Downtown Delights

We arrived home from our three-day stay in Seattle at 9:30pm Sunday evening, so today's blip covers only the half-hour urban walk we took in the Capitol Hill area of Seattle, just above the downtown core, with my children, M and W, after brunch this morning.

You might not, at first glance, consider my photo choice today delightful -- but if you follow the curve of that railing around, and look just above it, you'll see a brightly colored area. And if you were to walk up to that area, this explosion of color is just one segment of the mural painted there. At the other end is this wonderful portrait, and in between are more bees and honeycomb.

The 140-foot mural, painted on the side of Capitol Hill Housing's Villa Aparments last year, is by artist Derek Wu, replacing a wall of graffiti. You can read more about it, and the students from the Northwest School who helped create it and what they learned in the process, in this interesting article.

Just below the mural is the Plymouth Pillars off-leash dog park, with fantastic views of downtown Seattle, where I snapped this colorful dialogue between two dog owners -- my "runner-up" blip.

Urban architecture enthusiasts may enjoy my shot of some of the high-rise condominiums and hotels near the mural and park, as well as the Convention Place Station, part of downtown Seattle's Metro Transit Tunnel, with five convenient underground stations for buses and light rail in the downtown core. (Intrepid city travelers that we are getting to be, we took a bus from the Convention Place Station to Bellevue this afternoon to visit our grandchildren, their parents, and their aunt before returning home on the train.)

We stayed on the 10th floor of the 39-story blue building on the left side of the "my shot" photo link above. It's a certified "green" building, with many energy-saving features. The first 17 floors house the 346-room Hyatt at Olive 8 Hotel; 229 condominium homes are situated on the upper 22 floors.

We're already looking forward to another visit to Seattle and its myriad blip opportunities!

(See more of the mural -- and congratulate Phil on his 1095th blip -- here!)