This week’s guest is Linnea Westerlind, author of “Discovering Seattle Parks: A Local’s Guide”. Linnea graduated from college with a degree in journalism and mass communications and public relations with a passion for the nonprofit sector. Today, Linnea is a mom of three who lives in West Seattle. After having her first kid in 2009, she came up with the goal of visiting every park in Seattle in a year, as a way to get out of the house. As life would have it, things didn’t exactly go as planned. After 4 years and having twins, she had visited nearly 500 parks with her kids and documented her journey and the parks on her blog. This project allowed Linnea to explore different neighborhoods and places she had never been before.

After just under 4 years, she checked the last park off her list. After completing the project, she found herself itching for the next thing. She wondered what she wanted to do next. That’s when she had the idea for the book. Linnea went back to 120 of her favorite parks and narrowed down the most interesting ones. It has been about a 10-year journey for Linnea and she now has almost 500 parks on her blog. She has become known as the “Park Nut” and the “Park Expert”.

Linnea loves parks because they are free, and they are equalizers. She enjoys seeing how parks are diversely used. Linnea was able to use this project to combine her love of writing, photography, exploring and spending time outside.

Growing up, Linnea grew up on the east side. Although, she now lives on the west side where she has lived for 11 years. Her family ended up in West Seattle by chance. She claims she is very thankful they ended up in the house and neighborhood they did due to the strong community atmosphere.

Learn more about Linnea, her blog, her book and her journey in this episode.

Episode Highlights:

• Deciding which parks to explore first
• Learning by making mistakes
• How people found the blog
• Search Engine Optimization
• Linnea’s favorite parks
• Incorporating parks into a way of life
• Linnea’s background
• West Seattle
• Something most people don’t know about Seattle

 

Guest’s Contact Info:

Order the Guide Book: “Discovering Seattle Parks: A Locals Guide”
Blog: YearOfSeattleParks.com

Follow Linnea on Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/yearofseattleparks
https://www.instagram.com/yearofseattleparks/
https://www.pinterest.com/yearofparks

Watch Linnea’s talk at Ignite Seattle from the spring of 2018: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay-HZ0E3BR0

 

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