Yesterday I did my second joyride of the new 2-line Crosslake Connection on Link Light Rail, all the way out to Downtown Redmond Station and back, this time with Shobhit. When I went with Laney three weeks ago, on Opening Day for the two new stations (Judkins Park and Mercer Island), we stopped at all 10 stations east and northeast of International District / Chinatown Station, before riding the entire route direct back from the end of the line at Downtown Redmond. Shobhit insisted it would be more efficient for us to ride direct all the way out to Downtown Remond first, and then stop at every station on the way back. I really resisted this at first, but in the end I was pretty glad that by the time we explored the very last station, at Judkins Park, we had only 5 stations to go back to Capitol Hill Station instead of 16 as would have been the case otherwise.

March 28 had been a big day and a huge event, being the first day ever that public riders could not only take Light Rail from Seattle to the eastside, but the first time they could ride a light rail train across a floating bridge, for the first time anywhere in the world. (This alone has brought us a smattering of global attention; I even discovered this relatively charming video by a guy from The Netherlands(!), as part of his apparently long running "Trains Are Awesome" YouTube page.) Anyway, being Opening Day, my original, East Link Extension / Crosslake Connection 2026 photo album contained a whopping 36 shots. I have a separate Flickr album dedicated to yesterday's excrusion with Shobhit, and that one contains 62 shots. That's just under half the volume, even though Laney and I had been out for about six and a half hours, whereas Shobhit and I were out for seven and a half hours yesterday.

There was a very obvious reason for that difference in time spent, though: Shobhit is all about the walking, and on our rides back from Redmond yesterday, we actually walked the roughly one or two miles, depending on the case, between stations two different times. First, because I had figured out Mayuri, the Indian grocery store in Redmond, is 0.8 miles from Overlake Village Station, we walked there from Overlake Village. And instead of walking back to Overlake Village, we walked from Mayuri to BelRed Station, which was another 1.2 miles away. In the second instance, I wanted to find a PCC store so I could take advantage of the Member Only Offer for a free bar of Private Label soap, I figured out PCC Bellevue is half a mile from Wilburton Station, and then from PCC we had only 0.4 miles to walk to Bellevue Downtown Station.

My whole impetus for riding the 2 Line again was to find all the public art I had missed on Laney's and my excursion three weeks ago—I didn't even realize how much I had missed. Many of the stations have multiple pieces at them. That said, there was a couple of stations at which I already got all the photos I needed, so yesterday I got no new photos at Overlake Village Station, Spring District Station, Wilburton Station, or Mercer Island Station—though I did still take a couple of new photos on Mercer Island. There was a public art sculpture about a block away from the station that we kind of liked.

Anyway, we probably spent more time at Downtown Redmond Station yesterday than at any of the other stations, largely because Shobhit had never really explored downtown Redmond and he was interested. We walked a bit through Downtown City Center, the shopping center just a couple of blocks away, but I also got more photos of the many art pieces at the station, as there's a ton of them there, all mounted atop polls like arty mosaic or painted billboards. One series is actually photos of a guy dancing, but I was partial to the series called Butterfly Garden. We did somewhat rush back so we would not have to wait an extra ten minutes for the next train, but in the end I think we spent about half an hour in Downtown Redmond.

At most stations, though, we got off and I took some quick photos and we managed to get on the next train coming 9 minutes later. This was how we managed at both Marymoor Village and Redmond Technology Stations; I already noted that we walked from Overlake Village to Mayuri and then to BelRed Stations. We again managed one-train cycles at Spring District Station, and then, as already noted, we walked from Wilburton Station to PCC Bellevue to Bellevue Downtown, where we spent some extra time. I looked all over for one of the art pieces there, which I finally figured out the location one station later, and it was one block further out than we had covered trying to look for it. I didn't want to backtrack by that point, though, so we took the train from Bellevue Downtown Station to East Main Station, and we managed one-train cycles both there and at South Bellevue Station.

