Jury Duty

I spent the end of May and beginning of June in downtown Seattle on jury duty in King County Superior Court. We were hearing a civil case. Washington State's Department of Social and Health Services was being sued by four siblings - foster children who had been abused for five and a half years in two separate foster care homes. I've linked a news web site about the case to the title "Jury Duty" above. It made me very sad to think that while those kids were living in terror, I was blithely walking my dog at the beach.

For a while I thought maybe I would write a longer account of the trial and post it over on my Personal Blog. But I've decided that I need to move on and you don't need to hear the gory details.

The afternoon I finally got home, I grabbed my stuff and went out for a two hour walk. Needless to say, after nearly four weeks of not walking much, I got some pretty bad blisters.

Below are some of the photos I took during my low tide, Sunday afternoon walk in early June. I have finally had some time to edit and post them.

People










Places








And Things

Glorious Day!

I have lived in the Alki neighborhood for a long time. I hate to admit that for many years I never took the time to walk the beach during the June low tides. And before I knew it, summer was gone and so was the opportunity to walk the beach. I always had one excuse or another: babies, yardwork, artwork, pet care, housework, exercise. Taking a couple of hours off to enjoy the sand, water and sun seemed irresponsibly frivolous. Finally a couple of years ago, I decided that I was going to take advantage of the low tides no matter what.

So today, despite ten loads of laundry piled in the basement, no food in the house, a dog that hasn't been properly walked in three weeks (I don't take him on the beach with me), and a house and yard that could use A LOT of attention, I decided to give myself a break.

I took my "good" camera and went out to walk about noon. Low tide was scheduled for a little after one pm. When I walk the beach at low tide, I have to time it just right. I start at the Alki Bathhouse and head out to Duwamish Point. By the time I get there I hope it is just about low tide. I hang out on the beach below Luna Park for a while and then turn around and head back toward Alki.

If I'm not mistaken, low tide lasts about twenty minutes. Then the tide starts to roll back in. I want to be careful that I don't get caught in some of the really deep pools between the exposed sandbars. I'm not really afraid of being trapped, since I'm a good swimmer and the shore is so close. But I don't want to get totally wet either.

During my walk today, I got a pile of really good photos. But I don't have time to edit them now and won't for a few days at least. It's back to downtown tomorrow morning. Later in the week I hope to be able to reveal the mystery of my disappearance from Alki for the last three weeks.


These are Rachel and Alex's sandals. As soon as they saw me snapping this photo, they ran up to me to make sure I got their names. These kids sure know how to start marketing themselves early. Sorry, I'm not the PI or the Seattle Times.