Dear Diary,
I just couldn't help myself, today I had to get out there and start hiking even before the rain stopped. I didn't get as far as I wanted, but did complete more than half. Here's the first half of the first half.
My actual goal for this hike was to get to Northgate. One reason I've been so scared of rain lately is that on my hike of December 28, I tore a hole in the larger of my umbrellas. The fear of rain was becoming a real problem, so I needed to do the simplest thing I could to assuage it, replace that umbrella. The Target near me had no room for such big ones, hence Northgate, where I'd bought the original in October.
But I'd been meaning to start with a different hike, and specifically with Maple Leaf Reservoir Park. Well, but Maple Leaf is on the way to Northgate ... And just like that a hike became clear, linking a bunch of places that weren't at all convenient to do in the day journies I've been planning. A leftovers hike.
I'd also decided I really should at least take a look at everything on the HSD map. So my first stop was hardly a park.
45th St NE at I-5
The city has a full set of "sanican"s here for a nearby encampment. (Well, the map staunchly maintains that anyone can use them, and is no doubt correct, but I think it's clear where most of the business must come from.)
I remembered that in the original article that pretty much inspired you, dear Diary, Erica C. Barnett had actually looked inside the "sanican"s. So now that I was actually going to pay attention to them, despite my continued belief that running water is the ideal, how could I do less?
Probably fortunately for everyone's sanity, either my rain-wet fingers failed to get photos taken, or the camera erased them, but both sanitiser dispensers there lacked casings and bottles of sanitiser. Both units had plenty of toilet paper.
Wallingford Playfield
This park has never really gotten its deserved attention from me. I introduced it June 9 in "At the Centre of the Universe, Does Gas Work?" But by that point in the relevant day's hiking, I was just too tired to take in another park, especially a playfield. I had another chance October 8 in "South of North Once More, Part I". But I couldn't take any photos, there were so many people there, so I even forgot the restrooms' conditions, one of the things the October hikes focused on. I did at least notice that big rocks seemed to figure prominently in the park's design.
Do tell.
That's from the opposite corner of the park from where I've previously been.
Another example - the greenery is nice, yes, but look behind it:
Well, darn, that didn't work right at all. One of the rocks behind the trees is visible, but not at all the actual stone wall behind them.
Anyway. I didn't want the restroom buildings to think I was neglecting them for "sanican"s, so I decided that if I was going to photograph the "sanican"s, I should photograph the buildings too, not just their open or closed doors. Voila:
This building has the magical property that when it rains, none of its awnings can keep any side dry.
I also, of course, found rocks in the one place playfields reliably try for individuality, the playgrounds:
The water fountain visible at that photo's far right seems to have been fixed, so perhaps Wallingford will have a working park water fountain later this year.
Anyway, HSD, Parks and last year's list all agreed this one should be open, and so it is. Huzzah!
Meridian Playground
Unlike its neighbour to the south, I've showered this quirky park with attention; I really like it, but will just refer anyone interested to "A Shower at Green Lake" June 8, "South of North Once More" I again, and "Standing Room Only, Part III: Less Near UW" November 23. On this visit I was all business. Only Parks expected this one to be open, but majority ruled.
The shot of the closed women's room door is odd because a woman was actually camping in the sheltered doorway.
University Playground
I've treated this as, well, a neglected stepchild among my core parks all along; see in particular "Our Main Characters" April 25, "We're All in This Together" April 28, "The Curious Incident of the Light in the Night-Time" May 2, "Foolish Mortal" May 6, "Home Dry Home" June 4 and, um, "Water Fountains - An Interim Report Part III" October 3. This is the only park with restrooms in North Seattle, none of whose restrooms were open at any time in 2020, and I haven't treated it much better.
Not today, either, but to foil my nefarious plan to leave it out of a future University District hike, a tall man stood the entire time I was there in the doorway of the men's room, so I couldn't take all three shots.
University Playground has also historically had a "sanican". Reliably, once a year it would get trashed, and the next one would be from a different company. I always figured a neighbourhood group had put it there, and had too little power with the vendors to get them to swallow the destruction. But no, it's the city's, and even their lavish spending on Honey Bucket couldn't keep the company here. The company that is here, though, has now been for some time; either they're very tolerant, or the trasher graduated, got caught, or left town. HSD's map includes this; I have no idea why, but the Parks map does not.
This is the only "sanican" I found today out of toilet paper.
The white doohickey in that photo is at an angle that announces: "There's no sanitiser bottle here to stop me, ha ha!" Remember that angle.
Seattle Public Library - University Branch
Sorry, dear Diary. I know I've told you about the restrooms here before, more than once, and with at least one photo, but when I was indexing you it didn't even occur to me to list those references.
Anyway. For big buildings, I figured the equivalent of photographing the best side of a restroom building is to take the money shot, the one they want to sell postcards of, such as:
Well, OK, they don't want to sell postcards of my version, but... Anyway, here's the open door:
Granted, all that tape looks hostile; clearly they've decided everyone should use the ramp. But they were open, as scheduled and as HSD claims.
So far HSD has a perfect score, while Parks was wrong about Meridian and University Playgrounds. I have to confess, dear Diary: I wrote to the media people for both departments, Parks and HSD, tonight, about things I'd noticed wrong with their maps, even before telling you. I hope you aren't too angry.
But Blogspot has been fighting every photograph I've uploaded in this page, dear Diary. And I took a lot of photos at Northgate. So I'm glad the site seems to have let me keep together the places that in fact are closer together, but I'm going to have to put Maple Leaf and Northgate into a separate page. Also to put that page off until tomorrow. Even if that gives HSD, at least, who seem to have been maintaining their map, a chance to hide their mistakes.
Good night, dear Diary.
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