Edmonds Waterfront - A Local Trip

I thought maybe you would enjoy a vicarious trip through Edmonds and along the waterfront, so last Friday I set off on a walk around town.

To get an idea of the setting, we head up the hill to the east of our condo.

Intersection flower beds are an Edmonds specialty. People pay to sponsor each and have a plaque displaying their name.

Six long blocks up the hill to the east, this is the picture looking west from the ferry terminal on the
north (right) to the dog park on the south.  

 After the slog up the hill, I turned to the north and walked along 9th Ave N to Caspers Street and then down the hill to Sunset Ave N. By this time I had clocked just under two miles. 

Looking to my left I could see the ferry terminal and underwater park with its many buoys.

To my right I could see Possession Head on the south end of Whidbey Island. Lots of salmon are caught along
Possession Bar. Note all the buoys in the foreground marking various spots in the underwater park.

Foot passengers board to the left and vehicles board down the ramp. Motorcycles board first and enjoy being the first off.

 Walking south along the waterfront I came to the ferry terminal and Brackett's Landing Park.

 Brackett's Landing Park lies on both sides of the ferry terminal.

This is the view to the right (north) of the terminal. SCUBA divers and snorkelers use the park most every day.

This portion of the park is on the south of the terminal. Real life kids like to help the bronze kids sail the little boat.

A little farther south we come to the remains of the Edmonds Senior Center. It has been razed to make way for the new community center which will also have a walkway to pass around the private beach in front of the condominiums on the right in this photo. 

Demolition started in the middle of July with completion of the project scheduled for next year.

Looking back north from Olympic Park beach, you can get a better idea of  the private beach in front of the five-story condo.

The bridge to the fishing pier passes over the breakwater. To the right on the breakwater
are the metal salmon sculptures. The fishing pier sees lots of fishermen and
women, or is it fisherpersons? Or maybe just fishers? Some nice salmon are
landed here. Also lots of squid on cold winter evenings. 

Next come the restaurants and marinas. 

I'm not sure how many slips there are but they stretch for a couple thousand feet along the waterfront.

Here's the 50-ton sling to launch and recover the larger boats.

A special forklift handles smaller boats that are stacked in dry storage to the east. 

This bridge connects the south end of the marinas to the public park at this end of the waterfront.

At the tail end (sorry) of the waterfront is this large dog park. It's always busy with dogs and their people enjoying the off-leash area. 

Heading back to the north, I walked along Admiral Way and then up Dayton Street toward home. Along the way I passed the boat repair yard and the train station.

Boat repair yard situated between Admiral Way and the BNSF train tracks.

Edmonds Station is especially busy in the mornings and afternoons when the sounder and Amtrak trains are full of commuters.

Stationary whistles are the cone shaped objects on this pole. The sign on top tells the engineers
the horns are activated thereby negating the need to blow the  regular train horn.

After several years of coordination with BNSF and the governing agencies, the stationary whistles, called "wayside horns" were approved for the two crossings in downtown Edmonds. They are directional and not nearly as loud as the regular train horns, cutting down on noise pollution while still guarding the crossings. They were activated on June 5th. It took a couple weeks for the engineers to get used to them but now only the occasional engineer feels like he has to toot his own horn, making it much better for the people in the Edmonds Bowl.

From the station I headed east on Dayton Street and then turned south a couple blocks and was home. Total walk turned out to be about four and one-half miles, not counting the odd wandering around at the photo sites when I hit the "pause" button. I use an app called "Pacer" on my smartphone which tracks by GPS so I know precisely how far I travel and at what speed. Amazing what technology can do for little or no expense.