The next selection can be blamed on, er, was inspired by, Sheldon and Laura. Our dear cousins gave us a gift certificate to some random bakery on California Avenue in this, their corner of Seattle. Since the City Walks Deck includes 4 walks in West Seattle, we figured we may as well kill two birds with one stone. (More on the Bakery later.)
California Avenue is very neighborhood-ly. We got an early morning start on a fairly grim day. It wasn’t raining, there was just a casual mist. While on our way to the starting point near the Admiral Theatre, we stopped in at an appliance store to check out some steam-powered washer/dryers. (This may turn out to be the deck’s most expensive walk for us! We’ll see.)
We did a quick turn around the intersection of Admiral Way and California before heading south for a serious stroll past Hiawatha Playfield and through the neighborhood. In other areas, there is some draw; funky shops, interesting restaurants, unique sights. But in this area, the establishments are for the locals; this is Seattle with its sleeves rolled up ready to do what is needed to get to the end of the day. We were struck by the number of Nail salons (not hardware; I mean the places where women go to get their fingers and toes pampered). And the stores weren’t just sitting there; every one of them was open and had at least 1 customer. (I thought there was a recession going on.) There must have been a half dozen.
This neighborhood is much less photogenic than Fremont. Still, there are some interesting sights. The local pubs seem to fill a valuable niche, with lots of new ones opening up very soon. (But maybe that’s due to replacements for the ones that recently failed?)
If you visit this area, keep your eyes open, for crosswalks (above) and murals (such as below). There was a really cool mural on the US Post Office near Genessee Street, but I couldn't get the right angle to capture the effect (which involved a church a block and a half away).
We continued south to get to the heart of “downtown West Seattle” around SW Oregon and SW Alaska Streets. There are some good shops here, including an electric train store and a branch of Easy Street Records, as well as the usual assortment of Coffee stores and restaurants. The southern end of our walk took us to Bakery Nouveau. Upon seeing it,
we were both thinking “hey, we’ve heard about this place”. The line was long, but well deserved. We were thinking lunch and afternoon snack, so we bought far more than we needed, but with no regrets.
Thanks, Laura and Sheldon!
We both enjoyed this walk. We are now 5 walks in and there is no question about turning back. I’m not completely sure why we are doing this, but I am glad we are! I hope you are enjoying our sharing. I hope you can visit Seattle and enjoy one or more of these, but perhaps you should wait until fairer weather.
California Avenue is very neighborhood-ly. We got an early morning start on a fairly grim day. It wasn’t raining, there was just a casual mist. While on our way to the starting point near the Admiral Theatre, we stopped in at an appliance store to check out some steam-powered washer/dryers. (This may turn out to be the deck’s most expensive walk for us! We’ll see.)
We did a quick turn around the intersection of Admiral Way and California before heading south for a serious stroll past Hiawatha Playfield and through the neighborhood. In other areas, there is some draw; funky shops, interesting restaurants, unique sights. But in this area, the establishments are for the locals; this is Seattle with its sleeves rolled up ready to do what is needed to get to the end of the day. We were struck by the number of Nail salons (not hardware; I mean the places where women go to get their fingers and toes pampered). And the stores weren’t just sitting there; every one of them was open and had at least 1 customer. (I thought there was a recession going on.) There must have been a half dozen.
This neighborhood is much less photogenic than Fremont. Still, there are some interesting sights. The local pubs seem to fill a valuable niche, with lots of new ones opening up very soon. (But maybe that’s due to replacements for the ones that recently failed?)
If you visit this area, keep your eyes open, for crosswalks (above) and murals (such as below). There was a really cool mural on the US Post Office near Genessee Street, but I couldn't get the right angle to capture the effect (which involved a church a block and a half away).
We continued south to get to the heart of “downtown West Seattle” around SW Oregon and SW Alaska Streets. There are some good shops here, including an electric train store and a branch of Easy Street Records, as well as the usual assortment of Coffee stores and restaurants. The southern end of our walk took us to Bakery Nouveau. Upon seeing it,
we were both thinking “hey, we’ve heard about this place”. The line was long, but well deserved. We were thinking lunch and afternoon snack, so we bought far more than we needed, but with no regrets.
Thanks, Laura and Sheldon!
We both enjoyed this walk. We are now 5 walks in and there is no question about turning back. I’m not completely sure why we are doing this, but I am glad we are! I hope you are enjoying our sharing. I hope you can visit Seattle and enjoy one or more of these, but perhaps you should wait until fairer weather.
No comments:
Post a Comment