I've lived in Seattle for about six months now, and people keep telling me that I have to go and visit Fremont. I didn't see what all the fuss was about, really. So what, they have some odd statues and stuff. Well, we went this weekend and it was AWESOME. First off, it was the nicest day we've seen since maybe last summer. Second Fremont is a really cool neighborhood.
I decided that since Fremont isn't too far from my house that I would walk to meet the girls there. My not so far walk was probably closer to two miles, but the sun was shining what what did I care. Anyway, once in Fremont, the first thing we had to find was the signpost (how else would we know where we were going?). The best thing about the signpost is that it gives clear directions to the center of the universe - straight down.
From the signpost, we were able to locate the Fremont Rocket. Yes, that's right, a rocket. It was apparently a piece of space surplus/scrap or something of that sort. Anyway, the thing is attached to a building at one of the street corners. The rumor is, that this is the rocket that brought the original inhabitants of Fremont here from outer-space. Makes sense with all of the quirky shops and art around. When this rocket was first brought to Fremont, it was painted purple. It has since been cleaned up, which I thought was a bit of a bummer. All the same, it's a rocket attached to a building.
From the rocket, we headed north to a "larger than life" statue of Lenin. Not the Beatles star, the Communist dictator. And they were not kidding when they described the statue as larger than life. It is huge. The story goes, this statue was being sold for scrap in a former soviet country after the USSR fell apart. Because the value of the metal was so much greater than the price it was being sold for, a man bought it in hopes of selling it for the metal. Unfortunately, shortly after getting the statue back to the states, the man died leaving his family with this giant statue of Lenin. The family in turn donated the statue to the city of Fremont. A little odd, once again, but the statue is just so big it's hard to believe it ever would have been scrapped.
After seeing Lenin, we went off in search of the Troll (the real reason we'd come to Fremont in the first place). He wasn't hard to find, as the signpost pointed us in the right direction. When we
got there it looked like some film students were setting up for a project so we had to take pictures fast. The students were kind of milling around him though, so they were in all of my shots (just in case you were wondering who the boys were). The Troll wasn't nearly what I had expected - I kept picturing the illustrated trolls from children's stories like the
Three Billy Goats Gruff. Instead what we saw was a much rougher, and a little bit scarier version (note the one eye...). He was still a unique and fun sight - notice the VW bug he is crushing?
From the Troll, we headed toward the water to try to find the statue of folks waiting for the I
nter-Urban - the old transit system in Seattle. On our way there, we ran into a museum, outside of which was a really interesting collection of stuff from a fire engine to some gears (yes, of course mom, I took a picture of the gears). Even the gate around the museum was a work of art. Because we had headed out so early, the museum was not open when we went by. (Who, knowing me, would have thought that I would have been out and about before the museum opened?)
Since we couldn't go into the museum, we continued on our way to find the Inter-Urban statue. It was a pretty interesting sculpture too. What better than a group of statues to keep you company while you wait for the bus? Apparently people in the neighborhood dress the statues up for special occasions (Husky games and whatnot). There is even a website with rules on how the statues can be decorated.
After the Inter-urban, we wandered down to Gasworks Park (see next blog) and then back to Fremont for lunch. For all of you McMenamin's fans out there, lunch was at McMenamin's (yes, they are in Seattle too).
After lunch there was one more site in Fremont to see - Jurassic Park. That's right. Dinosaurs right in the middle of Seattle - well topiary ones at least. When I read that there were topiary dinosaurs, I expected them to be fairly small and carved out of bushes. What we found instead were ivies that had grown around a wire cage. There was one big dinosaur and another much smaller one. Unfortunately we went exploring in the middle of winter, so the big dinosaur was not much to see, but the small dinosaur on the other hand was fully grown in. Another unique piece of art for a unique neighborhood.
We really could not have picked a nicer day to go exploring in Fremont. First the we went on the first nice day in months, and second, Fremont is situated right along the canal so we got to see beautiful blue water, sun, and lots and lots of green.
Gasworks Park was another area in Seattle where I didn't understand what all the fuss was about. So what, it used to be the home of the gas company and now it's a park. In fact, isn't that kind of disgusting? This used to be basically a power plant! But everyone kept talking about it, and saying how neat it was. Mom even sent me an article from her AARP magazine that mentioned it.
The first thing we came upon was a play barn for kids that was put together out of old parts from the original setup. This thing was massive. It was full of gears and pipes and all sorts of other giant pieces of metal. And everything was painted some sort of bright color. The strangest thing was that as we walked into the play barn, it looked like a modeling photo shoot was taking place in there. I suppose there's nothing sexier than a 15 foot gear...
original gasworks company here and there. Just a little further south was Lake Union. What we didn't know about Gasworks before we went is that the park looks south across the water with the most amazing view of Seattle skyline. We watched for a while and got to see boats and even some kayackers float on by. It amazed me how much different this view of downtown was from the view I see every day while taking the bus to work.
After poking around Gasworks for a while, it was time to head back to Fremont (truth is, we were hungry, and had discovered that there was a McMenamin's in Fremont). Once again, we couldn't have picked a better day to explore a new park. And as an added benefit, since it was still the middle of winter, the park wasn't over crowded, though you could see people throwing a frisbee or studying out in the sun.
