South View Ridge

It was cold and we didn't see any sun as my husband and I returned to View Ridge today to walk the streets between NE 65th and NE 70th Street from 45th to 55th Avenue NE. We included the streets around View Ridge Playfield and a few streets near Thornton Creek Elementary we had missed on prior walks.

Our walk through this well kept view neighborhood was very similar to yesterday's except that the crest of the hill was on 50th Avenue.

During the initial part of our walk, we only saw two pairs of people door-belling but by the end, we did see a few people out walking.

The area is hilly and we had a good workout during our 5.2 mile walk. This neighborhood is quiet and residential but does not offer lots of variety and my only discovery today was some footprints on a sidewalk.

North View Ridge

It was cold but sunny today when my husband and I took a 6 mile walk through View Ridge.

This is a quiet residential neighborhood with sidewalks and carefully tended homes and gardens.

51st Avenue NE is the crest of a hill and streets to the east have underground utilities and offer views of Lake Washington and the Cascades. On this clear day, streets to the west had beautiful views of the Olympics.

We started out walking the streets between 45th and 55th Avenues from 70th to 75th Street. View Ridge Elementary School takes up so much of this area that we added streets just south of View Ridge Playfield between 43rd and 45th from 65th to 70th.

Some streets looked as if the homes were originally modest cape cods but many have been remodeled and enlarged.

Besides the school and playfield, this neighborhood is home to an Orthodox Jewish Mikvah, the

Sand Point Community United Methodist Church and a nicely landscaped Seattle Public Utility facility.

We saw a few young women pushing strollers, a few dog walkers and three young boys playing with a remote controlled car.

Eastern View Ridge and Radford Court

There was a dusting of snow on the ground and it was cold when my husband and I returned to the Sand Point area to fill in streets near the Burke Gilman Trail and Radford Court, a UW housing development.

We took a 4.4 mile walk through the streets from NE 65th to NE 70th between 55th Avenue NE and Sand Point Way NE plus NE 70th to NE 75th between 55th and 57th and the streets in Radford Court.

This is a hilly neighborhood with some steep drop-offs and views of Lake Washington. Utilities appear to be underground and many of the streets have sidewalks and curbs. Some of the sidewalks are so narrow that we wound up walking in the street.

Some of the streets look more like alleys that real streets and the Burke Gilman Trail runs through this neighborhood.

Seattle Children's has an office complex along Sand Point Way and the Parkpoint condo complex is next door to it at 65th and Sand Point Way.

With the exception of the traffic along Sand Point Way created by Children's and the UW (and maybe Magnuson Park and NOAA), this is a pretty quiet neighborhood.

Capitol Hill South and West of Volunteer Park (2)

I was back in Volunteer Park today for the last day of a great Seniors Making Art Class at the Conservatory so I took advantage of being on Capitol Hill to walk neighborhoods near the park. I filled in streets I had missed between I-5 and Federal Avenue E from E Roy to E Highland.

This is a mixed neighborhood, going from majestic older homes near the park to upscale condos to older apartments to commercial establishments.

Some of the newer condo developments fit in very well with the character of the neighborhood but there are spots where the mix of architecture is jarring with a turn-of-the-century home surrounded by a 60's building on one side and a totally modern building on the other.

There is one street on which five older homes are being knocked down to be replaced by a 58 unit, 6 story building. Just down the street, a corner store has been made to look quite upscale and even given a fancy name, Mercato Bellagio.

There were quite a few people walking through this neighborhood and even the light snow that started to fall couldn't reduce the impressiveness of some of the brick tudors and other architecturally pleasing homes.

I discovered a bike path running along I-5 between E Roy and Belmont Avenue E.

I was disoriented by all the variations of Belmont, Boylston, Bellevue and Broadway (street, avenue, court, place, etc.) and wished I had a more detailed map of this area.

The area is hilly, sloping away from the park.

I passed the Harvard Exit movie theater, the original Cornish School, two book stores, a few restaurants, lounges and coffee shops and the large playfield for Lowell Elementary.

There were views of the Space Needle from many streets and the northern streets have an impressive view of St. Mark's Cathedral.

I caught a glimpse of a play structure in a large green area behind a laurel hedge; I suspect this is part of St. Mark's Preschool.

This is a neighborhood with something for almost everyone and a nice place to walk.

Southwestern Windermere and Belvedere Terrace

Today's walk took my husband and me through two attached neighborhoods. We weren't sure where Windermere ended and Belvedere Terrace began. According to a real estate website I visited, Belvedere Terrace is a small 4 block by 5 block enclave within the Windermere neighborhood, it is a residential area just west of Sand Point Way from 56th Ave NE to 59th Ave NE and NE 56th to NE 60th.

We had walked most of Windermere on a prior walk so today's 4.1 mile walk finished off the streets in Windermere and included all of Belvedere Terrace where the homes are more modest, lots are smaller and views not as prevalent as in Windermere. There are also quite a few more cars parked on the streets. There is a newer townhome development along Sand Point Way at 58th Street.

When we came out to Sand Point Way NE, we saw the expanding complex of the Center for Spiritual Living across the street.

Along the way, we saw a tree house and an interesting sculpture which may or may not have been carved from a tree trunk.

Today was a holiday but we still spotted some contractors working on remodels and renovations, a dog walker (who was scooping) and a young bicyclist-in-training (i.e. with training wheels) accompanied by a parent viewing a hand-held device.