Alki Beach Park: summer in Seattle
Published: Jun 5, 2009
Alki Beach Park is the closest that this rainswept town comes to having a riviera. This strip of sandy beach on the north side of the West Seattle neighborhood is popular with picnickers, volleyballers and rollerbladers year-round. In the summer, however, it practically becomes a resort town. Thousands of Seattleites descend upon the beach to work on their tans, dine at quaint waterfront cafes, and simply to gaze out over the cool blue waters of Elliott Bay and imagine that they're on vacation.
Park visitors have their pick of fun activities to keep themselves occupied. A 2.5 mile path that runs the length of the beach is popular with joggers, bicyclists, and even roller- derby girls-in-training: it's often as busy as a state highway. The beach offers even more possibilities: you can play volleyball; fly kites; launch canoes and small boats in the marina; hunt for seashells with the kids; hold a family gathering around one of the park's many picnic tables; and more. After dark, feel free to start a bonfire in one of the park's many public fire pits. (Be sure to get there before sundown, though ? the pits are first-come, first-served.)
There js a lot of local history in and around Alki Beach Park. It is, after all, the place where Seattle's first non-native settlers landed on November 13, 1851, a landmark day noted on one of the city's most unsual monuments: a minature Statue of Liberty. But for all that's happened on this breathtaking piece of land, all you'll think about while visiting Alki Beach Park is the present moment — and how very good it feels to be in it.
- by Geoff Carter, Seattle Reporter for HelloMetro
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