Spending Our One Sunny Day in Fremont with USkSeattle

'After all the recent rainfall, it was a beautifully sunny day at Hale’s Ales Brewery for the Urban Sketchers Seattle meet-up at 11 a.m. Since 1983, Hale’s claims to be the longest running, continually owned brewery, of any size, in the Pacific Northwest, and indeed one of the oldest in the entire U.S.

There were fascinating things (like a red London phone booth) to sketch inside, but the forecast is for another week of rain and I didn't want to waste our one sunny day! I found a great spot out back of the brewery at the corner of 8th Ave NW and NW 43rd. 

Who wouldn't want to bask in the warm sun while sketching a grain elevator with a worn out Moss Bay sign, a container with the word "clepto" spray painted in red on the side, a small spare tire secured with rope to the blue tarp on a storage bin and a nice big green dumpster? After a while, despite the sunshine, my hands did get cold so I went inside to see what the menu had to offer.

Along with lunch, a few of us ordered a flight of ales with interesting names like El Jefe Weisen, Red Menace, and NightTroll (a play on words referring to a nearby landmark, the Fremont Troll.)

I counted 23 sketchers today. I'm not surprised. When we get a sun break here in the Pacific NW we don't waste it! After sharing our sketches and getting a group photo in the Pub, I headed for one more spot on the way home.

I've been waiting for a sunny day and some good cast shadows so that I could sketch the old Everett Courthouse. These shadows weren't quite what I had in mind, but we have only one day of pure sunshine before it rains again!

The front steps are no longer used and some of the landscaping is getting a bit overgrown. It's an unusual type of architecture for our area, but Everett does have a few random Spanish style buildings, including the old courthouse. The shadows I wanted would have been better in about an hour but I felt uncomfortable alone in the deserted neighborhood.  So I quickly sketched an abbreviated version of the scene and went home to add color.

Update: I was notified that my sketch of the Old Everett Courthouse I added to the Flickr group Urban Sketchers Seattle has been selected to be its cover photo. See how it looks here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/seattlesketchers/

Sketchers sketching sketchers while being sketched

Blue sky and sunshine all day! Yay!

Perfect for the monthly meet up of USkSeattle at Hale's Ales in Fremont.

You can tell by the hunched up look of the plants on the patio that it was 32 degrees this morning, though. Not quite fully spring time yet!

USkSeattle monthly outing at Hale's Ales."Who's here for the first time?

  We had quite a few new sketchers this time. A good number were from West Seattle. Welcome!

Sketchers in the corner and at lunch, being photographed by other sketchers. The server exhibits sketch pose #1.

We thought our beer samplers were quite generously sized and looked like jewels in the sunlight! (Server in sketch pose #2)

Coffee, Electric Cloud and Lenin's Boot

Gary and I covered quite a bit of territory today. We are still celebrating our 50th Anniversary with friends and family, but today it was just the two of us....and a few people in Seattle. Gary wanted me to try out a cool coffee shop in the Beacon Hill neighborhood. (See photos below.) We went there first, then over to Fremont so that I could sketch with Seattle USK.

Most drivers would feel a bit frustrated when the bridge alarm goes off just as you approach the Fremont drawbridge. It means about a 5-7 minute delay in getting where you were going. For me, though, it meant an opportunity to sketch the little coffee stand from the comfort of the passenger seat in the car. No distracting traffic in the opposite lane! I did the sketch in the time the bridge was open and finished the color later.

I managed to get two small sketches in before sharing with the Seattle Urban sketchers today.

Electric Cloud Coffee is a drive through stand located on the south end of the Fremont drawbridge. They are known for their breakfast burritos and hemp lattes.

My 5-7 minute view of Electric Cloud Coffee

Read about the history of the Lenin statue here

Workers on break in the square near the Lenin statue.

Lenin's boot in a rain puddle with sun breaks.

Columbia City pm Coffee Break

The Station Coffee House, Beacon Hill

 It was a true Seattle cultural day, with morning and afternoon coffee breaks, sketching in Fremont and lunch with the sketchers out on the sidewalk tables nearby at PCC.

Giant Coffee Cups to Jackalopes - in Fremont, of course

The Fremont sketchcrawl:
Gail gave an overview of the area as sketchers arrived at the back patio of the Way Station Coffee House. There was a plethora of eclectic subject matter for Seattle Urban Sketchers to choose in the Fremont district on this warm, breezy Sunday morning, June 14, 2015.

The Burke-Gilman Trail runs right along the middle of today's four block area. There were plenty of cyclists, walkers, etc. out this morning.

As I sketched my backyard view of the Way Station, I realized the scale of my coffee cup went from a Giga-Grande to an espresso, relatively speaking. There are enough other sketches out there on the USk Seattle blog with proper scale, if you need it.

Next, I took a walk northwards up the street and was stunned by the exterior of  Drunky's Two Shoe BBQ! Horseshoes in the pavement, a "Road Window", big Western Style false fronts on the building and a shiny Airstream in the back. This part of Fremont isn't as polished as the area down by the Fremont bridge, but it is every bit as eclectic. I think it has a kind of  60's vibe.

The top of the Air Stream sported a TV antenna and an olive green matte finish.

Mike, the Pit Master of Drunky's BBQ, says that the Air Stream in which he now lives was once the first place where Drunky's sold their BBQ. A few of us went back to the restaurant for lunch after sharing our sketches.

I played peek-a-boo with a couple of chickens fenced between the patio and the sidewalk.

A racoon modeling a box of Cracker Jack, gas mask, emergency water and possibly Howdy Doody.

There were too many things I wanted to sketch as I gazed upwards during lunch. I managed to sketch the crocodile head and the jackalope, then wrote a short list of things to sketch next time:

• Chainsaw Chandelier, see Tina's and Gail's sketches from lunch, Kate did the fern with a horse jumping out of it
• Wall mounted taxidermy: bass, mountain sheep, deer, pheasants
• O'Keefe style cattle skull
• Chicken (live)
• American Flag with 13 stars
• Velvet Elvis
• Velvet Elvis with Jesus
• A Dodge grill, possibly from a pickup truck
• A canoe on the roof, but over the doorway
• Bronze rooster and pink flying pig
• Bear Trap
• Pig on a tire swing hanging from a ceiling fan
• Oh, and the bar has tractor seats.