North Beach/Blue Ridge/Olympic Manor

The hills gave us a real workout today as my husband and I took a 6.7 mile walk through the streets of North Beach/Blue Ridge/Olympic Manor. We walked from NW 90th to 100th Street between 15th and 23rd Avenues NW and, on a few streets, as far west as 24th.

This area is dominated by Whitman Middle School, Swanson's Nursery (which was ready for Halloween),

spectacular Sound views

and Soundview Playfield. The Ballard Preschool Cooperative is across 23rd from the playfield at 90th.

The Olympic Manor development has sidewalks, curbs and lots of restrictions. A gardner who was pruning some trees told us that homeowners' trees could not be higher than their houses. We'd also heard that a homeowners' business vehicles (trucks) could not be parked on their property. We only saw two other people out walking in this area but we did meet a raccoon who tried to stare us down.

We say a witch who must have been on her cell phone while she was trying to fly her broom.

As soon as we left Olympic Manor, we noted taller trees and a lack of sidewalks.

This is a great neighborhood for a real walking workout.