2026.6.28. Mount Washington + Seattle Pride

6/28, Sunday. Weather forecast is not favorable. Still hoping to squeeze in a short hike, we headed towards Bandera Mt. We hit rain on I-90, so doubled back and parked at Ollalie State Park's Homestead Valley TH. Took the trail to Mount Washington. We started in mist, then fog, then rain. Decided to go to a viewpoint instead of continuing up to Mt. Washington. Here it is (the left photo), a bonafide viewpoint, but no view. Some beargrass, tiger lily. Along the road: foxglove, daisy. This cavenous rock has a natural spout of water in the rock. Maidenhair fern adorned the "ceiling". Some climbing walls in the lower elevation, with anchors on the rocks.

Back to Seattle (and out of the rain) hoping to catch the end of the Pride Parade. Too late, the crowds were leaving. Trash everywhere. Went to Seattle Center. Still a lot of people, dance and band on 2 different stages. A guy walking around completely naked, quite a few wearing strange outfits. Definitely body positive here.

2026.6.27. LA Children's Chorus

6/27, Saturday, 7pm. First time, I ever been inside of Plymouth United Church. Quite pretty, bright and airy. It's a treat to listen to LA Children's Chorus on their tour of the west coast. Today's short program is:

Be Like the Bird                    -- Abbie Betinis
Stabat Mater (1 and 8)              -- Giovanni Pergolesi
Niska Banja                         -- Romani Dance (arr. Nick Page)
Ave Maria                           -- Javier Fajardo
As the Rain Hides the Stars         -- Elaine Hagenberg
Tres Cantos Nativos dos Indio Kraó
This Little Light of Mine           -- tranditional spiritual (arr. Moses Hogan)
I Love You / What a Wonderful World -- Craig Hella Johnson

Today's songs were performed by their concert choir and chamber singers, total ~28 voice, only ~2 boys. The last song was joined by ~12 boys, who will sing more tomorrow at Phinney Ridge neighborhood. They sang like angels. Absolutely wonderful. Wish the concert is longer. Unfortunately, not well advertised, very few people in audience.

This is my first time entering Plymouth United Church, despite of walking by it hundreds of times. Quite airy and nice inside. Rather large too.

Another update, I donated to LA Children's Chorus online with a note to support their tours.

2026.6.21. Puget Sound Concert Opera "Aleko" + "Mavra"; Hot Air Balloons in Seattle Center

6/21, Sunday. 3pm. Another free performance by Puget Sound Concert Opera. Mavra + Aleko.

I don't like Stravinsky's Mavra, except that I like the singer of Mavra. He's very funny. The story is comical and stupid (a boy poses as a maid to get into a girl's house), the music is not memorable.

I really like Rachmaninoff's Aleko. The story is more epic (death, exile, love). The music is melodic. I especially like the base singer of the father, Michael Drumheller. His voice is amazing, and his socks are eye popping. Rachmaninoff wrote this opera at age 19, still a student! What a genias.

I also really like this organization's artistic director Regina Thomas. She speaks of why she picked these works, and a little background of each. She also sang in Aleko in the chorus. During intermission, there was some snack and a drawing.

After dinner, we went to Seattle Center for Seattle Glow (2nd time, but I was oblivious to the first one). When we arrived ~8:15pm, too early. There's a basket to check out. the sponsors of today's spectable had their booths: Seattle Ballooning and Muckleshoot Casino who's handing out casino vouchers. A lot of people, no space to sit down on the lawn anymore. Drones are not allowed. There are a couple of "official drone operators". ~9pm, they started to blow up the balloons. One at a time. Total 7. We weren't able to get closer until much later, when they allow you to go next to the operators. It was very colorful, hot, and festival.

Next year: Sunday June 20th.

2026.6.21. Teneriffe by bus

6/21, Sunday. I have Saturday morning open, decided to take the Trailhead Direct bus to Teneriffe. 3 got on the first bus (not full) ~7:50am. The bus wastes quite some time because it now detours to South Bellevue P&R (new Lightrail station), instead of a quick I-90's Eastgate freeway stop.

It's dry this year. I'm not surprised that the water level of Teneriffe Falls is low. Due to time constraint, I didn't stop here, other than snapping a photo.

