Tim Ceis from the mayor's office recently sent a letter to Northwest Seaport basically telling them to get their rotting piece of Wawona the hell out of Paul Allen's park ASAP or it's going to be hauled out to the middle of Lake Union and shot. The Wawona is that giant hull near the Armory and Center for Wooden Boats at the southern tip of Lake Union, tucked away behind the Swiftsure. If you've been......

Maybe it started when we found out the Urban Hike domain is actually owned by a Pittsburgh group. Pittsburgh, we thought. Huh. In a burst of civic rivalry, we decided to go hiking around Seattle. (Also, blogging makes you fat.) For the first time out, we decided to walk around Lake Union, because it's much, much smaller than Lake Washington. We prepared for the hike by knowing, roughly, where Lake Union is and walking......

Seattlest read the book "Zodiac" by sci-fi author Neil Stephenson recently. The story is a sort of eco-thriller about an activist/scientist/environmentalist- type who goes around finding and plugging little pipes that drain toxic materials into the bay in Boston. Intrigue ensues and it's a decent book which you should read. That's fiction, though, right? Well, we bring it up because it was reported today that Swedish Medical Center has been discharging sewage into Lake Union......

“With the possible exception of Imperial Venice,” says Sunset magazine, Seattle is "the most boat-obsessed city in the history of the world." And among the seemingly hundreds of other festivals going on this weekend in Seattle is one to celebrate this obsession: the 29th Annual Wooden Boat Festival in South Lake Union Park. The park, which continues to see daily growth and development, is the long-time home to the Center for Wooden Boats. The center......

All we needed was one day of sun, wind, and no precipitation and our thoughts turned waterwards: it's time to think about sailing. Last summer we joined the SailNOW! program at the Center for Wooden Boats on South Lake Union. For $270 we got one classroom lecture, a group sail, and a bunch of small group lessons (generally two to three students per instructor). By the end of it we were feeling fairly competent, although......

Seattlest learned to sail at the Center for Wooden Boats' sailing school last summer, and en route to each lesson we tromped past the work-in-progress Pirate. Since we are plum ignorant about wooden boats, the Pirate inspired us to think things like, "Wow, uh, that one looks kinda un-done." Turns out, Pirate was a famous 1920s racing boat designed by a famous boat designer. Pirate is now "done" and will be re-christened as part......