Crown Hill

Rain added to puddles today as I took a 5.5 mile walk in the Crown Hill neighborhood. I walked streets between 8th and 15th Avenues NW from NW 85th to Holman Road.

85th is being repaved and curb cuts are being created. I had to detour where the sidewalk was closed. Another street around 14th and 89th is getting a sidewalk but it looks as if it's only going to be on one side of the street - it will be interesting to see if the other side still has puddles this time next year. Most of the streets north of 85th do not have sidewalks or curbs and many are in real need of a street edge alternative - no matter how hard some of the homeowners appear to have worked, there are still many puddles and potholes. Some homeowners appear to have been successful and one yard seemed to be landscaped to accommodate puddles.

Holman Road and 15th are a mix of commercial and residential. Close to Holman Road, there are quite a few multiplexes and some industrial sites. The rest is mostly single family homes and the peaceful Crown Hill Cemetery.

I spotted Dick's Drive-In, two Henry Murals on the Value Village building,

Fire House 35, Bob Johnson's Pharmacy, a tree with a face,

a rooster protecting eggs (and a few real chickens who scattered when I tried to take their picture), a palm tree, Harbor Church, the Finnish Lutheran Church, Crown Hill United Methodist Church (the latter two pictured in an earlier post), the United Indians of All Tribes Youth Home and a proposed land use action sign indicating that a 4-story building with 9 live-work units and 96 residential units would be built.

I was really drenched by the time I finished this walk but, as usual, there was a lot to see.

Fremont

A chore took us to Fremont but the rain shredded my map and cut our walk short today. My husband and I walked 3.7 miles along streets we needed to fill in between 34th and 41st from Francis Avenue to Stone Way N.

This is a really mixed area with industrial, commercial and residential buildings (single family and multiplex).

We started walking east on 39th then turned north on Fremont passing what looked like the Solstice Parade Headquarters, a staircase and B. F. Day Elementary.

Aurora (99) runs through this area and we took a footbridge over it, noticing that a bike runnel had been installed.

We spotted the Orange Tea Preschool,

a self-defense school,

a mural on Lama G's Cafe,

the Creme de la Creme food bus,

the Urban Earth Nursery, what I at first thought was a young lady but discovered was a mannequin which looked like a young lady on the look out for a ship to return to a harbor and a proposed land use action sign signifying that a single family house may be torn down and replaced with a 60 room building with no parking provided.

We walked under Aurora, observing a freshly painted mural and a street of lovely homes.

Harrison/Denny-Blaine and Madison Park

Today's walk spanned two neighborhoods as I finished up streets in Madison Park and added to the streets I'd already walked in the Harrison/Denny-Blaine neighborhood. I walked 5.2 miles along the streets just south and east of the Arboretum.

















I started out in the Arboretum at Washington Park and Playfield

and proceeded to streets between the Arboretum and Broadmoor, where there's some serious gardening going on. A large laurel hedge separates these streets from Broadmoor.

There are a few dead end streets which are a mix of older homes and some newer, skinny houses. I spotted a path down into the Arboretum.

The Broadmoor Manor Apartments are located on Madison.

The intersection of Lake Washington Blvd and Madison is commercial.

The closer I got to the lake, the grander the houses became.

This area is home to the Bush School (which takes up a lot more property than I had realized which probably accounts for all the "No Bush School Parking" signs I saw) and the Martin Luther King Community Center. I spotted stairways, a trail into the greenbelt, a Bond Bread sign, an impressive arch and two tiny horses (I only remember seeing one horse on my last walk near here).

Adams Neighborhood of Ballard

A chore took us to Ballard today so my husband and I took a 4.5 mile walk filling in streets in the Adams Neighborhood that I had not already walked. We strolled along streets between NW 56th, Shilshole Avenue NW and 14th Avenue NW.

I am always amazed how industrial much of this neighborhood is but today I was also amazed by the number and size of the newer housing complexes. This is still an area where you can see older, single family homes surrounded by multiplexes and industrial sites.

This area is home to the Ballard Campus of Swedish Hospital and Bergen Place with its nordic flags and mural.

We passed a number of Irish bars (Conor Byrne's,

Kelly O'Brien's

and the Old Pequliar),

the El Taco Loco food truck, a number of car dealerships, marine products warehouses,

a Henry mural,

NW Peaks Brewery, Trader Joe's,

the 2 Bit Saloon (with its mural)

and Walt's Organic fertilizer Company (with beautiful daffodils in its parking strip).

We saw art work on the Ballard Bridge and in a house's front yard,

a Edith Macefield's small house surrounded by new building (update on status of house), a few mailboxes,

a large hole in the ground which may become a 5 story building with retail, office space and 262 parking spots (but which now looks like home to a few geese)

and a sign cautioning us to "Look out for forklift."

A neighborhood of density and diversity.