| I’m on the home stretch! Boulevard Park, White Center, and Greenbridge represented the second to last “far out adventure” of libraries (still have to jaunt out to Skykomish. . .). I’m fairly certain that this was my first time in these three areas in southwest Seattle. While Mother Nature wasn’t smiling too often Saturday, at least the traffic fairies were working their magic and Lorin and I made quick work of the drive out to our first stop, Boulevard Park. |
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We were so quick in fact, that we arrived about 10 minutes before the library opened! And of course, we weren’t the only ones waiting for the library to open. While we waited, we wandered the block the library is located on and were promptly a bit startled when the first landing commercial jet passed overhead. The Boulevard Park branch is directly over the landing path and they are close enough that their landing gear is already down! As best as we could tell, the larger jets were descending over the library and the smaller jets were landing at the runway just to the west. However, once the library opened and we stepped inside, you would have never known we were that close to the airport, we heard absolutely nothing! From its design in the late 70s, the library was built to be soundproof. We had a very pleasant chat with the librarian about Boulevard Park. As a 
resident of the area, she gave us the inside scoop on the equestrian crossing sign right next to the branch sign and the papier-mâché dragon that the children of Boulevard decorated over the course of one summer (including hers!). I was also able to leave with a copy of “The History of the Boulevard Park Library” written in 1976 to coincide with the newly built building that is still in use today.
Our next stop was the White Center branch. We took as much of a scenic route as we could, mostly through 
residential neighborhoods before arriving at the more commercial area that the branch is located in. As we’ve come to expect, we walked in to crowded computers and friendly staff! The children’s librarian was kind enough to let us interrupt her set up for a State Training and Registry tem (STARS) workshop happening later on that day to talk to us about her work with the library and the community. From visiting schools to scheduling the new Library2Go, outreach is a big part of her job! After a few more photographs, I was definitely ready for lunch.
So, here’s where I fell down a little on the planning part. I had read quite a bit about Proletariat Pizza in White Center, and it seemed like a perfect fit for our trip as it is between the White Center and Greenbridge branches. We park, walk to the restaurant. . .and they are totally closed. It didn’t even occur to me to check their hours! I had also read quite a bit about Full Tilt Ice Cream, but was a little hungrier than just having ice cream for lunch. We decide to 
walk down the street to see if we could find another spot and I’m so glad we did! We peeked down a side street a few blocks away and happened upon Café Rozella. I had the best Mexican Mocha I’ve ever had! We chowed on tamales and homemade pastries for dessert in this cozy café while the rain came and went. (However, for the record, I don’t eat pizza very often, and I still want pizza!)
Satiated, we headed out to our final destination for the day, Greenbridge. Open for just about 2 years, this branch utilizes more of the retail concept similarly seen at Crossroads and Southcenter. The library is in leased space in the YWCA Learning Center and is one of the community services components of the King County Housing Authority’s Greenbridge 
project. After visiting the library, we noticed an interesting curved structure a block or so away and headed up to see what it was. It turned out to be a picnic shelter in a park with a great view of the area below! The playground equipment was also of a different design than I had seen before. After taking a short stroll through the park, we headed back home.
Another successful library jaunt!
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