reader reports we have received today about this unusual coloration along the northern Lincoln Park shoreline. (Thanks also to Amy for e-mailing about it.) The state Health Department‘s biotoxin page doesn’t include any new “red tide” alerts, nor does its hotline; we’ll let you know if we find out anything from anyone else. UPDATE: In comments, JanS notes a tv story last night about the same thing at Seahurst Park in Burien, and says that report described it as a nontoxic algae bloom.
Back from The Parade. We’ll be presenting coverage in various chunks – photos and video, and with two perspectives – covering it from the sidelines, and participating in it. From the latter viewpoint, we were fascinated to see how everything happens “behind the scenes” BEFORE the parade. Participants are staged in several groups radiating like sun rays from the intersection where it all begins (California/Lander); one of the entries near ours was the couple you see above, Navy veterans Art and Gloria Peters — since we have mentioned them in our parade coverage the past few years, we had to go up and say hello. Art and Gloria have been married 61 years; as the sign on their truck noted, Art’s now 82 and served in WWII and Korea. They live in White Center — “same house, 53 years, it’s all paid for now,” Art notes — and spend some of their time visiting schools to offer history lessons. They’ve been in the parade “four? five years now?” Gloria believes, and participate in other parades too (like the 4th of July parade two weeks ago in Burien) – here’s our video of them from today’s parade, an hour or so after our chat:
While we were talking with Art and Gloria, one of the Seafair volunteers who help American Legion Post 160 coordinate things on Parade Day came up, gave them a hug, and said it’s good to see them again this year because it reminds her we’re all living longer these days. That occurred to us, too. Many more parade vignettes and pix to come.
While we’re covering (and participating in) the West Seattle Grand Parade, we’ll be able to update Twitter via mobile phone (as we did while watching the 4th of July fireworks from Alki), so updates, parade-related and otherwise, will appear here:
(LIVE COVERAGE OVER NOW, SO THE TWITTER WINDOW IS GONE)
The space above this line shows 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).
THE ROUTE: At 10:30 am, from the purple marker to the lower green marker, the Kiddies’ Parade travels southbound from California/Genesee to California/Edmunds. At 11 am, between the two green markers, the Grand Parade travels southbound from California/Lander to California/Edmunds:
WHAT YOU’LL SEE: More than 70 entries, including floats, marching bands, clowns, the Seafair Pirates (who are in a class of their own) – and at the start of the parade, two motorcycle drill teams that perform a block or two at a time, Seattle Police followed by Vancouver (B.C.) Police. Very different styles, and at the end of the parade route, the Seattle officers usually come over to the sidelines to watch their Canadian counterparts.
HOW LONG IT’LL LAST: Lots of variables. Count on about two hours. The traffic restrictions could be in place till about 3 pm at the latest.
WHO PUTS THIS ON: American Legion Post 160 in The Junction presents the Grand Parade. While it is a major highlight of the peak time of the West Seattle Hi-Yu Summer Festival, and Hi-Yu has a unit (float, royalty, volunteers) in the parade, it is not officially presented BY Hi-Yu. The Kiddies’ Parade is presented by the Rotary Club of West Seattle.
IF YOU’RE READING THIS BEFORE 10 AM, TWO WAYS TO BE PART OF IT: All kids are welcome in the Kiddies’ Parade; sign up starting at 9:45, California/Genesee (purple marker on the map above). Everyone who’s ever done volunteer work is welcome to join the West Seattle Volunteers Grand Parade Marching Unit (walking the route between a Mini-Cooper), gathering at 10 am at California/Lander (top green marker on the map; more info – and freebie incentive! – here), call 206/293-6302 if you can’t find us.
NEWS DURING THE PARADE: We’ll be setting up an entry atop the WSB home page with the capability for short updates via Twitter, as we did on the 4th of July, so that we can keep you up to date even while we’re covering the parade inside and out.
The portables at Pathfinder K-8 on Genesee Hill used to look like this:
Then after a big painting party a few months ago, most of them had a more colorful facade, as you can see in the background of this photo:
But there’s still work to do, and Eric Baer sends work that volunteers including a corps from Seattle Works will be getting the job done at Pathfinder 10 am-2 pm today. Since we’re walking in the parade to pay tribute to local volunteers, hats off to them and everybody else who makes West Seattle a spectacular place to live.
In addition to the road closures/restrictions on and around California SW because of the West Seattle Grand Parade (detailed here) — and a parking crunch expected around Hiawatha all weekend because of the Mediterranean Festival — the city also has announced three road-work projects for today: Holden is closed most of the day between 11th and Highland Park Way (as noted here) for pavement work; the city expects to reopen Holden to eastbound traffic by 5 tonight, to westbound by noon tomorrow. Two smaller projects: Another SDOT crew is repairing pavement on Delridge in two spots, and flaggers will be used at each: First, they’ll work on Delridge between Alaska and Edmunds; when done there, they’ll move on ot a spot between Hudson and Puget Blvd. Finally, the third spot: Expect eastbound lane restrictions on Roxbury between 15th and 16th, 9 am-3 pm (approximately) as SDOT does sidewalk repair at the southeast corners of those intersections. The sidewalk on the east side of Roxbury will be closed at those spots during the work; westbound traffic and the west-side sidewalk won’t be affected.
Just fished this out of the WSB inbox, from Teri Ensley at the animal-rescue group Furry Faces Foundation – not only will F-Cubed be in the parade, they’ll be raising $ with a concession on the route (and again tonight):
Dogs 4 Cats is back at it during the Grand Parade …this time with ‘Hebrew National Dogs’, states Wiener Specialist Scott Lewis, ‘We Dogs just want to have more cats spayed and neutered, because ‘FRANKly’, there are too many kittens being born! Our ‘All Beef Dogs come in Natural Regular, Light Dog and Fat Free, plus we have Veggie Dogs too. All are available—with the trimmings–for just $4.00 during the Grand Parade on Saturday, July 19th, from 10 am – 2pm AND 7 pm to 8 pm during the Sidewalk Cinema showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail at Hotwire Online Coffeehouse, located at 4410 Calif. Ave. Help us Dogs help ourselves [and the cats].’
#1, the killer bunny:
That’s from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” showing tonight at dusk in the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor), the first of six West Seattle Movies on the Wall over the next month and a half of Saturday nights (full list here – in part the result of YOUR suggestions, via WSB and Junction ballot boxes!). Reason #2: Sidewalk Cinema, which makes the movie magic happen, promises a preshow feature – a youth-made film from NFFTY! Reason #3, help the West Seattle Food Bank – bring a nonperishable food donation (admission is free), and buy something from the concession stand set up by West Seattle Christian Church (WSB sponsor) — proceeds go to WSFB. See you there!
Thanks to Gina Terrana for sending those undated photos of West Seattle Grand Parade scenes in years gone by, taken by her grandmother, Alice Webb. Unless you’re very new to West Seattle, it’s fairly easy to tell where they were taken (though the signage certainly has changed):
Gina explains that her grandmother was active with Eastern Star, so most of the photos involved Masonic parade entries:
Gina tells us a little bit more about her grandmother, who died in 1986:
Alice Webb was also the wife of Arthur J. Webb. and the mother of Arthur C. Webb; both owned construction companies that did quite a bit of building in West Seattle. A.C. was the builder behind Fauntlee Hills. A.J. built the brick duplex next to the P.C.C., that was his basic construction style. Both styles of construction look the same to me, but my mother was always able to tell, “my father built that. my brother built this.” Grandma Webb thought that they had built everything, everywhere by the time I knew her.
Now go make your own history and check out the parade tomorrow – watch it from anywhere along the route (map in this post last night) OR if you’ve got some volunteering in your past/present (who doesn’t?) you can join the fun little group that West Seattle community volunteer/organizer extraordinaire Cindi Barker is rounding up, with support from WSB (your editor here will walk with the group, and Junior Member of the Team will be handing out candy on the sidelines – no throwing candy, we’ve been warned, but handing it out is OK). We’re scheduled to be about a third of the way down the lineup of 70-plus entries. The Rotary Club of West Seattle presents the Kiddies’ Parade (all participants welcome) at 10:30 am (sign in @ California/Genesee starting at 9:45 am), American Legion Post 160 presents the Grand Parade immediately afterward, starting at California/Lander.
