Day 14: Discovery Park (Magnolia) to Elliott Bay Marina and back
Highlights:
As is becoming my tradition, every seven days, I summarize how
far I would have walked on the real Camino in the context of the whole pilgrimage. As you can see below, I have completed ~40% so
far.
In real life, I planned to do my allotted 17.7 miles all in Discovery Park, which I noted in yesterday’s post is Seattle’s largest public park (534 acres) with 11.18 miles of walking trails on the shores of Puget Sound in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. I thought it might be more restful to do multiple trails, always with easy access to my car and known restrooms.
For the first two hours, I did just that. Coastal fog gave everything the appearance of mystery and made me happy I had a warm shirt for the cool mist. I did the loop trail (more than once) in various iterations and tried to see what I knew was an outstanding view on the Magnolia Bluffs mostly hidden by fog.
When
I entered back into the wooded trails, there was a flurry of brown feathers and
wide wings in front of me and I found myself face to face with a beautiful owl. He (or she) lighted very confidently in a nearby tree
and we engaged in a 10-minute staring contest, which he easily won while rotating his head 360 degrees like in the Exorcist.
The joy of any camino (including my faux one), is that plans can
change. My owl sighting make me more
adventurous and I decided to explore “downtown” Magnolia, visit Magnolia Park
(where we recently celebrated my son's birthday),
and continue on to Elliott Bay Marina, where once upon a time, we moored our
boat.
The walk to Magnolia’s center showed a mix of houses – old and
new, and one front lawn that looked like a garage sale for every social movement
possible. Little downtown Magnolia showed people enjoying the
sun (now the fog had lifted) in outdoor, carefully distanced coffee shop tables.
Google maps led me over the dramatic Magnolia bridge to Elliott
Bay, where I could see the ocean, Seattle’s skyline, a huge cargo ship, and of
course, Mount Rainier subtly peeking from behind many photographic angles.
As I walked around Elliott Bay, I fondly remembered how we used to enjoy sitting on the boat in the dock more than boating, and especially loved
eating breakfast at Maggie’s bar and grill.
Today, we happily say to each other at home in a sing-song voice “We don’t
own a bo-at”. It seemed whenever we went to go out, the engine wouldn’t start
and it was an automatic $500 to fix.
After the marina, I returned to the Elliott Bay trail to head
back to my kids’ neighborhood and then returned to Discovery Park to complete
my miles. I headed to Magnolia bluffs again, knowing the view would be much different than with the early morning coastal
fog. I was not disappointed.
I ended up doing 1.2 more miles than intended today because cell
coverage disappeared, and Google maps offline mode did not kick in to show me
the way. My legendary poor sense of direction took me away from my car until I righted
myself.
I’m checking in on how I feel about what I have
done so far. I’m learning far more about
Seattle than I had imagined and continue to be impressed with the endless outdoor activities and
vistas. I love this journey but admit
that it is physically more demanding than I thought my “trained body” would
find. I am also realizing that I must be
rigorous about balancing my desire to accomplish and stick to a schedule with keeping this a valuable
(even magical) experience. Said I to
myself “It is ok to take time off and
used those extra banked miles. (Don’t look at me like that!)”
So, lovely readers, thanks for sticking with me so far. Tomorrow, which I might take off, will bring
what it brings. I am researching plans for next week and will share soon.
¡Buen Camino!
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