Joe Becker is a Pacific Northwest photographer whose blog I just recently started following. His latest post announced that he got a contract with a publisher for his Scenic Seattle book, which is a guide to photographing the Emerald City. Currently the first edition is a self-published ebook available for sale through his blog. Due to the publishing contract he will be removing it from sale in a few days.
Tangent
PlayGarden – A Place for Non-Robust Children
Seattle Children’s PlayGarden has opened in south Seattle. I didn’t read all the details, but it looks like it’s a joint project between a non-profit organization and the Seattle parks department. The play areas and gardens are designed to accommodate children of all abilities, with disabled children being the target population.
Since it’s pretty far from where I live and I don’t have kids, I won’t be doing a preview. But I figured some of my readers might be looking for something like this. The park is open to the public during daylight hours all year long, except when their summer daycamps are in session.
YouTube Video about PlayGarden
Those Other Washington Parks
One of the wonderful things about living in the Seattle area is that you never have to go more than a few miles to see spectacular scenery or interesting wildlife. But we all get a hankering at times for something a bit more wild, or just a different vista. To make things a little easier on the pocketbook, both Washington State Parks and National Parks offer free days each year. Both park systems also offer free or reduced rates to the disabled, military, and senior citizens.
National Parks
Free days remaining in 2015:
August 25th – National Park Service Birthday
September 26th – National Public Lands Day
November 11th – Veterans Day
Park pass information – including how to get a free pass for those eligible.
State Parks
Free days remaining in 2015 are the same as national parks.
Discover Pass information – the pass is needed for day use in state parks.
Seattle Parks Rank 9th
ParkScore recently released their annual rankings and Seattle came in at number nine. Seattle’s score is 71.5 out of 100, which looks low until you see that Minneapolis as the #1 ranked city has a score of only 84. We received four out of a possible five park benches. There’s some room for improvement, but still, not bad for the 20th largest city in the country!
ParkScore is a project of The Trust for Public Land, and the ParkScore index measures how well the 75 largest U.S. cities are meeting the need for parks.
Park Preview 