I am a forest creature. This month I've been doing something I ought to have done a long time ago: I'm exploring all the nearby local parks. There are several of them, and nearly all of them are foresty. A few of them are large enough to get lost in, but small enough that you don't stay lost for too long, which is perfect.

This afternoon on the way home from work I stopped by Hamlin Park, right here in Shoreline. Shoreline is the next city north of Seattle, where I now live. It was incorporated in 1995, made up of all the leftover unincorporated lands north of the city line and south of the county line. This incorporation threw together several distinct communities, some of which are quite old. Development has filled in all the gaps, so the populated areas are continuous now, but several miniature "downtowns" are still easily recognizable.

Near Shoreline's eastern edge is Hamlin Park's 72 acres, roughly three-quarters of which are forested (the other quarter being playgrounds, baseball fields, parking lots, and the like). I've driven past it dozens of times, but I didn't venture inside until today.

My park visits are investigatory in nature. Three things struck me about this one. First, it's an unusually roomy forest. There are plenty of tall trees, but very little understory. The trails are wide to the point of incoherence, and it's easy to roam around without following a trail at all. One could play frisbee here. Second, though I don't know if this evening was typical, I noted a particularly high dog-to-human ratio among fellow visitors, nearly 1:1.

After wandering semi-aimlessly through the trees, I emerged at a different end from where I went in. Walking back toward where my car was parked I passed the playground area, near which I noticed what looked like two very large cannons. Upon closer investigation, I found they are ship guns. One of them, according to the plaque, fired the first shot at the battle of Manila Bay in 1898. I wonder how they found their way to Shoreline.

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