golden gardens via elephantine

Jewelry designer and writer Rachel of Elephantine shared some photos on her blog that made me smile as soon as I saw them.

Golden Gardens is a small beach and park close to the house where I grew up in Seattle... though it's not far from downtown, the road below shoots off from my street and winds enchantedly through a mossy, sun-dappled forest for a mile or two before reaching a beach where there are fire pits, barbecue grills, picnic tables and even an old-school ice cream and hot dog shack alongside a quiet little sailboat marina. Since Seattle rarely gets very cold (at least, compared to what I'm used to now that I've lived in New England) it's a nice place to go for a beach stroll or sailboat watching even in the middle of winter.

Visit her post here for more of her photos. (Rachel also had her wedding portraits taken a few blocks away at the Ballard Locks, my absolute favorite place when I was a little kid and still a fun place to walk around, enjoy big shady trees, watch salmon jump from Puget Sound into Lake Washington and try to hold your breath for the length of passing freight trains.)

Since leaving Seattle after high school I was always happy to have travelled and experienced living new places, and I do enjoy living in Boston very much, but I definitely have moments of extreme homesickness for my home town, including when I saw these photos. This bustling city sprinkled with natural treasures and sandwiched between mountain ranges and salt water was really a beautiful, relaxing place to grow up.

This is one of the only photos I took the last time I was home to visit, taken randomly from some side street on the hill I lived on... it's not a great photo, but I will never get tired of seeing an ocean and a mountain range in the same shot.