May 2011

Bright Horizons Family Solutions, new West Seattle location is set to open tomorrow morning at 6:30 am. They will open Infant, Toddler, Twos and Preschool rooms in the new facility. The Grand Opening Celebration will be June 18 . This will be an afternoon event with local entertainment, tours and food.

The West Seattle Herald profiled the center and company during the construction here.

Run by Laurie Paul, the center joins 15 other centers in the Seattle area.

The child care center is located in The Link Apartments building at 4530 38th Avenue s.w.
You can reach them via email at westseattle@brighthorizons.com.

Here for the filming of the movie Ira Finkelstein's Christmas over the weekend, stars Elliott Gould and David DeLuise both stopped by Avalon Restaurant 2940 s.w. Avalon Way for dinner.

The West Seattle Herald reported on the production here.

DeLuise visited Friday night and Gould came on Saturday.

Co-owner and Bar Manager Mary Palmer shared the photos of their visits and said, "First, David DeLuise (Dom DeLuise's son!) came in with a large party for Ron Leamon's birthday party. Ron is a friend of ours and he also sewed our curtains for us at the restaurant. Anyway, the party was a big success and much fun was had by all.

Last night Elliott Gould came in, again with Ron and his partner Gerard. They sat and had fresh blue marlin ceviche, nettle flatbread, a cheese/olive/hazelnut platter, and fried four cheese ravioli. The three of them loved the food and stayed for over two hours. Elliott was very kind about taking a photo with Deborah and me."

One of the new wayfinding kisoks, the West Seattle Herald told you about first, sponsored by FeetFirst and being installed around West Seattle, attracted the attention of someone with a waggish sense of humor on Beach Drive s.w. in the 4400 block. The kiosks, when complete will feature the art of well known local artists Paul Sorey and Mike Raney

It's true that after a cold winter and a record cold month of April, the roads are suffering and Beach Drive seems to suffer more than most.

But the City of Seattle does have people out taking care of the potholes as rapidly as possible. It's a never ending task since the natural processes of erosion never stop.

But you can see a pothole map that shows you the status of pothole repairs all around the city here.
You can report a pothole here.

The West Seattle High School baseball team came out to wash cars like crazy at Swedish Automotive on 35th s.w. For $10 you got your car washed AND got some FREE Mariners tickets.

Some stories are hard to beat.
 
In our family, the story of how our Dad climbed Mt. Hood in tennis shoes when he was 18 is one of those. We know it is true because we have a photo of a bony young guy in goggles at the summit. I suppose it could have been faked, staged on Rocky Butte near his Portland home. But enough details have emerged to convince his five sons that he really did it.
 
That was in 1938.
 
In 1961, I had my own parallel adventure on a much smaller scale but in some ways just as perilous and in retrospect, kind of crazy, as young men sometimes can be.
 
We were wearing suits and it was Thanksgiving. There were four of us, all from Highline High School, buddies and in our senior year. I don't remember why we were wearing suits and London Fog raincoats. It may be because  it was raining. Our shoes were polished, our hair trimmed and we looked like proper gentlemen.
 
That seemed like a good time to head out in the early evening, after a big dinner, and climb the Space Needle.
 

The West Seattle Wildcat and Highline Pirates played a game of high school baseball on Saturday, April 30 at 4 p.m. – standard procedure for this time of year.

What made the game unique was the venue as the teams and their families were allowed free admission and use of Safeco field in exchange for selling 10,000 Mariners tickets, according to a Safeco employee.

The atmosphere
The crowds were about evenly split at 60 each, West Seattle fans gathering along the first base line and Highline along the third, giving everyone the chance at seats generally reserved for those unaffected by the economic downturn.

Not only were the boys given the opportunity to stand on the same mound as Felix Hernandez and cover the same impeccably manicured outfield as Ichiro, but they were given the big league treatment with camera coverage of the game broadcast to the jumbotron screen and live commentating. Each batter’s name was broadcast over the PA system as they came in for some swings followed by “lets-get-fired-up” music thumping as they took to the plate.