The Kamikaze Trail is more defined now - this is what I always take. I don't see why anyone would take the trail to Teneriffe described on WTA's website. No view, steep, but because it's steep, somewhat engaging, not as boring as the regular trail. Here's where you finally get out of the trees and reach the top rock section.

5 minutes later, you are on the summit. Today, I might be the first person here, because I didn't encounter anyone since leaving Teneriffe Falls. Not bad. 3900', ~2 hour 45 minutes. I took off my boots to dry the sweating feet, ate my sandwich, and enjoy the solitude. Hoping the clouds would lift more before I needed to head down. 5 minutes later, a hiker showed up, and asked me to take a photo of him.

I left ~11:20am, went straight down to the parking lot. Met a few hikers along the way. Practically running on the flat part of the trail. I arrived a couple of minutes before the schedule. The parking lot was hot and sunny. One guy was waiting behind the TH signage board for shade. I inquired about the bus. He said he missed the last one. But the next one should be coming soon. It arrived ~5 minutes past schedule. Better than I expect.

The bus made all the scheduled stops, most of them with no one getting onboard or off. I continued on the bus to Capital Hill, and surprised to see that the bus made all the bus stops not even on Trailhead Direct's brochure. I got off at Broadway + Pike. Perfect. Only a block to my destination, with extra time to clean myself up in the restroom.

2026.6.20. Admiral District historical walking tour

6/20, Saturday. 10am, I signed up for a walking tour with the Southwest Seattle Historical Society at the Admiral District in West Seattle. Took a bus, and then walked a mile: not the most convenient destination. The tour just started in front of William Hainsworth's house, now a lot of flowers, but mostly obscured by the hedges. The houses along Admiral street all looked very nice, lawns well kept, Hainsworth family moved here in 1889 when the area was mostly empty, and promoted the real estate.

West Seattle branch of SPL, is our next stop. It's the oldest surviving Carnegie library in Seattle.

Next, Ben Bow Pirate Bar. Too early to go inside. The outside of the building is boring.

West Seattle High School is a handsome building of over 100 years. Some noteable graduates: Frances Farmer – Class of 1931, Jim and Lou Whittaker – Class of 1947.

Right in front of the highschool is a Hiawatha Playfield, a city park. It was designed by the Olmstead Brothers. Our guide specifictly pointed out the large Northern Red Oak tree, designated as a heritage tree.

Our last stop is Sanctuary At Admiral, now the new home of Washington State Black Legacy Institute. It happens that there's an event here in conjunction with Juneteenth celebration city-wide. I, and a couple of others in the tour, stayed on for this talk (very few in the audience). Ryan traces his family migration in his project titled Donaldson Odyssey, using archival microfich, images, and interview with his extended families. Especially about his (great?) grandfather "Big Jim", weekly newspaper Seattle Republican, the coal mining in Roslyn. Very interesting. Afterwards I even chatted with him for a bit. He mentioned that he and others are devising a walking trail in/around Roslyn to showcase the mining and African American heritage.

On returning, I decided to check out this ravine which our group walked over earlier. Nice street: Fairmount Ave SW. Not too many cars. I met only 1 guy. I very much enjoyed walking here, pretty deep. It runs north-south, so unless you walk here ~1pm, there's shade to be have.

The Water Taxi runs more or less on time. A long-ish line. No shade. Hot. Barnacles on the pillars, jelly fish in the water. The boat is comfortable. Plenty wind to cool you off. We speeded past in front of Harbor Island: good view of the shipping cranes. One oddity is this large barge piled on with crushed trash. The view of downtown Seattle is very nice. Will be even better if you take the water tax at sundown.

2026.6.18. Guinness Record attempt

6/18, Thursday, ~900 people sat at tables over 2 city blocks to eat 4 pieces of dim sum together in order to break the Guinness Record for largest 飲茶 gathering

There's a count before and after the "eating". Odd things is that there are vegetarians who ate these mostly pork filled snacks, and there are a few who just came to eat and left without the final count. The judge (on the left photo on the stage to the right) from NY certified the event, and a new record was made. The last record was under 800 and for 2 pieces of dim sum.

The whole China Town /ID is very festival today with music and games.

2026.6.14. Kendall Peak

6/14, Sunday. We were up early, packed up and started hiking ~7:30am. It's going to be hot today, so need to finish before the afternoon sun.

