Spring Hiking - Seattle Style

Good Saturday to you readers.  It's Spring in Seattle.  What that typically means, is if you don't like the weather, you can wait 10 minutes and it will have changed considerably.  Ba-Dum-Dum!  No, actually that wasn't a joke.  Our weather this time of year is more hit and miss than our sports teams, which unfortunately typically trend towards the miss end of the spectrum.

We are all pleased though, that in general it is noticeably warmer here than it was a month ago.  And since it was pleasant and sunny this morning Mrs. LIAYF, Lukas, and I took the opportunity to get our gear together and go for a hike.  Okay, so it was only a short  hike in an urban park close to home, but since we live in Seattle and have old growth forested parks with hills, we at least had the illusion that we were somewhere deep in the forest.

Typical of our schizophrenic weather, it had rained heavily here yesterday and there were several swift streams running by the trails, which happened to be pretty mucky in places.  That, however, didn't deter us as Lukas was extremely excited to be going on his first hike of the year.  He was even convinced that we had to be on the look out for bears, and seemed somewhat disappointed when we told him there probably wouldn't be any in this city park.

After exploring for a while, we were joined by some friends with a boy Lukas' age who were visiting from Colorado.  They actually moved away from Seattle a few months ago, and despite the rain were extremely happy to be back.  They missed the green of the trees and the proximity to the water we have here.  Plus, as they explained it there is just a feel about Seattle that they aren't getting where they are now.  I have to agree.  Where we are is a very nice place to live.

Plus, as the weather continues to warm this Spring, and as Lukas gets older, we will certainly be taking advantage of the abundance of hiking trails that we have nearby, especially in the foothills of the Cascades.  It would be a shame to live in the midst of such natural beauty and not take full advantage of it.

But on this Spring day we were content to hike through our neighborhood park, passing fallen logs and crossing wooden bridges built over swampy areas.  It was a lot of fun and a good warm up for what promises to be Summer of great hiking opportunities.

When we all finally reached the bottom of the hill and exited the park we were once again in a residential neighborhood.  Just a couple of short blocks later, having braved swift streams, fallen logs, mucky trails, and of course bears - and with a threatening looking rain cloud creeping our way we entered a local Starbucks coffee shop for some much needed nourishment and rest.

Because, like most other things in the Emerald City, that's how we also do nature hikes in Seattle.