Two pages back, I wrote about the parks with "N" addresses, as opposed to "NE" or "NW", between about 45th and 80th Streets. I neglected to mention two things.
First, I spent the night of June 5 in bus shelters near Meridian Playground. So I saw that park both at night and in the morning, and saw Woodland Park mainly in the morning and afternoon of June 6.
Second, park restroom stalls without doors are pretty much the default in that area, though there are certainly exceptions.
OK, then, it's time to move south. Since I'd just finished (ha) with Woodland Park, I stayed that far west, so started with Fremont, which has no large parks, and only one water fountain. Fremont has much more folklore than most Seattle neighbourhoods, most of which I suspect I'll never get, not being a baby boomer. In particular, it's called the centre of the universe. Well, then, the centre is seriously under-parked.
Small Fremont Parks
The only kind there is.
Fremont Peak Park
I reached this by going south on Greenwood until I could switch to Palatine. This is a silly route even if, like me, you're coming from Woodland Park. Much better to just take 45th St to its end, and then turn south a little. Anyway, this park is primarily about its view, which I found boring, but it has a sort of mini-Stonehenge meant to tell the seasons:
which looks cool whether or not it works. The park knows this, too, using circle imagery in a couple of other places.
Fremont Canal Park
Verizon pretended to be unable to retrieve the parks department website most of the afternoon of the 6th, so I didn't learn until I was much further on the trip that I'd ignored this park's western half. It spans two long blocks between the Burke-Gilman Trail, which there runs alongside the Ship Canal, and the street (Canal Street). The eastern block is full of dinosaurs:
OK, yeah, topiary ones, but still. The western block is in "NW" anyway. By this point it was clear enough that I'll have to go to Ballard after all, so I'll just look at that block then.
A. B. Ernst Park
This is next to the Fremont branch library. It's basically a transformed stairway: riotous vegetation all around it, and the upper half turned into a gentle ramp, along which are some weird tiers. It's apparently slated for expansion (and presumably construction), so if this interests you more than it does me, you might want to hurry there.
Troll's Knoll Park
No, this doesn't include the famous sculpture by, um, Steve Badanes, Will Martin, Donna Walter and Ross Whitehead, which is about the only bit of Fremont folklore that works for me. It's to the left, as you face the troll, where all those concrete bollards are that you always see people leaning against. The park apparently wants to move those people way uphill to a small grassy strip next to a P-Patch; fortunately, instead the kids and the gardeners stay at a distance. The park is more successful in its claimed ambition to assist people in getting uphill; it features a fully paved, gently sloped trail with lots of switchbacks that took me from 36th St almost to 38th.
B. F. Day Playground
This park is, at 2 1/3 acres, not only the biggest in Fremont, but bigger than the other four put together. This gets it not only a water fountain, but one that gave a tablespoon of water before going dry when I tried it. It also, at the opposite end of the park, has a "sanican", not something I saw many of in this trip. It's easiest entered from Linden Ave, just south of 41st St.
Four or More Wallingford Parks
Wallingford Playfield
This is bigger than all the Fremont parks added together. That is, it's 4 1/2 acres. By this point I wasn't up for much exploring; the park is easy to find along Wallingford Ave at 42nd St, the open restrooms and non-functional water fountain easy to find within.
A Detour
This was as close as I'd gotten to a supermarket all day, so I went and bought my daily salad, and also a bottle of water. Which latter made me feel very stupid when I found this in front of the store:
The Wallingford Steps
Exactly what it sounds like: stairs by which Wallingford Ave continues to the canal. Or anyway to the next park. What makes it a park is the usual luxurious plantings, plus some gussied-up landings, of which this one, by Benson Shaw and Clark Weigman, has pride of place:
Gas Works Park
I think every time I've visited this park I've been in a hurry, tired (as this time), or both, so I've never really explored it. Maybe I'll try to do it justice before I finish writing you, dear Diary, but it isn't actually that close to the U-District - along Meridian same as the playground by that name, but way south. Anyway, this is the closest to the U-District of the parks whose restrooms have been opened 24 hours, not that I've tested that. I did want to use those rooms, but a look at the way both men's toilet seats appeared to be decorated with Number Two dissuaded me. The water fountain attached to the restroom building isn't running. But I don't know whether there are other restrooms or water fountains elsewhere in the park.
Waterways?
Either at the eastern end of Gas Works Park, or adjacent to it, are Waterways 18 and 19. The parks department website doesn't list them. The City of Seattle real estate report (PDF) I'm using for areas lists 19 but not 18. I didn't explore either at all thoroughly: I couldn't bring my cart, and my getting anywhere near one enraged the nearby crows. They don't look like the kinds of parks, or parts of parks, that have restrooms or water fountains.
Sunnyside Ave N Boat Ramp
This is officially closed, but still has a "sanican". It's hard to reach from Gas Works Park, along the sidewalks-optional Northlake Way; I suggest taking 36th St instead. Geese were in possession when I arrived, but took offense at me and left, giving me a chance for another mediocre duck photo:
From there I caught the Burke-Gilman Trail straight to University Village and Safeway. I'd forgotten, at the Wallingford QFC, that I no longer have the handy cutlery my backpack held. Safeway was in a panic because a rally was getting close, and closed early, so I never did get to a toilet that night, but it worked out OK (and I did get a fork to eat the salad).
For the past two weeks I've been aware that it isn't the right time to state my own grievances. And the inspiring sight of thousands of people cooperating in marching down (NE) 45th St does nothing to make my course of action seem nobler. Dear Diary, I had hopes at the start that powerful people might read you, and might do things as a result. Maybe that's still possible, but probably not before I finish writing you.
As my energy allows, here's what I think is left. There are eight parks left in "N" between 80th and 145th Streets. That real estate report alerted me to six parks I hadn't known about in the northern parts of "NE", though four are Natural Areas, unlikely to offer restrooms or water fountains. And since I still haven't found an area with water fountains consistently on, such that I could say the problem is local, I might as well endure the forty-odd parks of "NW" so I can sort of talk about North Seattle as a whole.
But this all assumes we aren't going back to the days of randomly closed park restrooms. And assumes that the rain will occasionally pause for a day or two.
Sorry, dear Diary. I just don't know how much longer until I finish you.
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