Before I fully move on from Bellevue Downtown, though, I should note that we spent a good hour or so there, not just looking for that art installation I could not find, but Shobhit wanted to walk around Lincoln Square and Bellevue Square for a bit because he hadn't been to those shopping centers in ages. He decided he wanted French fries from The Cheesecake Factory and so we ordered some to go from there, and we made our way through a surprising number of skybridges on our way back toward the Bellevue Transit Center. He also noted that this coming holiday season we can easily take the train there now, to go check out the nightly "Snowflake Lane" street parade, which we haven't done in a long time—at least, not with him, anyway. The last time I saw it was kind of by accident, when I and other Groomsmen were shopping for wedding clothes some months before Gabriel and Lea's wedding, this taking us back to December 2023. The one time I am aware of Shobhit ever going is when we went with his cousins in 2017. So if we go this year, it'll have been nine years since he went.

I did think a lot about this yesterday, how this expansion of Light Rail has really made so much more of the region feel accessible to me. I'm never interested in driving all the way over to Redmond or even to Bellevue just for fun or for shopping, but I am far more open to it with Light Rail making it so accessible via public transit. This is the same with every Light Rail expansion, actually. Lynnwood (opened 2024), Federal Way (opened 2025), and Redmond (connected 2026) all no longer feel like "the outer rim" to me. I just love our Light Rail system so, so much.

One of the places we went to at Lincoln Square was the Container Store. Shobhit had ideas for his plants out on our condo balcony, and I had ideas for the one deep drawer I now have access to at my desk at work (with one shallow drawer above it). I want to create extra compartments to make it easier to store more stuff in there in a more organized way. I may have found a couple of ideas, but I need to actually measure the dimensions and then go back to the Container Store again to buy something. But all I need to do is take Light Rail to Bellevue Downtown Station, and there's no need to drive there! I mean, I still have the half-mile walk between Capitol Hill Station and home, but I think I can make do.

So, from South Bellevue Station, the next two stations were Mercer Island and Judkins Park—the two new stations. We spent a little bit of extra time at both, particularly Mercer Island, where we walked up to the ground level and walked a circle around a few blocks to come back in the west entrance at the other end of the platform. We happened to walk past a guy Shobhit recognized from working with him at Total Wine.

Then, at Judkins Park Station, the only art I needed to take photos of was on the platform (a bunch of awesome window murals, which I took eight shots of), but Shobhit still wanted to go up to the ground level at this station too. Just outside the entrance across the street from the park, Shobhit pointed out a nice vantage point for a photo of the station below, nestled between both directions of freeway traffic on I-90. I actually stood atop a short ledge to get that shot, with the fencing I looked over still being chest-high, but a transit employee who happened to be nearby saw me and asked me to get down because it was unsafe. I got the shot I wanted, so, whatever.

The guy was still very kind, I must say: he offered to take a photo of us together underneath the Judkins Park sign. Well sure, why not! I actually hadn't taken any photos of Shobhit and me together yet during this outing, so this seemed like as good a time and place as any.

So then we caught the train back to Capitol Hill Station, and I did laundry and we hung out at home the rest of the day. We had left the condo in the morning at 9:20; we were at Downtown Redmond Station by 10:20; we got a couple of Deli salad snacks at the PCC Bellevue store around 1:15; we finished at The Container Store around 2:45; and that last photo of us at Judkins Park Station was taken at 4:17. It was about 4:50 when we reached home again, thereby making the outing a seven and a half-hour excursion. It was still really fun and I look forward to using the 2 Line again and again.

[posted 12:26pm]

There were two major elements to the thrilling opening of the Light Rail "Crosslake Connection" yesterday:

1. Technically, only two new Light Rail stations opened yesterday: Judkins Park Station and Mercer Island Station. The other ten stations on the East Side that Laney and I have actually been in operation since 2024, just operating as a separate, unconnected "2 Line" until now.

2. Those other ten stations on the East Side were accessible via Light Rail in Seattle for the first time as of yesterday. This is why I waited to explore all the East Side stations until the Crosslake Connection opening yesterday, because without being able to take rail there from my local Light Rail station on Capitol Hill, then what would be the point?

