We’re giving thanks, walking together, and inviting you to come along!
Walk with us on Thanksgiving, November 28, along and around Lake Union in Seattle or wherever you are in gratitude for our communities and for the Native people on whose land we walk. Wherever you walk, think of of us — a wide-spread mesh of people, dispersed but walking together. We need each other more than ever. Drop me an email or add a comment here with a note or photo telling where you are.
(Please see the previous post here for more history and background.)
For Lake Union walkers
If you’re walking with us at Seattle’s Lake Union, we will start at 11:00 am at the Center for Wooden Boats at the south end of the lake. (Parking is right there.) Once gathered, we will walk counterclockwise along the east side of the lake. Please RSVP by email or by adding a comment here to let me know you’re coming so we’ll know to expect you.
Waterway 15— a second “official” place to gather this year
Waterway 15 is an artist -designed park located on Lake Union at its north end. We’re planning to arrive at Waterway 15 between 12:30 and 12:45. If you get there first, please wait for us. Or feel free to join us there if you want a later start. (More about how to find Waterway 15 is below.)
In most of the past 14 years we’ve been making this walk, we’ve stopped here for a “photo op.” See above for sample photo ops from 2014, 2018, and 2019. This year I decided to learn more about where we’d been standing all these years. Waterway 15 was designed in 192 by artist Elizabeth Conner with landscape architect Cliff Willwerth to honor the layers of history at this site. You can learn more here.
A highlight of the park from the beginning is a beautiful curved wooden bench fabricated at the Center for Wooden Boats that has often been the backdrop for our photos. You can see it peeking out from behind some of the walkers in the photos above. I visited the park recently and was disappointed not to see the bench. Apparently it is currently being restored. It may be back when we walk. The park is also full of small discoveries – recycled bricks carrying messages and ceramic tiles with historic photos, including one tile with a photo of the guiding spirits of our walk, Tleebuleetsa and Cheshiahud, purportedly the last of the Duwamish people to live by the lake. (See the previous post here for more information about them.)
Please join us!
P.S. Finding Waterway 15
In recent walks, Waterway 15 has proven hard to find. Here’s a map and instructions and photographs that might help:
If you miss the first way down, try this:
