Discovering "Discovery"

Today we spent the afternoon at Discovery Park in Seattle. It was beautiful! We've been meaning to explore some of the greener wilder places we have around here. The recent Ken Burns documentary about the national parks reminded me that we have two national parks right here in our backyard. In fact, on a clear day you can see both of them. Today was such a day.


It's hard to see in this picture, but Mt. Rainier is rising just above the convergence of the two hills. The Olympic mountains were even more visible in the other direction. We didn't have the time or the funds to get out to either of those magnificent national parks, but we found a gem of a park right near Seattle. In fact it's five minutes from downtown, and only twenty minutes from our home in Renton. You can't be out in nature and be any closer to the city.

Discovery park is on a little peninsula on the north side of town and is covered with various wooded trails and is edged with pleasant beaches.


Most of these were taken on such a beach. Amy even managed to find a few stones for her hot stone massage set.

We didn't even begin to see everything. There's apparently a lighthouse and a little historic town that used to be where the park now stands. We spent most of our time hiking the trails and just seeing what there might be to see. I doubt we even got a look at a tenth of it. We must have hiked at least five miles today.

The whole place is a reminder of what Seattle once was before Americans arrived. It's not hard to imagine native fishermen out in the sound or preparing their expeditions on the shore.
We found this arrangement of driftwood which was kind of disturbing. Sorta looks like a grave, doesn't it? I doubt it is, but there is actually a cemetary nearby come to think of it.
It's hard to believe that I lived here as long as I did and never saw or even knew about some of the natural treasures around here. I'm hoping in the next few years Amy and I can rectify that.
The whole day I was thinking how fun it would be to bring Amy's family here whenever it is they can manage to visit. There's so much to see and do around here, we feel very luck that we'll have some time to take it all in. It was a good workout and a day off well spent. I had some work to do before we left and it took longer than I thought, so we left the house a little flustered. We both had a long week and this trip was exactly what we needed. The air under the canopy of the trees seems so rich and fresh. Spending a few hours in it was extremely relaxing, in spite of the traffic on the ride home.

In any case, we'll definitely be coming back soon.

-Tom