Wallingford (2 walks)

Happy New Year!! Today, I walked the 1,000th mile towards my goal.

Yesterday and today (New Year's Eve and New Year's Day), my husband and I walked 12.9 miles through the streets of Wallingford. We walked streets from N 36th to N 45th Street between Stone Way and Eastern Avenue N.

Stone Way houses lots of building-related businesses, a Bastyr Clinic, Stoneway Village (154 apartments, retail space, live/work space and parking) currently under construction and a BBQ restaurant with wooden tables on the parking strip out front. 45th is a busy street with lots of restaurants, pubs and shops. Wallingford Avenue is commercial near 45th.

East of Wallingford Avenue, the streets are charming but most of the lots are quite small. Residents have small back yards and appear to make up for it by doing some serious planting in their parking strips. Houses and lots do appear to be larger and views better near the top of the hill.

A block or two west of Wallingford Avenue, the houses are more modest and quite a few have been replaced with new condos and multi-family dwellings.

I forgot to bring my camera yesterday when we walked the streets east of Wallingford Avenue and missed getting shots of some interesting art work (a pig on a porch, an old wooden row boat in a front yard, etc.), lovely, tree-lined streets and lots of tree swings. We did see more tree swings today; I've probably seen over 20 in Wallingford and I still have about a third of the neighborhood left to walk. I did get a shot of a yard where chickens and ducks were being raised and another with two polar bears on skis (which was interesting because we had just attended the Polar Bear Plunge at Matthew's Beach where our daughter and some friends were taking the plunge).

This neighborhood is home to a small overlook park at 38th and Eastern,

the Wallingford United Methodist Church,

Gift of Grace Lutheran Church,

the Wallingford Bible Fellowship,

Hamilton International Middle School,

Wallingford Playfield

and the Wallingford Center (the old Interlake School converted to condos, restaurants and shops).

It's also home to the only QFC I've seen with the neighborhood name displayed in large letters over the top of the store. I'd say the residents are proud of their neighborhood.