Immaculate to Squire Park (about 15 minutes)

Friday, August 19

Sean and I started our urban hike to the p-patches in our area on a lovely warm August evening.

We began at 6:15 pm from Immaculate P-Patch, our home P-patch

Route:  From Immaculate, we went west to 15^th Ave. and walked south, turning right on Spruce and left on 15^th to arrive at the Squire Park P-patch at 14th Ave. and E. Fir Street.

Sights along the way on 15th:  dog wanting to play fetch; sidewalk chalk art; gingko trees planted in a row.  On Spruce:  house completely overgrown with bamboo 

P-patch features:  Fence featuring scenes and people from Seattle's jazz history.  The newly renovated Washington Hall is across the street.

Squire Park to Beacon Bluff (about 20 minutes)

We continued our walk south on 14th Avenue, through the International District.  We cut through the parking lot by the Loving Hut vegan restaurant over to 12th Avenue and continued south and uphill over the Joze P. Rizal Bridge. 

At the top of the bridge, the road curves to the left to become 15th Avenue South.  We walked to the address provided on our list (1201 15th Ave. S.) - and guess what - we could not find a P-patch!


Sights on this portion of the walk:  The looming Amazon/PacMed building; the Lewis Park greenbelt, which has been recently re-planted.

Beacon Bluff to Climbing Water (about 20 minutes)

The next P-patch on our list was the Hawkins P-Patch.   From Beacon Hill, we caught the I-90 Trail, or the Mountain to Sound Trail heading southeast.  This nice walk led us past some lovely public art and a Korean pagoda in Taejon Park.  We followed signs pointing to Rainier Avenue and came out just south of the I-90 freeway running overhead.  We crossed Rainier Avenue to pick up the trail again on the other side, passing an abstract flame-shaped sculpture titled "Sensei" on the way.  The trail led us to Hiawatha Place S., where we turned north, then east, then north on Davis Place S., to arrive after a couple of blocks at the Climbing Water P-Patch, situated next to a batch of ugly beige condos.

P-patch features:  chickens and ducks!  A friendly man introduced us to his poultry, picking them up to show us how tame they were.  The ducks had a small wading pond in their cage.

Climbing Water to Hawkins (about 45 min)

The next leg of our tour was a bit confusing because the Google map we were given showed the next P-patch, Hawkins, to be near MLK and Jackson St, not too far east from Climbing Water.  We went east on Dearborn, then across the playing fields and Judkins Park (which had a nice view of Mr. Rainier), up a trail at the end of the baseball diamond and by the SCCC wood construction shop with its mural at 23rd Ave. and South Lane.  But when we arrived at the point indicated on the map, we found no P-patch and realized the map was incorrect.  The Hawkins P-patch was at 504 plain Martin Luther King Jr. Way, not  MLK South).  We didn't want to walk on busy MLK, so we went west a block to 27th Avenue and proceeded north to the cross street for Hawkins P-patch.

Some sights we saw on the way:  The Autonomia Community Space (600-24th Ave. S.); a cute circular pedal toy; and the anti-green shuttered house with cement lawn.

P-patch features:  Hawkins had cute bird houses on the fence.  A woman gardener introduced me to her dog and told us that there was a problem with rats eating their carrots.

Hawkins to Mad-P and Ida Mia (about 45 minutes)

The next two P-patches were very close together in the area just north of Madison Avenue before the Arboretum starts.  We walked north on 29th for a long time, then zig-zagged a bit to get to 31st Avenue East and Thomas where there's an old farm, the home of the pony and the goat.  The two animals were not out this evening (it was dark by now), but their bucolic aroma was fresh in the air.  The strange city barnyard was decorated with lit Japanese lanterns.

Finding the last two P-patches took a little time in the dark, with staircases and dead ends making the journey a bit confusing.  But by peering at our map under streetlights and following the path of a friendly cat who led the way, we did it.  To get to Ida Mia, you have to go up the stairs at the end of 31st Avenue, then find the address behind 615 32nd Avenue, amidst a lot of construction.  This is the smallest P-patch and has a nice composting station.  Mad-P is at the bottom of the stairs at 30th and Mercer.

Sights along the way: park that has been landscaped to control flooding at 30th & John;   cool rock wall at 1618-29th Avenue; wooden rocket ship at The Valley School.