Have you been dreaming of a romantic skating date complete with hot cocoa? Then you are in luck! The Capitol Hill Skate Rink is opening today at 4:30! From the mayor’s press release:
The first 100 visitors to the rink during the 4 p.m. hour will receive a free hour of skating after the ribbon cutting. Program participants from the Garfield Teen Life Center will serve free hot chocolate and candy canes, provided by Skanska, near the rink and from the shelter house, which will be open with a fire going in the fireplace.
The rink is located on the basketball courts at Cal Anderson Park (1635 11th Avenue). If you’ve been wondering what those big white tents are, they’re covering the rink. It will be open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m daily until Christmas Eve. Hourly admission is $12/general and $6/children 8 and under, with or without the included skate rental.
Not only will there be adorable skating and embarrassing falls, there will also be snacks! Caffé Vita will be serving coffee and hot chocolate and Dante’s Inferno Dogs will serve hot dogs, snacks and drinks. Both will be there daily. This will totally make the inevitable butt bruises worth it.
Oh those bike polo people are going to be so pissed that the basketball courts are occupied.
Yay ice skating! It will be like being home in Minnesota, but not at all.
Awesome. If I weren’t dying of strep throat or something I’d be super stoked.
Glad to hear this became a reality.
@1 yeah, it’s probably a bummer to make consistent good use of a public space and then one day find someone else there. Not sure that’s something to get pissed about, but I’m sure the polo players appreciate your dick attitude towards life.
the bike dorks use the tennis courts. more visibility there, where chumps can see them from the boutique ice cream line.
capitol hill!
Can’t wait until the druggies and Occupy Seattle trash the place!!
How did the city get insurance. I don’t mean to be a wet blanket but I used to live in California and everything was being shut down because of the cost of insurance. Oh well, have fun while you can!
@6 Skating is a Right. Not a privilege.
@2, feel better!
I’m so excited! I think ill go on sunday
@6, I believe the sponsors are covering it. They created a nonprofit umbrella just for this event. The main sponsor, Hunters Capital, led by the megamillionaire developer, Sorrento Hotel owner, Stranger Reading Night host and GOP donor Michael Malone, could swing it alone without noticing. But in this instance the nonprofit umbrella also contains many worthies of the ordinary Capitol Hill small business community, who I am sure are pitching in.
A block away from the Stranger office, and you couldn’t take a picture?
@8 – I’ll try, but this happened sometime around the first, when I met you in person, Typhoid Cienna!
Is it real ice or is it that fake plastic snap-together crap?
@11 they’re too drunk. Or stoned.
heck, they have problems moving their fingers to tweet about it.
13, it’s the fake shit…uh, i mean ice. you can find real shit in the shrub beds.
Dante Rivera is one of the business owners trying to block the completion of the Burke Gilman Trail in Ballard. Skate, but don’t eat his crap.
@6, “Insurance” is a code word for “we don’t want to run this anymore, or spend the money on it, and we don’t want to take any blame for it.” You’d be surprised at how little it can cost to insure something like this.
Did you all know there’s real ice down the hill at Seattle Center? For $7?
@ 13 & 15
The city didn’t want the noise disturbance of the generators that would’ve been needed to make and maintain real ice, so they wouldn’t allow the permits…I’m sure the neighbors appreciate that. It’s just not cold enough here for your super-manly, real ice without artificial help…
@19: But I always read in Slog that this is a city and it’s SUPPOSED to be noisy and fuck the NIMBY neighbors!
Or is that just for OTHER neighborhoods?
I am super-stoked with our new ice skating rink!!!
can someone confirm whether or not this is real ice or sport court? i’m not spending $12 unless it’s the real deal. thanks!
@22, it ain’t real frozen ice.