Haller Lake

It was a pretty quiet Memorial Day around the Haller Lake neighborhood when my husband and I took a 6.4 mile walk here today.

We walked all of the streets from 1st Ave NE to I-5 from 130th to 116th Street, the streets circling Haller Lake, the streets around Northgate Elementary School and the 117th Street I-5 overpass.

We found two paths which allow public access to the lake. There were a few people fishing at one of them.

Some streets had sidewalks but not curbs; there were plenty of trees in this neighborhood and we saw a few walkers/dog walkers.

There were lots of private drives down to the lake so we didn't get to see all the homes in this area.

The feel along the streets around the lake was almost country-ish while the streets closer to I-5 felt more suburban.

The cement wall and trees along I-5 didn't eliminate the traffic noise but one resident made use of every inch of garden space, planting right up to the wall. Another resident had turned a dead tree into a sculpture.

This area is home to Saint Andrew Kim Korean Catholic Church and school,

North Seattle Alliance Church (which appears to house the Haller Lake Christian Health Clinic),

Northgate Open Bible Church,

Northgate Elementary School,

the Haller Lake Community Center and

North Acres Park and its ballfields.

It abuts UW Medicine Northwest Hospital and Medical Center.

It was fun discovering the lake accesses and the level streets made this an easy walk.

Madison Park

There was no one at the beach today when my husband and I took a 4 mile walk through the affluent looking Madison Park neighborhood.

We walked most of the streets north of E Newton Street from the golf course to the lake.

The beach is at the foot of E Madison Street, the commercial stretch of this area. We did see quite a few people in the restaurants along Madison.

We had not expected this area to have the number of large condo developments we saw along the lake edges.

The western portion abutting Broadmoor Golf Club was devoted to single family homes, some modest, some quite grand.

Streets are tidy and some of the landscaping is charming.

The major discovery of this walk was public beach access near 37th Avenue E. A gravel road runs from E McGilvra Street along the golf course fence and winds down to the lake.

I'm looking forward to returning to Madison Park to explore more streets and the shops along Madison Street.

South Lake Union

A trip to REI brought my husband and me back to the South Lake Union neighborhood to fill in streets we had missed on our last walk in this area.

We walked in the area between Aurora Avenue N and Eastlake Avenue E from Denny Way to Lake Union.

During our 5.2 mile walk, we saw lots of Amazon buildings but not a single one had a name on it.

This neighborhood is a real mix of office space, industrial and residential with plenty of restaurants thrown in. Most of the office space is newer as are the condos. Even though it was a Saturday, we saw plenty of people out walking and the area near REI was very busy.

Here and there, there was an older building surrounded by new ones and we saw a construction site where another Amazon building is under way. Construction is also under way to address the Mercer Mess."

From Aurora, we could see the Space Needle, the Experience Music Project and the new Gates Foundation buildings.

This area is home to the Seattle Times building with a small park across the street,

a First Church of Christ Scientist,

the School of Visual Concepts,

KING Broadcasting company (which had an interesting sculpture at its entrance),

Brave Horse Tavern (tucked in among Amazon buildings), Group Health, Buca di Beppo restaurant, Goods for the Planet,

an Elephant Super Car Wash,

the Unity Church of Truth, the South Lake Union Discovery Center (which was not open today - I shall return to check it out),

Denny Park Lutheran Church

and Denny Park (Seattle's first park) which is bigger than I expected and quite pretty.

It was an enjoyable walk and made more enjoyable by stopping at the Serious Pie restaurant at Westlake and Harrison.