Seattle Neighborhoods
During the time we lived in Seattle for 7 years I do not remember ever really thinking about all the different neighborhoods in the city. There were several neighborhoods that we frequented and got to know as a matter of living our daily life's. We lived on the North edge of Belltown which was predominantly a high rise condo building community. Just South of Belltown is Downtown Seattle which was easy to walk to and we did so nearly every week. Just to the North of Belltown is Queen Ann. We would regularly drive up to Queen Ann to take our young grandkids to the neighborhood parks there. Our daughters family moved into the Magnolia neighborhood which is just West of Magnolia. Interbay was how we drove to Magnolia and we did our grocery shopping in Interbay. Our boat is moored in a marina in the Ballard Neighborhood so we learned a lot about that particular neighborhood also. I did lots of Volunteer work at South Lake Union and walked there for those activities. We often walked through Pioneer Square to see Sounders games. We really did not experience any of the other neighborhoods around Seattle then except to perhaps drive through on the way to somewhere else.
Wikipedia list 127 Seattle neighborhoods see:
The last several months we have driven across Seattle in every direction many times over. We are becoming much more familiar with navigating Seattle and since we have lived in some different neighborhoods during this trip we have explored on foot several neighborhoods to get in our daily walks. I recently bought a cell phone holder mount for the family truckster. After mounting it on the dash I have only used it once in the last three weeks because I now can navigate most of Seattle without the need for the maps app! We can now easily add Greenlake and Wallingford to our list of familiar Seattle neighborhoods.
We are currently staying at a Air B&B in Wallingford. We also stayed at one in Green Lake, these two neighborhoods are neighbors. We know Green Lake from our daily walks and now are learning about Wallingford and its numerous Historic Homes.
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| Here is a colorful map of the central neighborhoods in Seattle, we have certainly ventured into far North and far South Seattle but no to walk around. |
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A typical Wallingford whome that has been updated only with windows and paint on the exterior, some with updated siding but keeping the original architectual design.
The homes on the corners are always the big ones, some in the middle of the block also.
Here is one that has not updated the paint or windows. This home is still valued $1M plus.
Here is on that just completed the exterior renovation.
You can see the size of the lots, again a corner lot.
On the right typical home, on the left a modern replacement which are sprinkled through the neighborhood now.
On the evening news the newscasters were discussing the recent One
$Billion lottery and one of them said that if she won she would buy a modest home in Wallingford.
This would be a modest home in Wallinigford
So if this one goes up for sale and she wins!
Every single Wallingford historic home has a fire place, there is at least one on every block with a creative construction.
We are currently staying in one of these townhome units. So they knock down an old historic home and build three to six units on the same lot, notice the long driveway, there is parking for 3 cars for the 5 units built on this lot. So the rest have to park on the street. The Seattle neighborhoods are now so dense that parked cars line both sides of the streets leaving only one lane for traffic. The Seattle drivers have no choice but to be very patient navigating neighborhood streets and all other arteries as well.
The townhomes all have roof top patios, since we are at the higher elevation of Wallingford, at the top of the hill, there are pretty good views of Downtown.
And Mt Rainer
One of the better attended bars on 45th Street, the main drag through Wallingford.
In an earlier day I would have ventured in for a beer.
The neighborhood Greek Restaurant reminded me of our time in Tarpon Springs, Florida a Greek town. I'm sure the exterior of the restaurant where we ate there almost exactly resembled the exterior of this one.
Most of the homes are 3 floors, a basment, and two floors above built above street level. Since everything is built on the sides of a hill the streets were cut in. So if your walking uphill the retaining walls are very high on the corner house, the retaining walls decrease in height as you walk up hill on the sidewalk so the last house is at or near street level., then the next block it starts all over again.
Cutting in all these streets provided lots of rocks for all the necessary retaining walls.
A neighborhood Middle school, that was a high school. The new high school is just one block over. The architecture reminded me of the one we went to in Ft. Worth, TX, Arlington Heights HS which was built in 1937.
Each neighborhood displays their culture in one way or another. This huge ladybug on a flower painted at the intersection is telling.
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| Here is a Google Earth screen shot of the intersection |
The Best Cupcakes here.
This driveway has other purpose.
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| Haven't seen this in a very long time! |
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This car is parked just down from where we are currently staying. It is a 1960 Skoda Octavia. manufacturer established in 1925 as the successor to Laurin & Klement and headquartered in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. Škoda Works became state owned in 1948. After 1991, it was gradually privatized to the German Volkswagen Group, becoming a partial subsidiary in 1994 I have never seen a Skoda before, and it's no wonder since the Czech car company imports its cars to every country except North America and Japan. This car has not moved in at least the eight weeks we have walked by this spot. I'm sorta curious about this car and its owner.  seems to not have even been opened for decades. Even the house appears like its been without a human for a long while.  that the owner of the Skoda Octavia went down the Hole. The question is of course, can the person find their way back or do they even want to come back?? |
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| We talked to an arborist that was measuring this Douglass Fir, The Admiral asked if they were removing the tree, he said" not if he can help it!" He said he believed this to be the tallest tree in the neighborhood. By my estimation at least 120' high. |
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| A walk along Magnolia Bluff |
Ther is always a reson to go back to the boat.
