Walking Seattle Again

A sunny Sunday afternoon found us back in the Maple Leaf neighborhood. From NE 88th Street, we took this path located across from 12th Avenue NE and entered Maple Leaf Reservoir Park . The park has been completed in the last 12 years. This park is built on the lid of the Maple Leaf Reservoir and ... ... the old water tower is still there. There are also pickle ball courts, ... ... a playground,  ballfields, staircases, views of downtown, Lake Washington and the Cascades, and ... ... this "Confluent Boulders" sculpture. It was created from boulders taken from both the Cedar River and Tolt River Watersheds which feed into the Maple Leaf Reservoir. We spent most of our two mile walk meandering through the park which was well used on this Sunday afternoon. When we did walk a few of the surrounding streets, we spotted a mailbox (don't see too many of those anymore), alleys, a few new houses bordering the park, an assisted living facility (in a building that had once been a hos...

We took another short walk today in the Wedgwood neighborhood. Walking streets from 75th to 80th between 30th and 35th, we found ourselves in what appears to be a family neighborhood. We passed a number of basketball hoops and ... ... came to a house that was using its trees to create a play structure and ... ... a climbing wall! The same house also had a trampoline and dome shaped monkey bars. These were more interesting than the modest house which was still standing but a 3,000+ sq. ft. house which had already permitted to replace it was for sale. We passed Eckstein Middle School , some expensive new townhomes and a large stand of bamboo. On 31st, we spotted this path which lead us to ... ... this staircase which we took down to 30th. Walking north on 30th, we could smell the unharvested lavender growing in a garden. This 2 mile walk featured lots of sidewalks but we had to head home to do some housework - I'd rather be walking!  

A short walk in the Ravenna neighborhood ended with a really good lunch at the Bryant Corner Cafe. Servings were so generous that we took half home for dinner. Our walk included an alley ...  ... where we came across this whimsical display. We noted some new sidewalks ... ... and some handprints in an older section of sidewalk. There were a good number of well-tended brick Tudor homes in the neighborhood but we didn't notice as many tall trees as in the other north-end neighborhoods we had been visiting. We did pass an amazing hedge on a dead-end street that bordered Eckstein Middle Schoo l. On this 1.5 mile walk, we passed two Little Free Libraries. One contain adult and children's books as well as a few VHS tapes. The other contained mostly novels.

  Today's walk was mostly devoted to filling in streets in the Matthews Beach neighborhood. Stopping to photograph this lovely arbor, ... ... I came across what I guess to be a Little Free Egg Box. There were no eggs today. Passing some interesting shrubbery, ... ... a tailored drainage ditch near a new type of intersection street edge, ... ... an intersection street edge defined by street reflectors, ... ... a memorial to victims of a shooting  and ... ... another arbor I wound my way to some hilly dead-end streets above the Burke Gilman Trail . I admired the views of Lake Washington before making my way down to the trail and Riviera Place which parallels it in this area. Walking south on Riviera, I noticed the remains of a fallen tree. I'm pretty sure it blocked the trail at some point during the Covid pandemic. This was a hilly 4.5 mile walk and I passed three Little Free Libraries. One contained magazines, video CD sets, a medical manual and children's books. Another co...

The sun was shining today as my husband and I went back to Victory Heights to walk a few more streets. We noted that most of the lots must have initially been quite large but many have been subdivided and now have homes on the front and back of the original lot. A few still have large yards and one even seemed to be an enclave with four or five homes around a central driveway. We walked streets from Northgate Way to 115 between 15th and 20th. There is a Senior Living Memory Care facility in this area; it is the first non-residential building I remember seeing. We did notice a variety of sidewalks/curbs/street edges. This one along 115th featured an open drainage ditch and the walking path was much lower than the street. This one along 19th, had a tailored sidewalk and curb. This one along 20th had a tailored street edge but no sidewalk. Not only did the street edges differ but the street surfaces also varied with this one along Goodwin Way being a pothole-free, concrete-type material w...

It was raining this morning when my husband and I started our walk in the Maple Leaf neighborhood. We walked streets between Roosevelt and 15th from 90th to 94th. Most, but not all, of the streets had sidewalks. 15th and Roosevelt were busy avenues but the streets between were quiet and residential. Roosevelt had a collection of restaurants, cafes, shops, an Ace Hardware store and the Perkins School . We saw a sign for new Residential Live Work Buildings. There were also a number of densely packed new homes going up. The Northwest Puppet Center  building is still on 15th but it did not look open. Its website only lists events through May 2022. The streets between 15th and Roosevelt features some beautiful autumn colors, ... ... interesting hedges,  traffic islands and ... ... sidewalk logos that made me feel as if I should do some flips while walking. Leaving Maple Leaf, I walked east along 90th to Lake City Way where the Shanty Tavern is still operating. Walking north to 92nd...