Tag Archives: benches

Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden

17269785011_14d7690b37_oThe lovely Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden is only about 30 minutes from my house, but I hadn’t heard about it until today. It is a lovely 10 acre botanical garden which primarily features northwest flora. There is also a small Japanese Garden, a water feature and benches.  Close to the SeaTac runway, there were many passenger planes overhead, but it just seemed like another interesting part of the garden. Though I was worried about rain, it turned into a lovely day. My favorite part, beside the hummingbird, was the amazing gate! More info can be found here.

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Wards Lake Park in Lakewood

The city of Lakewood has 10 parks and one game refuge and today I stopped at  Wards Lake Park at 2716 84th St South. I found it by following small sign off of S. 84th Street. This 20-acre park is a little oasis in a relatively built up part of town. It includes Wards Lake, a fishing pier, playground, picnic shelter and trail system. The lake doesn’t look conducive to swimming, but it is great for fishing and is very pretty. There is a short trail that leads back to some picnic tables and benches. And for the younger set there is a nice play area. I saw children playing on the big toys, an older guy fishing and a young couple getting to know each other.

Norton Memorial Park, Tacoma

The other day when going to King’s Books, I noticed a delightfully compact city park. Yes, I must have been by it hundreds of times, but that day I really took note of it. And today in the freezing cold I went back to take some photos. The triangularly shaped park is located at 99 Tacoma Avenue South and fronts on Tacoma Avenue South, Saint Helen’s and South 1st. It has been around since 1927 and was named in honor of Percy Dunbar Norton, a Tacoma businessman and city counsel member who died at the age of 44 in April of 1900. The small park includes a commemorative column, a concrete bench, a couple of planters, an old fashioned street light and a bright blue street clock from 1993, which was not keeping accurate time.

More information about the park, including a photograph from 1927 can be found here.
http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?un=1&pg=1&address=99+TACOMA&stemming=&phonic=&fuzzy=&maxfiles=

Small parks like this one are often called pocket parks, as defined here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_park