Took Commonwealth Trail, a bit shorter than PCT. Still in shade in the morning, pleasant temperature. Need to cross the creek on this large log, or you can wade the shallow water.

After connected to PCT, zigzag on treed slopes. Certainly more people. Ignore the junction to Red Mountain, which you can see here: red.

Finally broke out of the tree line. View of Rainier to the south, A large talus slope, with nice flat trail (well, it's PCT, almost always better maintained than other trails). Now we that are in the full sun, even though it was only ~10am, we could feel the heat. A lot of people on this trail.

Instead of continuing to Kendall Katwalk, we headed up to Kendall Peak. On the way, saw 2 sisters sitting by a large boulder where the track is very steep. One of them chickened out. Their brother went up by himself. It's really not bad. It has a proper trail. The view on the summit is fabulous. True 360° Took a long break (no shade). Talk to a young lady (mother of 3) climbing alone, who went to Alta Mt yesterday.

On the way back, met Papermoon and Dereck of SOA. Haven't seen them for a couple of years. Back at the car by 1, it was already getting hot. People were still coming in. I hid in my room for the rest of the day. It peaked at 89°F.

2026.6.13. Tronsen Ridge with WNPS

6/12, Friday. We are to meet the WNPS group at the P&R by Hwy2+Hwy97 at 8am on Saturday. So we drove out Friday after work. Found a place to camp on Hwy97 (I couldn't find the location we camped last time). After setting up the tent, walked around, checked out the Old Stamp Mill nearby. There's also a historical marker with description and photos of the long disappeared mining town, right here.

6/13, Saturday. The sun-baked Big Y P&R is rather large. Total 12 people. All more knowledgable about plants than I am. We piled into 3 Subarus. Drove the 3.8 mile Five Mile Rd to the north trail head of Tronsen Ridge. Quite some roses at the parking area.

This year, flowers are disappointing, due to a very dry spring. Still we saw lots of phacilia, some last few balsomroot. Quite a number of tweedies. There are Olympic Larkspurs here too. Collomia with little white flower. Northern Buckwheat with tall flower stalk. The last few flowering bitterroot (but with lovely bright color). Many mariposa lilies.
Alpine Twinpod is a funny one. Where we stopped for lunch has a large population of Prairie Smoke.

The ridge itself is scenic, dry. The best view is to the west: Enchantment Lakes area. Today, with clear hot weather, we saw Adams, Rainier and Baker. One guy in the group was a hunter. He's been to many places with or without trails. Another guy carried a saw, and cut away some branches for easier passage. There are quite a number of blowdowns. According to Ted, who came here during the study weekend, the south trailhead had so many more down trees, that he moved today's hike.

Overall, this is an easy outing, good view, and learned a lot. We drove back on I-90, spent another night at Snoqualmie Pass. Stayed high, anticipating a hot day on Sunday.

2026.6.7. Kachess Ridge - French Cabin - Silver Creek loop

6/7, Sunday. I vetoed O.K.'s suggestion of Zekes Peak as a day hike, on the ground of too much bushwhacking, especially after the rain. I suggested this ~15 mile loop by Kachess Lake. A similar distance to drive (~80 min). It has many peaks, all new to her, so she's happy to bag these. We left home shortly after 6am. There were already 3-4 cars at the TH, only ~7:30am.

First is Mt Baldy, which is a 0.9 mile (1-way) detour (on Domerie Peak Trail) from the main loop. Last time I did this was with V.I., a common friend of ours who perished last May in a climbing accident. We started in dry weather. However, due to the rain yesterday, the bushes were very wet. My pant legs got so wet, that the water was dripping down to my shoes. Then we walked into clouds. Despite of the "most sunny" forecast, it drizzled, and then it snowed. See the frozen trees here on the summit. Thankfully, we both packed rain jackets.

Back to Tara Point, continued north in the fog along Domerie Peaks trail towards Thomas Mountain. It's just a bump on the ridge, all in trees. No view. Further north, the trail deteriated. Very steep at a couple of places, so slow going. Saw a group of young runners coming the opposite direction. Saw a stretch of burnt trees too.

By 1pm, the clouds finally dissipated. However, the ridge is mostly in trees, once awhile on open edge for a good view of Cle Elum Lake. Peak 5049, Peak 5282 have better views to east. On these baldy slopes, quite some flowers.

