The Longest Days of the Year: Happy Solstice Week

Golden Gardens sunset

Did you know that while the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere was just one moment on June 20, for the next couple days we'll still have 15 hours and 59 minutes of daylight here in Seattle?

The Solstice length days will hang around until the weekend, with just a few seconds added each consecutive day.  Then the slide back to the "dark days" begins in earnest. But of course we get the pleasure of what we hope will be a few months of summer warmth to ease the unstoppable cycle back to short days.

While I've been mostly chained to my desk working between playing with family from out of town the last week, I did escape with a friend down to the beach at Golden Gardens for the Solstice sunset.

As you can see, there were pesky clouds on the western horizon to blunt the sunset.  But it was still fairly warm (meaning, not too chilly) and a lovely evening for a stroll.  

There weren't as many people out as last year's Solstice, and there wasn't a collective cheer from the crowd when the sun slid below the Olympic Mountains on the western horizon (because clouds obscured the actual sunset).  But there were still lots of families with kids, dogs with their humans, and various clusters of parties on the beach having a nice time.

People hung around beach fires laughing and talking. Musicians jammed on driftwood logs accompanied by the breaking waves from a passing barge.  Kids and dogs played in the surf.

Overall it was a lovely evening of happy people in a beautiful place.

And did you celebrate the solstice in style?  Jump in the conversation with a comment below!

Happy summer!