It's also always worth noting that this is the first floating bridge in the world to have Light Rail cross it, which meant unique engineering challenges, and qualifies this as an unprecedented, major engineering feat—one of my favorite things! It's also why the Crosslake Connection was delayed two years, rather than opening at the same time as the rest of the East Side stations in 2024 as originally planned.

Well, it's open now. That's what matters. And it makes a whole wide swath of Bellevue and Redmond accessible to me in ways they never were before. I don't even care that it takes longer than driving (except during weekday rush hours, probably). It's far more pleasant than driving. As was the case when Shobhit and I ran a couple of shopping errands on Friday evening, entirely on transit: we went to the Total Wine & More in Northgate to buy four gallons of Tower Vodka that were on sale, and we took Light Rail there from Capitol Hill Station. I needed to get something from PCC, and so I looked up transit directions, and we took Light Rail back to University of Washington Station, where we transferred to the #48 bus which took us straight to the Central District PCC. Usually we walk the 0.7 miles home from there if we're only picking up one or two things, but we didn't feel like walking with each of us carrying two gallons of vodka in our bags. So, we waited for the #2 bus right there and took that to 14th and Union, walking only about three blocks from there. This all definitely took longer than driving, but we only had to wait a few minutes for both buses, and it was far more pleasant than driving would have been.

Anyway, yesterday I hopped on the #12 bus scheduled to get to Broadway at 10:39; it was just a few minutes late, and Laney joined me at the Broadway stop. Yesterday was also the latest No Kings Mass Protests, which I absolutely would have prioritized attending if not for it being the Crosslake Connection opening; I only have a tiny photo album for that because Shobhit did attend, and march, and he texted me a few photos; Tracy also texted me a photo of herself at a rally in Puyallup, and Laney sent me a photo this morning that was taken by someone else. A few weeks ago, Shobhit even tried to sort of shame me for not attending the No Kings Protest instead, and I still stand by my position on the matter: there will be other No Kings protests; there is only one Opening Day for any of the Link Light Rail extensions.

But, No Kings is why Laney and I avoided Capitol Hill Station, as we figured it would be nuts with people on their way to Cal Anderson Park, where the rally was held. We took the bus downtown and then walked to Symphony Station. It was there we boarded a 2 Line train, taking that down to International District Chinatown Station, after which, for the first time—this was very exciting—we rode a train that veered left (east) rather than continuing south. And from there we went to Judkins Park Station.

This station was by far the most packed with people. Several of the stations all along the 2 line to the east were having celebrations of some sort, but only the two opening this weekend—Judkins Park and Mercer Island—were having big ones. Predictably, Judkins Park was the bigger of the two. It was kind of a madhouse, actually—indeed, I'm not sure I saw crowds like this at any of the previous openings and extensions I attended over the years. Lots were crowded, but this was a lot.

Laney and I got off the train at Judkins Park Station, which is below grade; we went up the elevator and out across from what I thought then was Judkins Park but was actually Jimi Hendrix Park, which is adjacent to the southeast. There were transit staff people there directing foot traffic. There was a lot of booths lining a couple of paths in the park, which we walked through but felt there was no time for lingering at any given booth. When I had gotten a few pictures, we headed back to the station, and there were lines backed up from the platform, up the stairs and out of the station! Laney's knees have a hard time with descending stairs, so we waited for an elevator. We waited for a while, because they wouldn't let anyone go down the elevators until some space was made on the platform down where the trains run. When the next train came and a bunch of people came out and up the stairs, and then a bunch of people made room on the platform loaded onto the train and therefore made room, we were finally able to take an elevator down. To my surprise, the train was still loading when we got out of the elevator, and we barely managed to board that train, even though it was still really crowded.

