What’s an inexpensive day trip that allows you and your kids to glide through tunnels, see the nitty-gritty of industrial Seattle up close, and swoop over roads, railway lines and rivers? Not to mention view dozens of pieces of large-scale, kid-accessible art, go underground in a visual “space station” and visit “little Vietnam”?
You won’t find a better bargain than a round trip ticket from downtown Seattle to Tukwila on Sound Transit’s new light rail. Since trains come about 10 minutes apart, you can hop on and off to view the art or stop for lunch or a snack.
I started the journey at the northernmost stop, in the transit tunnel at Westlake Station. The train doesn’t exactly go “choo, choo” as it approaches the platform, but it makes a satisfying whooshing sound accompanied by a clanging bell. Get on quickly, as the doors don’t stay open for long. Trains are spacious, bright and clean with big windows for viewing.
There are three more stops in the transit tunnel: at University Street, Pioneer Square and the International District/Chinatown. Take the escalators or elevators up to see downtown sights.
The train emerges into daylight on the way to the Stadium Station (Qwest and Safeco Fields) and SODO Station. Adults would consider this stretch a journey through the armpit of the city, as the train passes dumpsters, storage bins and chain link fences. But it can be fascinating for kids, who get a close look at huge freeway pillars, pipes, spools of wire, piles of concrete, railcars and dozens of warehouses painted with crazy, colorful murals.
Get off at the SODO Station to see a giant, brightly-colored archway comprised of a carpenter’s level, pencil and square, and to sit on benches shaped like huge tools, including a hammer and screw. If you have a child interested in construction, you might have a hard time tearing her away. It’s a wasteland outside the station plaza, but there is a McDonald’s within walking distance.
From here, the track swoops upward in a long curve toward Beacon Hill, yielding a spectacular view of downtown. It quickly descends under Interstate 5 and plunges into the darkness of a second tunnel. It’s worth getting out at the Beacon Hill Station, in the bowels of the earth. Luminous glass abstractions of sea life (or space creatures or cells?) are suspended in the dark above the platform. The elevator area with its curved greenish ceiling and cool steel walls looks like a space station, and there’s a wall covered with protruding glass balls that look like planets or cells or whatever your child imagines they may be.
If you’re hungry, you’re mostly out of luck. The Red Apple Market across from the station has a wonderful Chinese delicatessen, but there’s no seating. If you’re desperate for a bathroom break, the new Beacon Hill Library is a half block away on Beacon Avenue S.
The train continues through the tunnel, and then emerges into the light at the Mt. Baker Station at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Rainier Ave. S., across from Franklin High School. The station art here is bright splashes of painted acrylic, suggesting a joyful sunrise and some underwhelming ceiling graphics hung with “cobra-head” chandeliers.
My husband and I ate at The Original Philly’s right outside the station – we recommend the moist and savory Philly steak or chicken sandwiches, but the deli hoagies are made from pressed meat. There’s also an Ibex Café on MLK Way and a Starbucks on Rainier Avenue, both within a block. A sign for Wednesday’s Columbia City Farmer’s Market in front of the high school is a disappointment ¬– the actual market is a mile and a half south.
The track stays elevated for several blocks before coming down to earth at grade level in the middle of MLK Way. The Columbia City Station is located in a depressed area about six blocks from the vibrant center of Columbia City. Artwork includes big garden produce baskets on stone pillars and colossal “magnifying glasses” with red filigree patterns of flowers and garden and play objects – see how many your children can find. Within a block in each direction are a 36-foot-tall shovel, a row of steel and glass “garden windows” and stone lions.
A better stop is the lively Othello/New Holly Station, set in the middle of “little Vietnam.” Find half a dozen Vietnamese cafes in King Plaza and environs, as well as a Mexican restaurant, a Chinese seafood restaurant, a deli, a bakery and an Asian supermarket. Stop in at Seattle Chinese Herbs to see huge jars of candied peaches, salted dried plums and lots of mystery items without English labels – not to mention bottles of exotic spices and outsized fungi specimens. Next door is Halu Halo, a Philippine deli and dessert spot where you can get $1.25 swirl ice cream cones and an iced concoction of ice with coconut milk, sweet custard, fried bananas, purple yams, sweet corn, mango ice cream and more (called a “halo,” which means “plethora” in the Filipino language”.) It was yummy.
The artwork here is easy for children to appreciate. If there’s been any rain, you’ll see water flowing from the station roof down a pipe into a convoluted “creek bed.” Have your kids look for incongruous items, including chopsticks, a take-out box, a toy car and a cell phone on the edges of the channel. It’s worth walking a half block south to see larger-than-life African dancing ladies, made of cut black steel “embroidered” with colorful designs on the dresses and head scarfs. A half block north is “Haiku,” a sort of totem pole of the immigrant experience, including a Japanese sandal, a yellow creamsicle, a rice bowl with chopsticks, a dress shoe and a graduation cap.
The Rainier Beach Station is another disappointment, set in the midst of weeds and derelict buildings about five long blocks from the main part of Rainier Beach’s lakefront area. Look up from the station platform to see a brushed-aluminum dragonfly (or plane?) and cross the street to view a series of giant, rusted-steel pears bound with cables and sitting on railroad ties. The new Vegetable Bin Polynesian market kitty-corner from the station has a hot-food deli with seating.
As the train rises above the Rainier Valley on the way to Tukwila, kids will enjoy looking down on crawling freeway traffic, railroads and rivers and then hovering over rooftops and trees. Tukwila Station is the end of the line, although it is scheduled to reach the airport in December 2009.
There’s a panoramic view east to Bellevue and the Cascades Mountains from the glass- enclosed upper platform. You have to get off here anyway, so take the time to see the giant raindrop with corresponding “splash circle” suspended at the bottom of one of the escalators and a series of colored spheres at the bottom of the other. Ride all the way down to the plaza level to see an amazing, oversized lute-shaped medicine rattle and drum-like companion piece. Put your ear up to these hollow sculptures and hear the electronically-produced sounds of water dripping off the inside of the metal.
McDonald’s, the Pancake Chief and a variety of other eating places are a few long blocks away on International Boulevard South. Unlike the other light rail stations, Tukwila has a large parking lot, and so, if you live in south King County or Pierce County, it makes sense to start your round trip here.
If not, board the train back to downtown Seattle and notice all of the things you might have missed on the ride out.
