Dreamy Alki

Alki beach is a gem! Being there sometimes feels like being in a dream. Sunny and breezy and filled with the sounds of chatter and lapping water. The views of downtown Seattle from Alki are particularly grand. 

Seattle looks a bit like a magical kingdom when viewed from the shore of Alki beach. It looks like a place full of glorious, untold possibilities. You can stand on that shore and look and imagine all the people in the buildings and walking underneath the buildings and traversing the streets looping around and past the buildings. Thousands and thousands of different people with different ideas and thoughts and histories and goals. All of them together in that magical city.

A tiny little tree mutated by the wind so it became small and crooked, but strong and determined.

There's a little ferry in the distance. Just rocking a long taking people to where they need to go.

This looks like a nice place to have a picnic. A friend and I were in a similar spot in Alki once many months ago when we saw a seagull swoop into the water and capture a crab. Then, the seagull munched on one leg before flying off to conquer some other unsuspecting sea creature. Poor crab was dumbfounded on the dock, no knowing what to do. My friend and I went over to inspect. The crab tried to waddle back toward the water but was struggling due to missing a leg and general disorientation. We used a fork from our picnic to gently maneuver the crab back into the water. It splashed and plummeted downward. I hope somewhere down in that water is a little nine legged crab scuttling peacefully on the sandy water's bottom.

People probably sit underneath this tree and look out to see and have dreams about becoming sailors. Or better yet, traveling back in time and becoming a sailor. They lean against the trunk of the tree and fall into partial sleep where they have hazy remembrances of past lives. Maybe they were once a young woman with a need for adventure who sneaked her way onto a ship disguised as a man. Through wit and determination she rose the ranks until they were captain of the ship. Maybe they were the sailor who manned the crows next and one day he saw in the distance a sea serpent rising from the ocean depths. Maybe they were a stowaway who through carefulness and quietness safely made it across the great ocean to make a better life on another land.

I bet on this bench love birds sit, holding hands and imaging their futures together. Or grandmothers sit with their grand kids, telling them stories about her own youth. Or a person with a book, relishing the a day spent alone and engulfed in a story while immersed int he beauty of sky and the water and the trees.

This is the stairway the seals take when on the magical full moon, they emerge from the water and turn into humans for just one day.

This is the place you imagine after a winter in Seattle, longing for a beach to sit upon and warm away you woes.

Alki beach is a pretty wonderful place to spend an afternoon.