West Seattle Way

THE WANDERERS: On Fridays, we have 1.5 hours to kill between the kids' morning classes and afternoon class at the Teen Life Center in West Seattle. Today, rather than going to Target, like we usually do (boring, right?), we struck out for the shops and sights of California Avenue.

While it might look like the kids stumbled into a parade today, what 's really going on is they're upside a colorful mural on the West Seattle post office. Originally painted in 1992 by Gresham, Ore., artist Lanny Little, it features a Wizard of Oz float with lots of parade watchers (including several scary clowns) standing alongside the West Seattle Post Office. The scene is called "The Hi-Yu Parade,"

Refurbished in 2007, the mural was bright and completely graffiti free. How refreshing!

Of course, after learning the title of the mural, I had to look up what the heck a "Hi-Yu" parade is. Turns out the West Seattle parade has been hosted by the West Seattle American Legion Post 160 since 1935. making it one of the oldest community events in Seattle. Per the parade's Web site, the annual event includes participants from the Hi-Yu royalty. 

But that answer didn't satisfy, so I had to dig. And dig. And dig. Several broken links and misfires later, I finally found the West Seattle Hi-Yu Festival Web site, where we learned that the event was named in 1934 in a community contest, and that Hi-Yu means "much, plenty, abundance" in native Chinook jargon. So there you have it. 

WHEN YOU WISH UPON A PUMPKIN: One of our stops today was The Sneakery, "Seattle's premiere sneaker and sock store." I could spend a fortune there. In fact, I would, if CJ's wish upon the Magic Wishing Pumpkin nearby had worked.

We were delighted to find a gold (spray painted) pumpkin along busy California Avenue with a sign exhorting people to "Touch a Pumpkin, close your eyes ... Make a wish ... Don't make pies!"

The pumpkin also offered a stern warning to not even "think of stealing or smashing these wishing pumpkins! Harming them will cause you to consider using drain cleaner as mouthwash ... Thus preventing you from kissing the person of your dreams."

We didn't smash the pumpkin. Instead, the kids each made a wish on it. Annabelle hoped for cake (since pie was not an option, apparently). CJ wished he was the richest person on Earth.

RESERVOIR DAWGS:  After the sock store and the post office, we still had time to kill, so we hit a West Seattle park we'd been meaning to visit: Myrtle Reservoir. It holds a special place in our hearts and minds, as Christian wrote the program that runs the water treatment facility there. :)

Seattle is in the process of covering all of their reservoirs and once they do, they put a park atop them. Sweet! 

The kids enjoyed the playground at this park lots. There seemed to be lots of looping and circular elements.

There was also a neat-o music making board. When you pulled back quarter and eighth notes, the sprang forward and hit chimes. It was surprisingly loud. Like church bells loud!

Before leaving, we climbed the steps to the top of the park. It was fun guessing what would await us. The kids' guesses ranged from a skate park to a wading pool Instead, it was just a circular sidewalk, a couple of benches and some concrete blocks. Kinda boring, until we got to reading the info atop the blocks. They were in a starburst pattern of sorts, and each had a Seattle neighborhood name and elevation. Below, the kids sit on the Magnolia block. From it, we learned our neighborhood (the hazy line in the distance in this gray-day photo) tops out at 392 feet. (Funny, it feels a LOT taller than that when you're driving up Dravus, pushing a stroller up any hill, or driving down from our place in the snow. ... ) The informative art let us know that West Seattle is the highest of the hills (Beacon, First, Queen Anne) in Seattle. Who knew? I always equate West Seattle with its beaches. :)

DIGGING IN: We also had some inside time today. CJ's programming class was canceled this morning, so while Bee was doing her Bollywood thing, CeeJ and I hung out in the Teen Life Center. We checked out their pool, and wished we could dive in (it was closed), and then we wandered into the rec room. Some kids were playing a rambunctious game of foosball, but a ping pong table stood untouched. I asked CeeJ if he wanted to give it a go. He's not played ping pong before, and let's just say he didn't take to it like a fish to water. 

"Well this is embarrassing!" he said, after managing to hit it BACKWARD for about the fifth time. :)

He did get a little better at it after about 10 minutes, but soon he was ready to hang up the paddle, for Harry Potter awaited.

CJ started reading "The Sorcerer's Stone" a few months back. He got about 70 pages into it and stopped for some reason. A couple of nights ago he picked it back up at bedtime and he's been packing it around ever since. 

"I'm really digging in this time," he's informed.

As of my writing, he's just one chapter shy of finishing the 17-chapter  book. Go CJ!

BALLOON MAN:  FYI, skydiving daredevil Felix Baumgartner is set to try to skydive from stratosphere on Sunday, Oct. 14 at 6 AM MDT (5 a.m. for we Pac Coasters).  According to the Red Bull Stratos Web site, meteorologist Don Day says the weather, so far, looks favorable. Let's hope he's right this go 'round. Those who read an earlier post this week know that winds wreaked havoc with the 55-story balloon that was set to take Felix aloft on Tuesday, Oct. 9. 

BTW, the mission's site calls the balloon "a 40-acre dry cleaner bag' and notes that at launch, the balloon and capsule carrying Felix will stand taller than Seattle's Space Needle. Wowza!