Adventuring

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:  So, for as long as we've lived in Seattle, our view to the southeast has been a greenbelt on the southwest part of Queen Anne Hill. I've know that greenbelt is Kinnear Park. 

All that time, I have also known that heavily wooded Kinnear Park had a reputation as being a haven of homeless people, drug addicts and crime. Our neighborhood is so rich with other gorgeous parks and viewpoints, it wasn't that hard to 'work around.' 

However, for whatever reason I decided Today was The Day we'd go there. 

We parked just up from 15th Ave NW, The lot looked sketchy and we immediately wondered if leaving our car was a big mistake. 

Turns out, our years of trepidation were for naught

Almost immediately upon entering the park, we stumbled into an off leash area for the pups. Imagine their delight. Here's what a Havanese in the wild looks like. :)

We continued on, uphill of the offleash area and discovered what has to be *the* best view in Seattle for a tennis/pickleball court.  This picture doesn't do it justice. I should have Photoshopped the garbage can out of the middle. 

We continued following paths up the west side of Queen Anne Hill and eventually found a swingset. CJ was catching some big air. 

Beyond the swingset, we found some bathrooms, the roof of which afforded us the view at the top of today's blog post. In that same general vicinity, we also looked across to home, the Magnolia peninsula. 

Seriously,  I have been meaning to drag the kids to this park for years and for whatever reason, I decided today *had* to be the day. Imagine my surprise as we were walking around, looking at how clean and fresh and new everything looked ... and then we found a sign that said the park just had a rededication ceremony this past weekend. Nice timing!

COSMOS REWIND: As always, we watched "Cosmos" with great interest Sunday night. The show featured several compelling stories, one of which was about the Pleiades a star cluster with a prominent place in ancient mythology. The Pleiades contains hundreds of stars, only a few of which are visible to the unaided eye. Two of the stories about the star cluster's origins involved seven maidens being pursued and finding refuge in the heavens. I asked the kids to each write a story about the origin of the cluster without any fleeing maidens. 

CJ's story ... 

Have you ever looked up and seen the Pleiades, those really bright stars in that blue cluster? Here's my folktale about them:

The Pleiades are some stars that got formed several years before the earth even existed. Every day, every time you run, or walk, or speak, or ragequit from something, you can thank the Pleiades. The reason you can thank the Pleiades there is because the Pleiades are the source of all energy. The reasoning behind this is due to electricity commonly being associated with energy, and blue is a color commonly associated with electricity, and blue is also the color of the Pleiades.

Annabelle's story ...

Once upon a time there was a tribe of 7 people. The people in this tribe were very good at knitting, and they used this to protect themselves from the cold. They knitted warm coats and cool shirts. One fateful day the cold was too powerful, and they could not sew clothes warm enough. So they knit stars that shined bright and gave them warmth. Once the cold was gone, they kept the stars, and you can still see them shining from dawn to dusk in November, and in the evening up until April.