As a family living in South Lake Union we have many two-hour
recommendations but most involve walking to a park or plaza and one of our
daughter’s favorite restaurants. That’s true too for when I have two hours to
myself and what I often recommend to families I’m photographing.
One evening last week while my wife was working late,
Veronica and I started an adventure to, as she calls it, pokey stick park
(
Denny Park), to play in the recently built toddler playground. It’s a great
space because we almost always meet other parents in the neighborhood there,
the structures are simple and age appropriate and it’s shaded. The bark,
covering the play area, occasionally stabs one or all of us, but that’s a small
price to pay for the benefits of burning toddler energy. The dog park provides
additional entertainment and so do the talking squirrels.
Next we meandered to the meatball place (Tutta Bella) for
pizza and, obviously, meatballs – Veronica loves them, which cannot be
overstated.
Tutta Bella has been very good to us the last few years,
remembering what we like to order and accommodating Veronica with pizza dough
to play with or swizzle sticks. So too has the quesadilla place (
Cactus) the
cookie place (
La Toscanella) and especially the biscuit place (
Serious Pie & Biscuit). The restaurants moved in around the same time Veronica was born
and the people working there have watched her grow as their restaurants have. We’re
grateful to share the community with them. Actually, we send some of them
Christmas cards. Tutta Bella also has a chocolate gelato we eat with the grace of
barnyard animals. It’s good.
Finishing our two-hours, just a few blocks from home, we
stopped to watch a kickball game on the field adjacent to the Discovery Center.
On other days, the three of us might as easily have gone to Lake Union Park to watch seaplanes
and geese, or to one of the courtyards at the Amazon campus to people/dog watch
and drink espresso. We’re happy to watch the neighborhood growing, adding to
the possibilities.
