Walking Seattle Again

  It was a lovely day for a walk and the Green Lake and North College Park neighborhoods were at their best on this Spring day. Resisting the urge to walk around Green Lake, I stuck to the streets which were mostly residential but did house some cafes and restaurants along Green Lake Way. Bishop Blanchet High School and its football field took up almost the equivalent of  three city blocks. Northwest's Child Aaron's Place run by the Washington Autism Alliance abuts the school property. Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church is nearby. Here is a mural from Cascadia Elementary School which abuts the area. There were quite a few dead-end streets where the neighborhood hugged I-5 and busy N 85th Street but most of them were quiet and lovely. All the streets had curbs and sidewalks were present alongside most properties. Many of the streets were cement. One property owner had interestingly landscaped the parking swag. Here and there, I glimpsed views of the downtown skyline. This pictu...

Finally back walking again, this dreary May day found me in the North College Park neighborhood around North Seattle College. Part of the walk was through the campus which was very quiet this Saturday morning. This Proposed Land Use Action sign was at the corner of N 92nd Street & College Way N. The college will be leasing the property to a low income housing organization which will build 200 units of affordable housing.  Just east of the proposed building site, the Licton Springs P-Patch was busy this morning. Here is a view of the John Lewis Memorial Bridge from the campus which is now connected to the Northgate Light Rail station. Before exiting the school, I spotted a cooperative preschool and a sign noting that part of the campus is a wetland critical area. I was able to walk south from College Way N to Burke Avenue N but this pedestrian path prevented cars from doing so. Spotting this sign at N 88th, I proceeded to find ... ... this stairway up to Meridian Avenue N. Walki...

  Today's walk in the Wallingford neighborhood was very different from yesterday's walk in Haller Lake - there were sidewalks everywhere. I walked streets from N 45th to N 50th Street between Stone Way N and Thackeray Place N. The Good Shepherd Center and Meridian Playground take up a fair amount of this area. I took a little time to walk on the grounds and visited the Good Shepherd P-Patch. Saint Benedict's Church and School cover acreage this area; Elim Baptist Church - not as much. The Waldorf School Kindergarten is here, as is a post office and Seattle Orthopedic Center. Except for Stone Way and 45th Street, the majority of the housing was single family home but that appears to be changing with townhouses and multifamily dwellings replacing older homes. Some streets only allow parking on one side - I hope these new buildings are providing garages. I passed a very tidy older development of brick townhouses. 45th is primarily a commercial street. It is home to the Walling...

  The Haller Lake neighborhood was the location of today's walk. Ingraham High School, with its new building and impressive sports fields, took up a good portion of the area. Northwest Hospital occupies considerable acreage. A City of Seattle's Maintenance Facility and the Operations Support Center for the Seattle Housing Authority are also located here. There is a Household Hazardous Waste facility just north of a trailer park. Ashworth Avenue N becomes a footpath through Seattle Public Utility property and... ... at Harkness Park. It also becomes a dead-end street at 130th. On this 5.5 mile walk, I passed the Granite Curling Club of Seattle I took a lesson here a few years ago and, if I were 20 years younger, might have taken up curling), ... ... a cute stump house (it wasn't up in a tree), ... ... a toppled tree on the Ingraham campus, and some newly installed sidewalks with curb cuts (even though, except for busy streets, sidewalks were few and far between). Single fami...

  This sunny February day found me back in the Haller Lake neighborhood. I walked streets near both Ingraham High School and Lakeside School. A few of the streets curved or crossed each other. Someone has made good use of this intersection at Wayne Place NE. Most streets have a mix of modest houses, some small, older cottages, some probably built in the 70's, and few newer. This tidy development on Wayne Place is an instance of the newer. The area is quiet and most of the homes appeared to be on good condition. Few of the streets had sidewalks. Busy 145th Street did but most of Roosevelt Way N did not. Some stretches of Roosevelt were not conducive to walking because the street edges were quite narrow and there was enough traffic to make it dangerous. This church building appears to house a Korean congregation, True Light Church in Seattle, and Converge Northwest, an organization devoted to strengthening churches. Along this 5 mile walk, I spotted four Little Free Libraries. They c...

  It was quite cold, today, as my husband and I walked in the Haller Lake neighborhood. Except for 145th, the streets we walked were quiet on this MLK holiday. This modest neighborhood is just west of the manicured grounds of Lakeside School. After taking this photo of one of  Lakeside's athletic fields (with a huge apartment complex going up in the background), my fingers were too cold to take any more pictures. I wonder what changes the opening of the light rail station at 145th will bring to this area where, except for Lakeside additions, not much appears to have changed in the last 13 years. We walked a little over two miles and spotted one Little Free Library which contained mostly children's books.