Tucked under I-5 in Eastlake, Colonnade Park is probably the most secret of Seattle city parks. The park opened in 2005 and originally looked pretty forlorn — an empty area made up of stairs, rocks, and concrete columns. But if you poke your nose in the park today, you’ll find an elaborate layout of mountain bike trails and training grounds, courtesy of volunteers from the Evergreen Mounain Bike Alliance (formerly Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club). According to the organization, volunteers have put in more than 12,000 hours building the skills area.

After years of work, the park is almost complete, and the organization is celebrating the grand opening this weekend with a ribbon cutting, barbecue, and a drawing for prizes. The ribbon cutting starts at 10 a.m., and the event runs until 2:00.

Even if you can’t make it on Saturday, you should check out the park when you get a chance. It’s amazing to see how much transformation has taken place in the past few years.

The Mariners lost to Texas tonight, 4-6. Now that the four-game winning streak has ended, I feel comfortable writing this without jinxing anything: Seattle has been worth watching the last couple weeks. If you stopped following the team back in mid-June — and there are many of you — consider giving them a second look. Not only did they win four in a row, they did it against decent teams (Cleveland, Texas). In the previous week they tied a series with Oakland, and they took two of three from Minnesota (a matchup U.S.S. Mariners thought would turn ugly).

Sure, a four-game win streak isn’t front-page news, but last night’s game may be the top pick for this season’s highlight reel, as Adrian Beltre hit for the cycle — a feat we haven’t seen from a Mariner since John Olerud in 2001. If that small olive branch isn’t enough to bring you back, probably nothing else will this year.

photo by your mistakes are your style’s photostream

Some of the more creative booth displays included this take on the “nuclear family” for Fallout 3:

At the booth for World War II shooter Brothers in Arms, Hell’s Highway, attendees could get a military buzz cut:

When the exhibition floor closed at 7:00, the crowds leaked out on to Pike Street, where several artists blasted chiptunes on the sidewalk. Check out the video below for a sampling from artists Circles and Fighter X.

Later that night, PAX held a showing of the film “Bip Festival: Reformat the Planet,” a documentary on the chiptune scene. You can watch the film online at Pitchfork TV this week only.

Calling PAX a big deal is an understatement. The expo’s popularity has skyrocketed since its inception just four years ago. While the first PAX drew 3,000 attendees in 2004, it quickly outgrew its digs at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. Last year, the crowd swelled to more than 35,000 attendees, and is expected to hit 50,000 this year — garnering the title of the biggest gathering of gamers in North America.

What’s the appeal? PAX has built a reputation as the event dedicated to the gamer community. Unlike the Electronic Entertainment Expo in L.A., which serves as a platform for game companies to announce new products to major news outlets, PAX keeps the focus on the game consumer. This year’s schedule includes panel discussions, game tournaments, late-night geek movies, concerts, and Rockband until 3 a.m.

On top of our thorough Bumbershoot coverage, we’ll post updates of PAX attendees getting their geek on throughout the weekend.

Photo by jvidhee.

• Fremont Outdoor Movies:  “Hairspray”; Saturday, August 23, 7:30 p.m.; $5 donation; on the corner of 35th and Phinney Avenue North. www.fremontoutdoormovies.com.
• West Seattle Movies on the Wall: “Galaxy Quest”; Saturday, August 23, 8:30 p.m.; Parking lot of 4410 California Ave. S. This is the final movie of the summer for the “Movies on the Wall” series.
• Eastlake Film Festival and Picnic: “The Princess Bride”; Friday, August 29, 7:00 p.m.; Rogers Play Field, 117 East Louisa, PMB #1. Hosted by The Eastlake Community Council.

Of course, if the “do-it-yourself theater” doesn’t cut it for you, and you long for the old school drive-in with its double features and steamy car windows, there’s always The Valley Drive-In in Auburn.

I tested the early version of the site a few months ago, and I noticed some welcome improvements from that early beta, including improved user-friendliness and toning down the testosterone levels in the design.

The site definitely has potential, and if GoTime added mobile features I could see it really taking off. But the big question, as the Seattle P.I. asks, is whether GoTime can entice enough Seattlites away from the already established list of networking and event Web sites such as MySpace, Yelp, Last.fm, etc.

Have you already joined GoTime? What do you think?