Seattle, day 2: walkin'

After a second very vigorous walk around Green Lake with my wonderful hosts Deb and Tom I spent some time buttoning down my next stop: it will be in Portland and Gresham, and I'll be there about 24 hours unless I'm moved to spend more time there sightseeing.

Then I explored this neighborhood's small business district and found some good food: first, a delicious lightly seared ahi tuna wrap with waffle fries at BluWater Bistro Greenlake, more than I could eat and at a very reasonable price. Second, the dessert I promised to bring to Black Diamond tomorrow evening, at Urban Bakery (no website): to reveal what it is now would spoil the surprise, so you'll have to wait until tomorrow when it will be fresh out of the oven.

I spent the rest of the day with Kathryn and Al. Al took me to Discovery Park (official site) in the Magnolia neighborhood and led me around the entire perimeter, with excursions off the main loop trail for a view to the east near Fort Lawton; through lots of mud to the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center for a view to the north, and to North Beach, the West Point Lighthouse which you see here, and South Beach at the western tip of the peninsula.

The trail to North Beach descended hundreds of steps from the highlands at the center of the peninsula, and the return up the bluffs from South Beach climbed an equal amount, making two great aerobic workouts in one day - Green Lake's horizontal and Discovery Park's vertical one. Al posed me in this stone "armchair" amid the rip-rap that protects the lighthouse and insisted that I include it here as a symbol of today's hard workouts.

We had dinner at Verve Bistro.in the Columbia City neighborhood. Mine was wild Alaskan king salmon on a bed of beans, corn, and snow peas. This may have been my first taste of wild-caught salmon about which I've heard much since Rachel and I traveled to Alaska nine years ago; it was delicious though my palate isn't yet educated enough to recognize whether salmon is wild or farm-raised. Best of all was our conversation, as has been the case everywhere that this trip has brought me together with old friends and loved ones. I am fortunate to have such friends.