At the very north end of the loop, we took a short spur to bag French Cabin South Peak. The two of us couldn't decide where is the "peak". All treed, not worth going. On the way, a nice flat meadow, and some glacier lilies. I refused to continue north to the north peak, as it a bit too much out of the way. Took me some effort to convince O.K. to abandon that peak.

We returned to the junction with Silver Creek Tie Trail, and took that to the west. The next peak, French Kiss, is a worthy stop, right by the trail. Open, good view. Plenty ridge to ramble. Easy. Saw another small group on the next bump.

Silver Creek Tie trail goes below French Cabin West Peak (5528'), where O.K. veered off to climb. I found a log and took a break. Took my shoes off, ate another bar, ... Eventually got bored, and went around checking out how the climb would go. Ended up scrambling all the way to the summit. On the way met O.K. on her way down. She waited for me. This is a real climb. Nothing dangerous though. Class 2-3. No real track, just use common sense.

Back on the main trail. Next junction, we turned south (left) onto Silver Creek Trail. This trail mostly followed the creek, even though the creek is not always visible. No views, saw many trilliums, some oregon anenome.

By the time we got back to the car, it was past 6pm. Probably 15-16 miles, 5000'. I drove home. Made noodle for dinner (continue the birthday theme).

2026.6.6. Seattle International Dances Festival

This weekend, my peak-bagging friend O.K. wanted to climb a few peaks in the Teanaways with me to celebrate her birthday. Due to the windy and wet weather forecast for Saturday, she opted for a day hike on Sunday. When she arrived ~2pm, and me with 4 little cakes for her birthday, it turns out that her birthday was quite a few days ago. For entertainment without climbing, I got tickets to 2 events, one at 5pm, one at 8pm.

First we went to Seattle Center to see the Philipine Festival (part of an ongoing Festal weekend series at Seattle Center). I always like colorful costumes.

Saturday turned out to be a fairly nice day, at least in Seattle. Not much rain. 5pm, we walked to Art Love Salon for a talk on Beethoven's 9th Symphony by Kunal Taravade. I really enjoyed it. Taravade is not even in music industry. He uses images and videos to talk about music. Dissecting the aspiration and structure of the 4 movements of this symphony: breaking new grounds. Before the lecture, there was even a small reception. So, dinner was taken care of.

8pm Opening night of the 2026 Seattle International Dance Festival. I've heard of this festival, but today is the first time I attended a performance. This event is organized by Cyrus Khambatta, artistic director and founder of the 6 dancer company Khambatta Dance. This is a week-long event with 2 weekends. Many local small dance groups, and some come far away.
The first work tonight is by Khambatta Dance, titled "404 - Human not found". According to Cyrus, the speech used in the dance is generated by AI. An AI robot dances with human. She's later replaced by a better model.
Second work is a 2-dancer work presented by a Korean group, MYOWNMOVE, titled "Constructed Selves". A strange piece. These two acted like with broken limbs, one dancer uses the other's limb for his/her pose. Interesting.
The last piece is a short work combining the two companies in a new choreography.
I enjoyed these dances. Afterwards, 2 dancers and the choreographers of of each team sat on stage for an Q&A. Needed an interpreter.

2026.6.6. The Great Seattle Fire

6/6 Saturday. 10am, I joined a Seattle history field trip at 1st and Madison, guided by 2 enthusiastic amature historians. In 1889, on the very same day at the same spot, in the ink shop below, the Great Seattle Fire started. We walked to Pioneer Square as the fire progressed. Learned how the city was and how it changed. These 2 guys know a lot.

Some reference given:

• Short Youtube video: https://youtu.be/xtgIu9FOoD8?si=ny6uG5pyVNdqikI2
• New perspective https://issuu.com/kevinmax1/docs/1889_aprilmay2019/s/92388
• City of Seattle Source Documents https://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/exhibits-and-education/digital-document-libraries/the-great-seattle-fire-of-1889

Continued on the same theme. Today MOHAI is hosting a fire day. A bunch of fire trucks are here, where you can check out, and climb onto the driver seat. They have really long flash lights (now you can call these torches), carry power generators.

I visited Virginia V, the historical ferry boat (June, 1922, part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet). You can pipe lake water out of a hose. A nice day on the water.