Lake View Cemetery: just 'cause it's OctoberWeen

Graves and headstones and crows: oh my!


Lake View Cemetery, Seattle

I shot this photo back in March and blogged it then, but it seems much more appropriate to share with you this month of OctoberWeen.

Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee are buried here in Lake View. (How to find their spot.)

Crows and headstones: Goth cliche

There's a rookery in the firs bordering Lake View Cemetery and Volunteer Park.
While riding through the cemetery, the crows looked at me with the old stink-eye -- as if I were wandering through their living room. I guess I sort of was.



I assumed the crows-in-a-graveyard thing was a gothic invention. It's real here. And stranger still...this cemetery is where Brandon Lee ("The Crow") is laid to rest.

Paying a visit to Bruce & Brandon Lee

Martial arts master Bruce Lee and his son Brandon Lee are buried at the Lake View Cemetery, which is a little over a mile from where I currently live. I've never been before, so today's warm-ish spring weather provided the perfect opportunity to test out my new (to me) bicycle and visit the Lee memorials.

It took me a few minutes to locate the plot since I didn't have a map and only vague directions ("it's on the circle drive in the middle"). So if you go, see my tips below for finding the plot, particularly if there isn't anyone else on the crest of the hill.

The markers for Bruce and Brandon are on the eastern slope with a nice view of the mountains. There's a cozy bench on the adjoining plot, which is very thoughtful of the family who owns it. It provides a quite place to sit while visiting this popular spot. The Lee memorials are side-by-side and are complimentary, not identical, in size, shape and color with a lovely and modern look. The grass surrounding the space is well worn and the caretakers have placed stepping stones to the front of the markers to help keep the grass growing. Earlier visitors to the Lee memorials left mementos and items useful for the afterlife; tributes included fresh flowers, coins, and a cigarette.



Locating the Lee gravesite:
Go all the way up the height of the grounds to the circle drive. The memorials are on the outer edge of the circle drive and they face the east. You can see the backs of the markers from the drive, but you won't see the names until you walk around the memorials. To find the markers, situate yourself on the eastern side of the circle, face the east (away from the center), then look for trampled grass and circle steps leading to the front side of the memorials. if the drive were a clock with noon facing east, they are located at approximately 2pm.
If you have GPS, the coordinates are 47.6333, -122.3158 (from find a grave).

Guitar master Jimi Hendrix is also buried in the Seattle area --Greenwood Memorial Park in Renton, about 30 minutes away by car. For folks on a famous-dead-people tour who don't want to venture that far, a memorial sculpture of Hendrix is within 2 miles of the Lake View Cemetery at the NE corner of Pine and Broadway in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.