As a special treat for my husband’s birthday, I’d gotten tickets to see Abraham Verghese at Benaroya Hall, part of the Seattle Arts and Lectures Series. The author of Cutting for Stone and The Covenant of Water - two best-selling novels - as well as nonfiction, is one of our literary heroes. 

Mercer Island owes its lushly landscaped lid park to former mayor and city council member, Aubrey Davis (1918 – 2013). In the 1960s, Washington State was eager to complete I-90, fulfilling the vision of a highway connecting all the way from Boston to Seattle. A thirteen-lane freeway slicing through the north end of Mercer Island was proposed. Davis’ mantra was “we don’t want to see it. We don’t want to hear it. We don’t want to smell it.”