26 Perfect Saturdays

Illustration: Alex Eben Meyer

SUMMER

Court Summer Love

Embrace balmy evenings: Enlist a friendly opponent for a white-hot, late-night tennis match. Before the sun sets, make use of the generous demo policy at Avanti Sports (3503 NE 45th St, University District, 206-527-8866 and 14808 NE 24th St Ste A, Redmond, 425-746-8226; avantisports.com); serious sport-os can test-drive top-of-the-line rackets. But if you think you might pull a Serena Williams in a moment of passion, opt for a totally tossable $20 used one from Play It Again Sports (see playitagainsports.com for locations). After you’ve got a grip, surf over to the city’s list of 20 fully lit public nets (seattle.gov/parks/tennis.asp). A call to the athletics office and seven bucks per hour secures a home court advantage; as dusk creeps in, you can practically feel the love in the air. Jump in and serve it up.

Row, Row, Row—or Sail—Their Boats

In your saltier days you could tack like the wind, but your brand new first mate’s never even experienced the quiet cut of an oar slicing through inland waters. At the Center for Wooden Boats (1010 Valley St, South Lake Union, 206-382-2628; cwb.org), weathered mariners who pass muster (and who get there early, since the center does not take reservations) cruise out in the 19-foot, fin-keeled Blanchard Jr. Knockabout sloop, while landlubbers looking for their sea legs start on the Acme Skiff, a restored early-twentieth-century rowboat. Chart a course for the acres of clam chowder at Ivar’s Salmon House (401 NE Northlake Way, Wallingford, 206-632-0767; ivars.net).

After checkout, voyage to Cuttysark Nautical Antiques (320 First Ave S, Downtown, 206-262-1265; cuttyantiques.com). Among the cheeky and genuinely old and evocative objects: a big blue flag emblazoned with Captain James Lawrence’s dying command from the War of 1812, “Don’t give up the ship!”

Photo: Courtesy Ursula Haigh

Master Your Resources

Some questions you might bring with you to the 40 beds of ornamental and edible plants that make up the Bellevue Demonstration Garden (15500 SE 16th St, Bellevue, bellevuedemo@hotmail.com, mgfkc.org):

• “What do you suppose is nibbling at the leaves of this Brussels sprout start I planted?” (Bring the leaves and part of the stem, and a captured critter, if possible.)

• “Not much has ever grown in the northeast corner of my front yard. Any idea what might?” (Bring a photograph of the corner and what surrounds it, as well as a soil sample.)

• “What’s up with the yellow and black spots all over my rosebush leaves?” (Bring some leaves and blooms.)

The green-thumbed Master Gardener volunteers who staff the rows of dahlias, tomatoes, and ground covers from 9am to 1pm every Saturday live to fix finicky flora. They’ll sleuth out the perfect shade variety, suggest a floating row cover that will protect your veggies from hungry wildlife, and, if they have to, send your mildew-spotted leaves or unidentified crawlers to the diagnostic lab—all at no charge.

With your questions answered, you’re now free to roam. Watch the Master Composter turn the rich materials in his bins, examine the various tomato trellising methods and espaliered fruit trees, and smell and touch your way through the sensory garden. Upon returning, supercharged and inspired, to your own plots, pay it back—and forward. Produce grown in the Bellevue demo rows supplies more than 1,500 pounds of fruits and veggies to the Eastside food bank Hopelink. You can definitely pitch in a couple salads’ worth of the same to your local nonprofit. Your community, and Mother Earth, have already responded in kind.

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Published: November 2009