Though the West Seattle Grand Parade (and the Kiddies’ Parade preceding it) follows a straight line down California (see the map in this post from last night), other streets are affected, as you may have discovered if you came home to signs tonight (if not sooner). We asked one of the lead parade organizers, Jim Edwards – who along with others put in ENDLESS volunteer hours to make this happen – for a general outline of what you need to know tomorrow, from early morning through mid-afternoon – note this is an anecdotal sort of description but hopefully helpful:
Edmunds is open across California, I believe, but Southbound California is still closed to Dawson St East approach.
Northbound California (from south of The Junction) is open to Edmunds, but limited to the curb lane.
Oregon and Alaska will have emergency vehicle access. a soft enforcement of the crosswalks essentially.
44th Ave will be cleared to allow a north south detour between the Junction and Stevens, then it is diverted down to 45th through to Admiral Way
Assembly will close:
44th from Stevens to Lander
Lander from 45th to 41st
42nd from Admiral to Lander will be local access only (Safeway)
41st will be cleared to permit a Metro bypass between Admiral and Kander
Stevens from 44th to California will be local access only (PCC/McDonald’s)
The three blocks between Admiral and Hanford on California are closed first thing in the morning.
If you try to drive through you put in danger the many volunteers who bring this parade to you each year.
and dozens, ….. DOZENS of cars do this every year.
If you must get to Safeway to do your morning shopping…. Follow the detours down to Admiral Way starting at Hanford, (44th and 45th) then up Admiral to 42nd to get to Safeway.
It is well posted. but every year people drive by all these signs, claiming they have to get to Safeway.
We designed this assembly area to keep Admiral Way open throughout the parade, and to keep access to the major businesses open throughout the parade.
Jim also believes Metro will start diverting around 7 am, based on what they’ve done in years gone by. More parade countdown coverage a bit later tonight – including some photos from the past – fun to see what the businesses looked like, as well as parade spectators/participants. And note that everything will be open again by tomorrow night, when Saturday night Movies on the Wall begin in the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) – bring a nonperishable food donation for West Seattle Food Bank – come enjoy “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” starting around dusk (stake out your spot sooner); concessions are offered by West Seattle Christian Church (WSB sponsor), with proceeds also benefiting WSFB.
At Hiawatha this afternoon, proud parents and other onlookers cheered as Hi-Yu junior royalty past and present coronated the 2008-2009 court: Left to right, the girls NOT wearing Hi-Yu red and white (yet!) are new junior princesses Elyse Mitchell and Anna Fuller, and new junior queen Zoe Mahn. Here’s video of her running up after the big announcement, and then receiving her crown from 2007-2008 Hi-Yu Junior Queen Danica Tongol:
Congratulations to all. The “senior” court coronation is 7 pm Monday at Grace Church; before then, of course, you’ll see Hi-Yu royalty (and the Luna Park float!) in tomorrow’s West Seattle Grand Parade (route and other info here), and everyone’s invited to the Hi-Yu Community Brunch, 9 am-noon Sunday, at American Legion Post 160 in The Junction.
Washington State Ferries says Klahowya will start using a five-percent-biodiesel fuel tomorrow; the largest-capacity ferry on the Fauntleroy-Vashon-Southworth run, Issaquah, is already using that mix. WSF says the biodiesel comes from tallow (beef fat), not vegetable oil. Side note: You can find out where Issaquah, Klahowya, and other WSF boats are, at any given time, by using the ferry system’s online Vessel Watch feature.
That’s Irene Stewart, West Seattle’s former Seattle School Board rep, and Fauntleroy Community Association president Bruce Butterfield. They got engaged recently on the Elliott Bay Water Taxi. We heard the story at the last FCA meeting but thought it was off the record … till the photo above, and a King County news release about it, just landed in the WSB inbox!
On a boat normally frequented by commuters and Mariners fans, West Seattle residents Irene Stewart and Bruce Butterfield found an entirely different use for the Elliott Bay Water Taxi: They got engaged.
