No really. It's true. According to the League of American Bikes (via the Cascade Bicycle Alliance in our case), Washington is the most bicycle friendly state in the union. According to the LAB, "Washington’s model bike laws, signed and mapped statewide bike route network, dedicated funding from the state for bicycle related programs and projects, and an active statewide bicycle advisory committee" are reasons that the state earned top honors above Wisconsin, Arizona, Oregon (numbers......

Golden Sunset at Golden Gardens courtesy of Seattlest Flickr Photographer Slightly North My Ballard is covering the search for a missing local swimmer at Golden Gardens. One swimmer had already been rescued from the water and taken to the hospital to be treated for hypothermia. As of 11 p.m., the Coast Guard and rescue divers were still looking for a second missing swimmer. UPDATE: The search for the missing swimmer has been called off. A......

"Golden Gardens Beach 2" by seattlerayhutch45 This shot reminded us of a wonderful short story by Cyrus Colter titled "The Beach Umbrella," wherein a man longs for the community and friendship that seems to take place under other people's beach umbrellas. If only he had an umbrella of his own, he figures, his life would be full of laughter and community, too. We won't tell you what happens as the story evolves, because we think......

Not that kind of bathhouse. Our sources tell us that Governor Gregoire will be doing a boat tour of Puget Sound tomorrow and Friday in her quest to remind people she's a better option than Dino Rossi. Her Seattle stop will be at the Golden Gardens Bath House at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon. Not really the greatest time for a high-yield political rally, considering it's Way Out There, and people work and all. But it's a......

"Golden Gardens Beach 1" by seattlerayhutch45 A celebration of the wonderful weather we've been having. Pay a visit to our Seattlest Flickr Pool for more sunny images.......

We feel you, Seattle. It was so nice to have three whole days of sunshine, and now here we are, looking out the window, wearing a hoodie, mourning what had appeared to be a good solid spring. But it's coming back (sort of) this weekend, just in time for Sasquatch and Folklife. Just in time for BBQs and volleyball games at parks. Three days off (four if, like our office-working friends, you're taking Friday......

We spend a lot of time here at Seattlest bemoaning the fate of bicycle riders in Seattle. It's a hard-knock life for us, we like to say, living in a city that likes to tout itself as green to the nth degree while also putting forward a Master Bike Plan that leaves something to be desired in almost every neck of the woods. Well, on Saturday, when the weather was spectacular, we took a nice,......

Since this week's storm didn’t claim any lives in Seattle, most of us tend to think of the damage in terms of washed out images of I-5 and that Subaru in Golden Gardens. The cost of reconstruction and flood repair will surely be depressing but not as depressing as the quotes from some of the farmers that had to watch hundreds of their own animals die. "I saved as many as I could," Osborn said.......

This morning's commute is pretty bad, but as this rain is expected to last well into the evening, by then Duck Tour may be the only way to navigate the city. Already (as of 8:35 am): --Amtrak service between Eugene and Vancouver, B.C. is suspended because of mudslides. --Sounder service was also cancelled. --Most highways and roads on the coast are closed. --Stevens Pass is closed. --Westlake Ave. in Seattle is blocked between Galer and......

Seattlest grew up in a tiny town you've never heard of in Central Florida, where a real sandy ocean beach (on which you could drive) was 20 minutes in one direction, and a crystalline gulf beach was an hour and a half in the other. Now that we live in the Land of the Rain, we wait all year for weeks like these, when the sun is high and hot, the breeze is soft and......

This is gonna be one of those gorgeous evenings that Seattleites suffer through the fall, winter and "spring" for, but we won't be enjoying it. Roast a marshmallow at Golden Gardens for us, because we'll be in our basement watching the All-Star Game. Seattle fans--at least the ones that we know--get especially revved up for the All-Star Game, and we think it's because, growing up, it was the one time that Mariners got any national......

--Does the ability to access Golden Gardens by foot even exist? Great question. --Shit flowing up and down the aisles of a transatlantic flight made one passenger feel "physically abused and neglected." --The line has been drawn. --In related news, tomorrow is "Dump the Pump" day. --Dawdy posts a short follow-up to yesterday's rant on Web 2.0. -- An old SNL parody commercial invoked in discussion of Seattle's Christian Muslim Episcopal priest. -- "Less......

Get outside, do it now. It is going to be in the seventies the next few days, and after about Wednesday, well, bad things. There is a ridge of a high pressure which is bringing with it these warm, wonderful spring temperatures. However, lurking off shore is a ridge of high pressure which will be providing all of us with cool, rainy, gray days for a while. We even heard the weatherman on KOMO refer......

Where is it? We were at Golden Gardens yesterday and it was packed, but packed is not the problem. You kind of want it to be packed unless there's absolutely no space to stake out as your own with a blanket or towel. It's the parking. REI had some kind of event that privatized half the upper parking area, so things were pretty dire. We'd given up and were headed home before a divine intervention......

Not only is it Friday, but the sun is out and it's warm as hell. Sorry, boss, but it's looking like a loooong lunch day. It's probably too late to skip the office altogether today and suddenly "not feeling 100%" when it's 60 out is not going to fool anyone, but if you have the brown nose points in the bank this is a great day to cash them in. You saw the forecast earlier......

Staunch defenders of Christmas manned the wall this weekend in Westlake Center in an effort to turn back the heathen hordes, a move Seattlest likens to trying to stop the tide from rising up the beach at Golden Gardens with a Maginot Line of sand. The enemy isn't the silly complaints that lead to the sillier municipal renamings of trees, parties, etc, but that's probably a more winnable fight than the actual "problem." The "problem"......

Seattle summers are a time for frolicking and play, while the gray winters here are well-suited for quiet reflection. The transition is an all too quick one, since the Seattle autumn lasts all of a month, more of a switch than a season. This weekend is a good time to bid farewell to blue skies and welcome the fall by helping out the less fortunate before beginning your winter hermitage. Saturday the folks at Innerflight......

You may have gone to Golden Gardens over the weekend and witnessed the new extensive screening process that each visiting car is subjected to upon entering the parking lot. If you didn't get there over the long weekend you may be planning to take advantage of the 70 degrees and moderate sun this coming week. "Do you have any firewood with you?" "No." "Ok." It's not exactly the third degree. Seattlest has word that if......

There are plenty of options begging for your attention this coming weekend. It might rain, it might not, but honestly could you care less? Seattlest found these little lovelies tucked up in the cliffs on the Palisades/Ranger Creek trail near Mt. Rainier this past weekend. We couldn't appreciate the typical staggering view, hunkered up in the clouds as we were, but lo and behold spring had sprung right in between our toes! Take a......

Perhaps you never told your little brother that it was you who hid gum in his hair and stuck his hand in warm water while he was sleeping. He's always thought it was your older brother Paul, and you've let him think that since 1976. We've all got something to come clean about. Even Election Director Dean Logan might just eventually spill about those mysteriously missing ballots. We say, let it out, no point in......

It may not be as warm as it looks, but with sunny weather like this, who cares about whether it's snowing in the mountains (it isn't)...or even about global warming. It's beautiful outside and Seattlest is all for appreciating the moment. Here are a few ideas to help you move away from your computer screen: Go to a Park Who wouldn't want to be near the water on a day like today? It took us......