Discovery Park

See http://www.seattle.gov/parks/trails_detail.asp?id=310 if you can enlarge this enough you can see the "Loop Trail" which is the 2.5 mile trail we choose. 

This is a very hilly trail, up and down.

 Seattle's "golf ball' in Discovery Park is a radome, a giant, geodesic dome that houses a radar. It was once part of the country\'s Nike Hercules air defense system of missiles and radars in the 1950s. While most of the structures have been torn down, this golf ball still stands as a relic of the Cold War. It now serves as a back up to the Seatac Airport Radar.

A few Apple Trees about.

Ft. Lawton began in 1896 to defend Seattle See  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lawton

Remarkable December Day

During World War II, at least 20,000 troops at a time were stationed at Fort Lawton, with more than 1 million troops passing through both before and after the war. It was the second-largest port of embarkation for US forces and material to the Pacific Theater during the war.

Huge Flock of Robins were all around

A familiar sight especially as you get closer to Christmas see:  http://youtu.be/Ym9Sw4knUBI

This tree is host to moss and Ferns

We topped off our hike at Disconvery Park with a Dinner at Palisade Resturant at Elliot Bay Marina
see: http://palisaderestaurant.com/

Great Elliot Bay and Seattle views

The Admiral met a woman at her hairdressers that is married to a Alaska fisherman, this is where they prefer to eat Seafood.

Boats, Sunsets and great food...my kind of place.

The city light up just after sundown.

On this night there is a Christmas Boat Parade of Lights but it is getting to cold out to wait around but we got a few pics of the participating boats preparing in their slips.

Discovery Park

We had a very Sunny Saturday December Day to spend and thought we needed to make good use of a "Sun Day" and decided to spend it outside at Discovery Park. Then we planned to make use of a gift card our daughters family gave us to one of Seattle's better restaurants, Palisades on the way home. December was starting out unusually warm but we felt we might be in for a much more traditional Seattle winter since this December was much wetter than last years when almost no rain fell. Atmospheric Rivers other wise known as "Pineapple Express" bringing tropical moisture all the way from Hawaii to the Pacific NW ruled the December weather patterns. This kept highs in the 50'-60's even though it is wetter.
We had been to Discovery Park once on a visit to Seattle years ago. Russell, our son in law,  hobby is hiking. He Hikes the regions Mountain trails whenever he gets a chance. Russell led our first visit to Discovery Park, and we parked on one of the roads leading into the park and immediately he found a primitive trail leading down a considerable hillside to the North Beach where the West Point Light House is. It was a wonderful day and we were having a great time exploring the park but what goes down must hike back up.  Even though the Admiral and I was in  pretty good physical shape you always use a different set of muscles for new types of physical activities. We were Texas Flat Landers compared to the terrain in Western Washington where you are either always going up or down a hill or mountain side. Any flat land around here is man made. We worked hard to keep up with our 30 something kids pace and hiked right back up that hill with the primitive trail.

We parked right next to the parks education center and saw there was a less primitive trail called the Loop that was 2.5 miles long so we thought that should be just right for us. You still are hiking up and down lots of grades but the trail is sometimes paved and always wide enough for 4 persons to pass by at the same time. We followed the signs and found our way through the woods and eventually to Ft. Lawson where there are huge wide open spaces. There were several buildings there but we saved that for another day and headed toward the water as the trail continued around. I wanted to visit the light house again since I often sail near West Point on the Capri 22's at Windshare.
We walked down for a considerable time and we came across a small paved road that led down to the Beach and Light house but again we had a hike back up and we wanted to be sure to make our Dinner date before sunset. So we skipped the trail to the light house saving that for another day and the rest of the trail back to out car was through the wooded areas of the park.
I am only now learning about the interesting History of Fort Lawson. If you are interested in such it has a somewhat colorful history see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lawton
We finished the evening at Palisades, a gift from our Daughter and Son in Law. More than one knowledgeable local has recommended this resturant as The place for seafood in Seattle. It comes complete with boats and Awesome Sunsets.