On June 25, Stewart and Butterfield were celebrating their tenth anniversary of dating. Ten years earlier, they had taken the Water Taxi downtown for their first date, and they decided this year to do the same in celebration.
“We took the Water Taxi to make it easy on ourselves – nothing fancy, just a fun ride to a restaurant downtown,” said Stewart, who as an aide to then King County Councilmember Greg Nickels was instrumental in getting the service started.
Stewart said everything seemed normal until the vessel approached Pier 55 on the downtown waterfront. All of a sudden, the captain veered to the left and turned the boat around so it faced West Seattle. Everyone onboard was quite confused.
Almost everyone, that is.
For Butterfield, this was all part of the plan. Earlier in the day, he made several trips to Seacrest Park to speak with the captain and crew, and enlist their support.
With the city skyline in the background (hence the turning of the ship) and two crewmembers filming, a packed deck watched with surprise as Butterfield knelt down on one knee and asked Stewart to marry him.
Everyone cheered. But Butterfield shushed them. “She hasn’t said ‘yes’ yet,” he said, but Stewart quickly agreed. There was more cheering downtown as the Water Taxi docked and the newly engaged couple continued on their journey – in more ways than one.
Stewart is currently director of the Seattle Mayor’s Office for Senior Citizens, and was a member of the Seattle School Board from 2003 to 2007. Butterfield is a Realtor with Prudential Northwest Realty at Jefferson Square and president of the Fauntleroy Community Association. No date has been set, but the two anticipate a summer 2009 wedding.
Congratulations to Irene and Bruce! P.S. Speaking of the Water Taxi, WSB has just become a proud sponsor of West Seattle’s own foot ferry … we took a picture of our new banner yesterday while heading downtown:Read More
HUGE West Seattle Weekend Lineup – with the West Seattle Grand Parade (2007 photo above shows members of the Seattle Chinese Community Girls’ Drill Team, which is in the lineup again this year) at midday tomorrow … then tomorrow night:
That wall next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) is converted to a movie screen as Movies on the Wall starts a six-Saturday-night run … Oh, and did we mention Mediterranean Fantasy Festival at Hiawatha all weekend? And the West Seattle Garden Tour on Sunday? 53 events ahead (and a new handy feature to click ahead to each day):Read More
The Weekly’s food blog Voracious says Mural, the Harbor Properties project in the ex-Petco parking lot, will include a restaurant called Fresh, involving folks from Herban Feast, which recently moved HQ from West Seattle to Sodo.
FIRST: The 911 log showed an “automatic fire alarm” call at West Seattle High School listed as open for several hours early this morning, which is unusual, so we called Seattle Fire Department to check. Public-information officer Sue Stangl says someone “threw a small chunk of concrete through a window” and followed it up by throwing a lit string of 100 or so firecrackers through the broken window — the smoke set off the fire alarm. The only notable damage was to the window, but the call stayed “open” on the log because of the ongoing investigation.
SECOND: A reader report about suspected “casing” and a subsequent burglary attempt that neighbors think might be linked:
Belvidere neighborhood last night near Olga and Belvidere . On Wednesday, police were called when two African-Americans, one heavyset boy, one girl, both around 16-18 yrs old, all dressed in white, were going door to door without ID. Last night there was an attempted break-in in the same area at a home where the owners had placed their garbage out early due to being out of town. Police again were notified but were directed to the wrong address. Suspect could only be identified as 6’1-6’2 and African-American with normal-fitting dark hoodie. White Cadillac with dark tinted windows seen in the neighborhood around the same time as both events.
If you had trouble getting into WSB over the past hour or so, please accept our apologies. Our server and its backups all crashed. We have some technical upgrades in the works in the not-too-distant future that should improve reliability. Meantime, when this kind of thing happens, we send out notes and news via Twitter – so if you’re not on Twitter yet, you might consider getting an account (doesn’t mean you have to use it much) — twitter.com, sign up to “follow” westseattleblog. (This won’t help during those occasional site outages but FYI, our Twitter updates also appear in the aqua box halfway down the sidebar; sometimes you’ll see notes, observations, updates there that aren’t worth official posts/articles but briefly notable anyway.)
