Three things happen on my Saturdays:  long, thoughtful, and self-reflective walks around the neighborhood, book and music browsing/buying, and people watching.  Sometimes the people watching thing puts me in the middle of a busy day at Pike Place Market and other times I am hopping Link to places like Columbia City to enjoy a great meal and beer at Lottie’s Lounge or whatever joint looks hopping or even not so hopping (I bring the hop). 

Those are the times when you have been everywhere and no time has gone by.  The city has that affect on you.  However, now that the weather god is opening her arms to send down her love with sunshine, I am again able to return to the comfortable nest that is Cal Anderson Park.  This park like the pesky but loveable little brother to the more mature, well-sophisticated Volunteer Park (it has a conservatory and a museum, after all).

The sheer denseness of the park forces everyone into a very tight quarter.  Once you grab your sweet patch of grass, you are mere feet from people tossing frisbees or dogs catching balls thrown by their owners.  There is one special and famous spot in Cal Anderson that is the prize spot and this is Teletubby Hill.  It is actually a mound, a manmade one at that.  It resembles the green mounds in the background terrain from the trippy children’s television series of the same name.   I seem to recall an article in The Stranger first calling it this, I could be wrong.  The hill itself isn’t much of a hill, but it’s quite fun to sit atop it, soak up some sun, and breathe in the air.

I am amazed that no one is at its summit when I go there on Saturday.  It is around noon and most Capitol Hill people are still deep asleep after the night out.  I plop down my bike, my bag, and my body and search around.  There are people here, but it seems rather sparse.

The red wall enclosing the transit station construction seals off the north end of the park.  The color is alluring.  The name of the wall is “The Heart of Capitol Hill.”  Although not a heartbeat, I can hear a beat on the hill and it comes from a group of young guys playing hip-hop music nearby.  Just below me at the base of the hill are three young women, one with her young child who is out of her carriage of scampering about.  I see more young parents with their children lying on the lawn and playing games.  This to me is awesome.  I remember when you would go through days without seeing or hearing children on the hill, but now families with little ones are sprouting up at all corners of the hill. 

I am actually not that high, elevation-wise, but from this vantage point, you get a 360 view of the environment.  I have a blissful buzz from my Vivace latte and feel content.  My initial goal is to go to Everyday Music and Elliot Bay Book Company on 10th to browse and possibly buy something.  However, this moment is just right and this spot is right.   Despite having caffeine and a health bar in my system, the sun’s warmth is causing me to become drowsy.  This is a perfect trance to be in and in my head, Lou Reed is singing about what a perfect day it is while he drinks sangria.  Everyone around me is going about their own business and it’s the business of pleasure seeking.

Sunbathers on Teletubby Hill and the guys who take over my prize spot at the top of the hill.

While dozing off, I hear a small dog approaching me.  It’s a chihuahua sniffing around in the grass.  Her owner apologizes for the disruption, but I don’t mind because it’s my day off on the hill and I like all dogs.  The cone-like fountain is cascading water down its stony side.  Children are playing in the pond along with many dogs splashing around.  A small sign says that people and pets cannot cool themselves off in these waters, but I have never seen this enforced. Who could be mean to kids and dogs?

On a flatter lawn of the park, two women are tossing a softball back and forth.  I wonder what teams they play on.  Purr?  Wildrose?  They are having fun with a lively conversation in between their energetic huffs and puffs.

 So far today, there have been families playing games, young men running around with their small dogs, people sunbathing shirtless (male and female), and much more.  I it is like I am in the center of a kaleidoscope and all the people are spinning around in a fury or shapes and colors.  Everyone is here seeking some kind of tranquility.  This Teletubby Hill is a hill of tranquility of top of hill of tranquility, Capitol Hill.

While in my hazy-daze, I overhear a conversation that is drifting on the air.  A woman’s voice, “Mother nature is sweet today.”  Her friend chimes in, “Yeah it is May and Mother Nature kinda fools us into thinking it’s permanent, but we all know that Mother Nature has tricks up her sleeve, we will have some gray days again.”

Trick or no trick, this tranquility, this peacefulness, this community of neighbors in a park celebrating life, this is permanent.