The experience at Mercer Island Station was similar, just not quite as nuts. Honestly, there was a lot bigger crowd there than I expected, as I basically think of Mercer Island as a pretty sleepy community. But when we got up to ground level again at this one, and we got our selfie shot in front of the large "2" outside the station (for the 2 Line), we made our wau to the Park and Ride across the street, and just like at Judkins Park, there was live entertainment on a center stage and a whole bunch of vendor booths with lots of people swarming around them. There just weren't quite as many—booths, or people in crowds. It was still plenty crowded enough, though.

We found some nearby Port-A-Potties to use the bathroom at, and then made our way back to the station. I got some photos of the art installations there, which, in contrast to the Jimi Hendrix motif at Judkins Park Station, here had a canoes and sailboats motif. A lot of the sculptures hanging in atriums were very cool.

From there, we boarded another eastbound train and then moved through the ten 2-line stations that have actually been in operation since 2024, but which we had not explored before. The next stop was South Bellevue Station, which was honestly probably the least impressive or memorable of them all. It had some large leaves painted on columns in different seasonal colors, but was otherwise nothing to write home about. We were glad to realize later that this was not a harbinger of the rest of the line—several of the other stations had very cool stuff integrated into their designs.

Here's something I never realized until looking it up this weekend: of the 10 original 2-Line stations, six are in Bellevue, and four are in Redmond. I had assumed they would weave through multiple cities (suburbs), but they are all in only those two. Regardless, I still love how this connection is opening up the East Side to me in ways it never was before—just like it did north to Lynnwood and South to Federal Way within the past couple of years. The whole region is just far more open and accessible to me now.

As you can imagine, I took a lot of photos yesterday. My "East Link Extension / Crosslake Connection 2026" photo album includes 132 shots, 8 of them video clips. This is by far the most I have taken for any Link Light Rail opening or extension. I edited and uploaded all the photos yesterday evening while Shobhit and I finished season 2 of Percy Jackson & The Olympians on Disney+, and I spent a good amount of time today looking up the titles of works and artist names for the public art at all the stations, so I could credit them properly in the photo captions. In most cases I included links to pages about the works themselves, and to the websites for the individual artists. This is always the biggest appeal for me, the public art at Light Rail stations. I love that Light Rail commissions them for every station, as it really enhances the aesthetic as well as the experience at each stop.

For certain, some stations were better and more interesting than others. I can say that probably both our favorite was Spring District Station, which is on the north side of Bellevue and has really awesomely designed wall murals on both sides of the platform. Collectively they are called Dragon and Phoenix, and the artist is Louie Gong, who is multiracial: White, Chinese, and Indigenous. His designs are very cool, and I particularly love this detail of a kitty in the rain under a floating umbrella.

I did learn later that some of the art is best viewed at night, so we did not get their best effect—such as Four Corners Extruded at Wilburton Station, by artist Phillip K. Smith III. The piece actually looks pretty cool even in the daylight, but I did not realize until visiting the artist website that the piece illuminates in different colors at night.

I also found this interactive Light Rail art map, which I really wish I had found before exploring all the stations. I clearly missed several pieces. I might just have to go back out there again soon and take that link with me as a guiding reference.

Anyway, it was a fantastic day, and the weather even cooperated: the forecast had indicated clouds all day, but for a few hours there it was actually mostly sunny. We were at the Mercer Island Park & Ride when we both realized maybe we should have brought sunscreen—not something you usually think of in March, at least not in Seattle. Thankfully neither of us got sunburned.

I noted already that we were both on the bus at about 10:40 in the morning; it was about 4:30 when we were finally leaving Downtown Redmond Station and headed back. It's a 52-minute ride on the 2-Line to Capitol Hill Station from there (all stations north of International District share both lines, basically doubling their train frequency; it's the 1 Line that goes straight further south to Federal Way and the 2 Line turns toward the east just south of International District), which would have gotten us back to Capitol Hill Station at about 5:22. It must have been roughly 5:35, give or take, when I got home, which made the East Link Extension / Crosslake Connection excursion a seven-hour affair. We did stop for a small picnic lunch at Spring District Station.

Overall it was a super fun day, and I actually look forward to taking the train that direction again.

[posted 7:15pm]