Both at Hiawatha Community Center – the Fun Festival is scheduled noon-3, Junior Court Coronation at 1 pm.
The intersection of Bronson and Harbor doesn’t show up on online maps – or else we’d have one above this sentence. But it’s a real place – on the water side, a city-owned “street end” – and the Seattle Department of Transportation is finally ready to turn it into a park. SDOT “shoreline street ends” program manager Patti Quirk, who’s a West Seattleite, came to last night’s Alki Community Council meeting to talk about the plan – something community leaders have long pushed for, but couldn’t quite get approved, till now. Read on to find out more, plus other toplines from the ACC meeting:Read More
Thanks to David Hutchinson for the sunset silhouette of the Tribal Journeys canoes and onlookers at Alki (here’s our earlier report, with more info, photos, and links) – the canoes will be on the beach till Saturday morning, so there’s still time to go see them in person. Meantime, thanks to Austin for photographing this fireboat show near Seacrest:
Photos, video, news tips, reader reports always appreciated, editor@westseattleblog.com (other contact options listed here) … thanks!
If this is your second or third summer as a WSB’er, you know we are huge fans of the West Seattle Grand Parade, presented during the Hi-Yu Festival by American Legion Post 160 (many call it the Hi-Yu Parade but it’s been pointed out that while Hi-Yu participates, the festival does not PRESENT it, the Post does). We’re now just a day and a half away and thought we’d put together some parade notes of interest. First, the route – California and Lander (Admiral District) to California/Edmunds (The Junction); the purple marker denotes the start of the Kiddies’ Parade at California/Genesee (which also continues to Edmunds):
The Kiddies’ Parade is presented by the Rotary Club of West Seattle (all kids welcome to participate; here’s the flyer with details) and starts at 10:30 am – here’s one entry from last year:
The Grand Parade follows immediately after the Kiddies’ Parade. Next, if you missed it the first time around, here’s the list of parade highlights, as announced by parade organizers (and we’ve just learned of some late additions, including a Charlestown Cafe entry!). Among the many star attractions: If you thought the Seafair Pirates were a blast on the beach, wait till you hear their cannon fire echo down California Ave!
That’s just one of the photos we published last year. You’ll find the rest in this 2007 post and the links with which it ends – pointing you to all installments of our parade coverage from last summer. This year’s parade has about 70 entries (including the one we’re helping coordinate; you’re invited to be part of it) – and even if you aren’t so sure you’re “the parade type,” it’s another occasion for West Side Pride, since this is the oldest community parade in Seattle. Tomorrow, the countdown continues (as do the previews of other weekend excitement, including the first “Movies on the Wall” showing on Saturday night — “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”).
(click to see a larger version)
You see them soaring overhead – or sometimes perched in a tree or on a piling – but this is a somewhat unusual view of West Seattle bald eagles, courtesy of Susan Grossman of Singing Pixel Photography. She writes:
I was very excited to watch this eagle family interact on the Duwamish Head end of Alki this morning. While the bird in the foreground is gigantic, it seems to be a half-fledged chick. It was running along the beach on and off for a good half hour, flapping its wings and crying piteously and hopping into the air and crashing back down, while Mom sat on the pontoon with what looks like an older or better-developed sibling and watched. Eventually Mom and sibling came back to the chick. Mom seemed conflicted; the youngster would crouch and flap his wings and peep yearningly at her exactly like a begging sparrow chick, and Mom would move toward him and stretch her head toward him, then jerk away. Eventually Mom flew back to the pontoon and Sibling stayed on the beach with the youngster, huddling with him and grooming him in what looked like a comforting way, and watching while he found some fish and excitedly ate it. Eventually Youngster made it into the air and Mom joined him and the family soared off.
I don’t know much about eagle behavior, but it looks like the chick, which is monstrously huge but a baby nonetheless, is at that stage where the parent starts being impelled to start withdrawing parental care. But everyone in the group looked miserable and conflicted. Do eagles live in multi-age groups? The sleeker young eagle definitely seems better-developed and looks older, but he or she also clearly had a strong bond with the ruffled youngster.
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