Local News

Sketched Jan. 9, 2012
Seeing them with their gear on, I never would have guessed the age of these hockey players.
Cy Wilson, the guy with the stick-wielding Snoopy on his jersey, is 85. He grew up playing on a frozen creek in Northern Minnesota. Ray Smutek, from Detroit and wearing the Seattle Thunderbirds jersey, is 75.
Every Monday evening, you can find Wilson, Smutek and their over-50 buddies playing a friendly “no-contact” pickup game at Highland Ice Arena in Shoreline. More than 20 guys usually show up, including 62-year-old heart-transplant survivor Sam Patterson. Theirs is one of two groups in the Seattle area for people 50 and older. The other one also plays in Shoreline, on Thursdays.
Smutek, who resumed playing two years ago after hip-replacement surgery, said this is a sport you can play as you get older. I found that hard to believe, but he added that “skating is easier on your knees than running … easier on your joints.”
And to give me more hope that hockey could still be in my future, Jim Claus, a member of the group who is 57, told me that he just started playing three years ago.
The game, however, is not the only thing that gets these guys on the ice every week, year-round, said Wilson. “We’re here for fun, exercise and a cold beer.”



What has drawn your attention around Seattle lately? Send me your suggestions of interesting places and people to sketch via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Have a great weekend!

Sketched April 26, 4:12 p.m.
Aurora Avenue may be the least scenic drive in Seattle, but enter Shoreline and things start to look a little different.
Beyond North 145th Street, I found a nice stretch of the highway that I’d missed two years ago, when I sketched a car lot amid tacky signs and utility poles in North Seattle for my first Seattle Sketcher column.
Shoreline has been fixing up Aurora with new sidewalks, medians and pedestrian bridges that even light up at night. Now, they want to make the stretch between 175th and 185th the heart of the city.
“We don’t have a downtown. We want to create a town center,” said Kristen Overleese, a city project manager who greeted me as I sketched the decorative base of a new traffic-light pole ready to be installed. Overleese said improvements up to 185th are expected to be finished by August, completing two of three miles of the Shoreline Aurora Corridor project.

Links:
Shoreline Town Center page on Facebook.
Aurora Corridor Project.
Coming up: One week every month, I take my sketchbook to a different community following suggestions from readers. Where should I go next? Send me your ideas via e-mail, Facebook or Twitter. Have a great weekend!

Sketched April 26, 12:42 p.m.
When I asked on Twitter what places in Shoreline I should consider sketching this week, everyone agreed on one location, Richmond Beach Saltwater Park, which used to be a sand and gravel pit for the railroad in the 1900s.
Of all the beaches along Puget Sound I’ve visited so far, this one drew me in with its wide open setting and winding road down to parking lots with astonishing views — I’m told people drive in just to watch the sunset from here.
A pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks leads you to the sandy grounds near the shoreline, where a 10-foot-tall welcome pole presides over this striking natural environment just minutes away from the buzz of the city. The bronze figure represents the Coast Salish Native Americans, the first people of King County.

Sketched April 26, 10:44 a.m.
After more than 10 years living in the U.S., I still haven’t been able to shake off my Spanish accent. Some words just don’t come out with the right pronunciation.
For example, ponies. When I was telling people that Tuesday morning I sketched the ponies in Shoreline, most of them didn’t know what I was talking about. “The… bonnies? What?”
But then I showed them the sketch and that solved the problem. “Oh… the ponies!” A picture is worth at least one word, if not thousands, as the saying goes.
I’m really intrigued about these sculptures at Ronald Bog Park (N 175th St and Meridian Ave N) just west of I-5. According to the City of Shoreline, not only the artist is unknown, they were donated by an anonymous source under the condition that they would be placed in a park-like, highly-traveled location.
Apparently, everyone in Shoreline knows about the ponies. They’ve become a symbol of the city.