Gasworks Park
Today dawned overcast and gray, but by 11:00, the skies were clear and it was a gorgeous day. I relaxed during the morning, and then drove
to Gasworks Park
near Lake Union in the early evening. The park was originally the site of the Seattle Gas Light Company
gasification plant. This plant supplied gas for Seattle for 50 years. When new sources of cheaper gas and energy were discovered, the plant closed in 1956.
The area was a toxic wasteland. Richard Haag had a dream
for this area and created a plan that eventually became "20.5 acres of land projecting 400 feet into Lake Union with 1,900 feet of shoreline.
It features the 45-foot-high Kite Hill, preserved gasification towers called “cracking” towers, a boiler house converted to a picnic shelter complete
with tables and grills,and a former exhauster-compressor building transformed into the open-air Play Barn housing a maze of brightly painted machinery for children."
I reached the park about 7:00, thinking that most of the people would have gone home by then. Wrong! It took about 5 rounds around the parking lot to even get a parking place. I walked out toward Lake Union and then rounded the corner and looked up toward Kite Hill. I saw a couple of hundred people; most were on blankets, hanging out on the side of the hill. It was like someone had gathered people from all over the world, put them into a shaker, and then dumped them out on the hillside. There were people of all age groups, nationalities, and types of attire. It was very cool. Everyone seemed to have one thought: this is a good place to enjoy a gorgeous Sunday evening. Yachts, water taxies, small motorboats, sailboats, and tour boats sailed back and forth across Lake Union. There didn't seem to be a set plan, and yet everyone knew the pattern to follow.
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The real show began as the sun set over the Olympics. The reflections of the city lights began reaching toward the shore as the sky continued to darken. The people sat almost reverently as they watched the scene in front of us constantly changing. Even the larger groups of people were subdued. Only when the sky was nearly completely dark did people start to wander off in small groups. The boats on the lake sailed toward the marina and the parking lots emptied. It turned out to be a very interesting evening and one of my favorite places in Seattle.
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