Reading the City

We went to Greenlake today to do our reading the city assignment and it was pretty interesting what we found. We didn't really have any initial questions, we just wanted to look at interactions between people, but after observing people for a time, many questions were raised.
We started out by walking along Ravenna near the storefronts and then settled down on a bench on the trail. What initially grabbed my attention was the variety of people/groups present. There were mothers walking with their kids, dads carrying babies while walking the dog, couples walking hand in hand, lone joggers, groups of rollerbladers, and groups of friends. It was interesting to me how with so many people doing different things, and all the while seemingly ignoring the designated walking/jogging/rolling paths, there were no serious congestion problems on the trail. Joggers simply and calmly went around those walking. Those with small children didn't appear to be worried that their kids would get in anyone else's way, nor did any one throw weird looks when a child stepped in their way, they simply went around, making no eye contact or exchanging words with the parents or the kid.
The funny thing was that no one was making eye contact with each other- for a such a busy recreational place where people go to relax or have fun, it just seem a little odd that no one on the trail seemed curious about the people around them or cared to make eye contact and exchange smiles. Usually when I go running, the people that I pass at least smile, so when I noticed that the people at greenlake didn't even seem to acknowledge those around them, I began to wonder why they all go to such a crowded place to walk/run/rollerblade, etc if they have no interest in interacting with the people there. Is it the location, the water, the nice flat trail? There are plenty of places to walk and run in Seattle, so what makes Greenlake so popular?
We also noticed a lot of diversity at the lake. There were a lot of different ethnicities present, and interestingly groups were not mixed. I wasn't sure if this was because they were family or what, but it made me wonder. Also, there was a couple walking around barefoot for some reason (Jon got a pic of them that he has in his post). I don't know if they were looking for attention or if they thought that shoes weren't organic enough for them, but it was interesting to see how as they walked down the trail, no one else seemed to notice because they were too occupied with their own activities. Also, when we first got there there was an older man with a scraggly white beard walking around with a "Spanish Lessons" banner around him. I kind of wanted to follow him when he came back around and see if anyone started up a conversation with him, but sadly he never came back.
As far as our research question is concerned, we didn't really notice anything along the lines of immigration/assimilation but becoming familiar with observing people and becoming interested in certain social cues such as eye contact, verbal communication, smiles, etc. helped me understand more of what we could look for in Amsterdam.