Urban Trekking - Capitol Hill

It was another beautiful Wednesday in Seattle, and time for another urban trek. Today we went to Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill is east of downtown, and was the location of the grand homes of the rich and famous among the early pioneers of the city. I had just seen some photos of Cal Anderson Park, had not been aware of it before, and decided that would be our starting off place. This is what you would call an urban soccer/baseball field. The crane was working on what looked like new condos. The rest of the park is built over the Lincoln Reservoir, which was built in 1901. The newly designed park was installed in 2001. What I had read about was this water feature. The old water control building now sits by a reflecting pool. Then there is a cascade which flows from a rill, which flows from a "volcano" fountain. Very cool!

From Cal Anderson Park, we drove north to Volunteer Park. This is an old park, designed by Olmsted, and renamed in 1901 to memorialize veterans of the Spanish-American War.

It is full of wonderful old trees.

The original Seattle Art Museum now houses the Asian Art Museum. Below the museum are lily ponds.

Beyond the ponds and the sculpture is the open Volunteer Park water reservoir. These old cherry trees guard one of the monuments in the park.

Near the entrance to the park is the old water tower, shown here beyond one of the lily ponds.

You can climb to the top to an observation deck. We didn't.

Farther north you come to the Volunteer Park Conservatory. This glass house as been beautifully conserved and maintained.

The exotic plants inside range from orchids and bromeliads to ferns to cactus.

Outside a painter was capturing some of the grand trees surrounding the meadow.

Dahlias were at their best in the dahlia garden.

When we left the conservatory it was time for lunch. We asked at the gift shop for a recommendation, which led us to a back street through the neighborhood to the Volunteer Park Cafe, situated in an old neighborhood corner grocery store.

I had a salad with hazelnuts, pear, and hazelnut crusted chevre cheese.

And since while eating my healthy salad I sat facing the desserts, I had that too - a latte and a toffee, chocolate chip cookie.

Then it was definitely time for some more walking. The old homes and mansions are gorgeous.

Our final destination (oops, just for a visit) was the Lake View Cemetery.

This is Seattle's pioneer cemetery, and contains some famous names. We found names of streets, buildings, bays, you name it.

This is the grave of Princess Angeline, daughter of Chief Sealth, after whom Seattle is named. Yesler, he of Yesler Way, which was the original skid road - where they skidded logs down the hill to the bay.

Who knew the city of Renton was named after a pioneer. I didn't. Renton is just south east of Seattle.

The Dennys were perhaps the biggest name in early Seattle. We have Denny Hill and Denny Way.

Mercers were up there on the leader board too. We have Mercer Street and Mercer Island.

After that walk through history it was time to back track to Volunteer Park, where we had left the car, and get out of town before the rush hour.

We got home in time to watch the Sounders FC win their US Cup Final soccer match against DC United in Washington DC, that other Washington. Yea Sounders! They're bringing home the cup!

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I have to confess that I took 185 photos today. Now that you've had a "brief" look at our Capitol Hill trek, I have some more "artistic" shots I'll share in coming days.

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Just a warning.