Given that the forecast called for (relatively) insane temperatures (for Seattle) this past weekend and given NBC's furious masturbation over Michael Phelps these last few days, we decided we needed to go somewhere else and cool off. Thus, we ended up in the always tasteful and serene seaside hamlet of Ocean Shores. It has been a lot cooler here. Saturday was nicely misty and foggy. The full sun of cheerful Aberdeen yielded to an......

The word on the tubes is that a 6th human foot was found floating in British Columbia this morning. Courtesy of Boing Boing, who has a connected reader in B.C.: I work for a newspaper in Campbell River, B.C. on Vancouver Island. Another foot was found here this morning at Tyee Spit (the second this week!). What is up, Canada? Even if it is just some strange current from the middle of the ocean......

Another human foot has been found floating in British Columbia. And, unlike the four before it, this one is a left foot. The B.C. Coroner is working to determine if this foot is a match for any of the right feet that have washed ashore. Still, just like the fourth foot, authorities are reluctant to declare that any of the floating feet are related. The Mounties also say there is no evidence that the......

BEACHES: If you visit the Seattle Aquarium tonight, you can sign up to be a volunteer Beach Naturalist this summer. What is a Beach Naturalist, you ask? You get training, and then spend three or more summer days educating visitors about beach ecology and beach etiquette. Sites include Des Moines, Seahurst Park, Lincoln Park, South Alki Beach, Golden Gardens, Carkeek Park, and Richmond Beach. They prefer if you live near a beach, but they......

First it was severed feet washing ashore, now it is empty bottles of rat poison. The bottles, which have thus far been empty, have been washing up on Washington shores since last fall. That spring trip to the coast is sounding less appealing every day. The Department of Ecology warns people to stay away from any silver one-liter canisters with red or white caps, that are found on the beach. (No word on what to......

Today is "BC Day" in Canada, commemorating the moment of victory when Canadians finally liberated themselves from the Indians. Because of this unfair "three day weekend" tactical advantage, Canadian surfer and skateboard punks swarmed Westport to such a degree that the Seattle contingent was pitifully outnumbered and forced to surrender their beaches like Germans on D-Day. Some important Canadian factoids learned on this trip: *Canadians from Vancouver look down on Canadians from Surrey, not unlike......

Mariner big leaguers are feeling good with the team at 13 games over .500, but if they belonged to an M's farm team, they'd be expecting a pink slip. Future Mariners, you see, aren't supposed to try to win too much. So says Greg Hunter, the Mariners' director of minor-league and scouting operations:A good gauge is .500. You want your clubs to be somewhere around there, whether it's a few games above or below. You......

Seattlest just got back from a road trip through some of the hottest places in the country. Our partner's mother's souped-up SUV clocked the temperature at Lake Mead, NV, to be 130 degrees on July 5th, so we had to chuckle when we arrived home to a rash of weather that makes our fellow Seattleites whine and head to the Homo Depot for a new window-unit a/c. Please don't do that. Really. Each year,......

Not far from Niagara Falls, a single traffic light allows measured momentum through the farming township of Wainfleet, Ontario. Head a little further down the road and you're at the white sand beaches of Lake Erie. Having grown up in such winsome surroundings, it's no wonder singer/songwriter Tony Dekker's musical project Great Lake Swimmers sounds like a journey through the heart of Canada's stunning landscapes. We encountered Great Lake Swimmers' sweet sounds only a few......

Seattlest has a vision of our coming fall. We need to get away. We need some sun, some beaches and some babes. We need a cruise with our affably fat buddy. Man, everyone's so friendly on this cruise. Seems like every guy wants to get close to us - And we were worried about how we'd fit in with the cruising set. Pshaw! Wait, where are all the babes. We saw that bikini team out......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say......

Governor Gregoire, apparently unaware that her job could be taken from her in two and a half years, is leaving it up the state's National Guardsmen whether they want to patrol the US-Mexico border. President Bush is sending 6,000 National Guard members to the Southern border to end the problem of people entering the country illegally. Showing the kind of bold decision-making that caused her to get outpolled by John "My position on the war......

Ok, this is a friendly interview, yes, and pretty straightforward. The People's Waterfront Coalition has a pretty straightforward approach to our problems downtown, though, and we wanted to give them an opportunity to talk. Who is the People's Waterfront Coalition and how did you come together? The People's Waterfront Coalition launched in April 2004. The group was co-founded by Julie Parrett, landscape architect; Cary Moon, planner / urban designer; and Grant Cogswell, monorail grassroots activist.......

The snorkling adventures that Manuel Wanskasmith has been documenting over at his Buffoonery site have Seattlest an even darker shade of green with envy. Manuel and friends have been diving at various Lake Washington beaches and marinas in search of... In search of what we don't exactly know, but that's exactly why we're so interested in what's down there. From his most recent dive: I also found a beer bottle with a message stuffed inside.......

Alright, yesterday when we mentioned the abundant life occupying the waters at area beaches we didn't mean to come off as wildlife-phobes. Herons, sturgeon, hell, harbor seals: we'd love to come across that kind of beach life. Even jellyfish are fun to spot in the shallow water as long as you can avoid stepping on them. Anything with "fecal" in its name we're not that into, though, and ditto that for random floating corpses in......

That hot weather we've all been clamouring for finally hit Seattle over the weekend, but not before two area beachs could slam their doors in your face. Gene Coulon Memorial Beach and Matthews Beach tested a little too positive for fecal coliform and both been closed to swimmers. The Parks Department manages about twenty beaches around Lake Washington, but so far only the two listed have been closed. Friendly scientists, please feel free to step......

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......

After two weeks of continuous rain, it seems as though summer is suddenly upon us. Time for the beach! Seattlest took a dip in Lake Sammamish over at Idylwood Beach tonight, and found everything but the schlep to the Eastside to be perfectly pleasant. The shore is sandy (unusual--you won't find this at Matthews or Magnuson), the water temperature brisk but not heart-stopping, and our only complaint was a close encounter with a jackass motorboat.......

Seattleites looking forward to one of the region's great eats might be disappointed this spring as razor clam season on the peninsula is in jeopardy. The Oregon coast has already waved the white flag in the northern, central and southern regions due to high levels of domoic acid found in the shellfish there. Clams from the April 23-25 dig are said by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to be safe, but Seattlest......