You
are looking for a smallish 1-quart Tupperware container rattle-canned camo
green. This is an offset cache:
==> once you get to the "shrine" at the waypoint location, the
final cache is located about 20 meters away on a bearing of
about 300 degrees. <==
Hints are provided if the location is not obvious. I don't think it's more
than a "1.5-star" difficulty but will use your feedback to change it if need be. Virgin Tbug to First to find - and a Yellow Jeep tbug :-).
The hours for the park are 4 a.m. - 11:30 p.m. There's parking on Lake
Washington boulevard but best is to stop up on 39th (which is a lot less busy.)
Do make sure to replace the cache as it was hidden and cover it well,
thank you.
Viretta Park
This cache is hidden in Viretta Park, another one of the Olmsted brothers'
legacy to Seattle's friendly atmosphere. You can check it out on the Web at http://www.cityofseattle.net/parks/parkspaces/virettapark.htm.
"Viretta Park was named by C.L. Denny, in honor of his wife VIRETTA
Jackson Denny, a relative of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President (1829-1837). In
1909 all the parks in the local subdivision had been improved with lawn and
shrubbery. " (edited from the files of Don Sherwood, 1916-1981, Park
Historian)
"The Denny-Blaine neighborhood of Seattle is located on Lake Washington
between Madison Park and Madrona. It was developed just after the turn of the
century by Elbert F. Blaine, an attorney and former Seattle Parks Commissioner,
and by Charles L. Denny, son of Seattle founders Arthur Denny and Mary Boren
Denny. They designed the neighborhood to follow the contours of the land, and
included a series of hillside parks. The lots intermingle with streets, lanes,
parks, fountains, and cul-de-sacs, virtually all of which have views of Lake
Washington." (Much more info at http://www.historylink.org/output.CFM?file_ID=2996.)
Nirvana
But Viretta park has one worldwide claim to fame: it has become a de facto
shrine to Kurt Cobain, of grunge band Nirvana's fame, who took his own life in
his house directly to the North of the park on April 5, 1994. Cobain and his
wife, Courtney Love (who no longer lives there), moved into the three-story,
century-old house in January 1994, paying $7,000 a month for rent, according to
"Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain," by Charles
M. Cross. The bench located at the waypoint is covered with messages from fans
from around the world who come here to pay their respects (and try to get a
morbid peek at the greenhouse where he shot himself - it has been torn down
since then.) You're likely to find leftover melted votive candles, burnt out
incense sticks, or, mmm, is that a mangled roll-yer-own cigarette butt lying
there? Between the Nirvana fans and the local joggers, this can be a fairly
popular place but the overall GeoMuggle factor should not be too bad.
Do take the time to check out the graffiti that cover the bench - a piece of
Seattle popular history in the making. Lots of info on Nirvana and Kurt Cobain
on the Web, like for instance at http://www.nirvanafreak.net/
or http://www.washingtonpost.com.
If you're a Nirvana fan, do not hesitate to stash Nirvana paraphernalia in here
- but unfortunately, the container is rather small.
Coffee wars
A less macabre link to another famous Seattleite : an initiative specifically
outlawing private use of public park land was promulgated following the fracas
over Starbuck's Howard Schultz who apparently took over a slice of Viretta park
when building the driveway to his house, directly South of the park. Soooo, I felt
compelled to seed the cache with a gift card to Tully's
:-)
Happy hunting.