A Sleepy Part of Queen Anne

Today we headed over to a sort of quiet and sleepy part of Queen Anne. It was the area surrounding SPU and perhaps it was only sleepy because the students had yet to return.

We parked on Cremona and headed down towards SPU, got ourselves a little turned around and thought the map maker, Thomas (who I feel in my own head I am on a first name basis with at this point) screwed up. I have to admit that I cursed his name a little and then realized that no, it was in fact me who had made the mistake. Sorry Thomas!

Headed down towards the water and crossed over the often forgot about Ship Canal Trail and down to a little public shore access park, perfect for a kayak launch. We saw this great boat parked there. There was even a houseboat that I have never noticed before.

Back up toward SPU we did a funny little loop around Bertona and Emmerson, which must have made us look silly indeed. Oh well.

Then, I wanted to show my boyfriend the photo prints (he is an artist himself, check out www.paintedwater.com) that were hanging in Stells, where I had visited on a previous walk, my coffee oasis in the dessert of Queen Anne! They were so nice in there and told him to come back with some of his art, they might display it.

Ran into what looked like some old abandoned staircases, but we guessed that they were private as they were not marked on the map.

We also ran into a street that was not on the map, it had a sign that said it was a map, but we decreed that it was in fact an alley just mislabeled by the City of Seattle as a street.

The entire area was sort of a tucked away, little area. Quiet, it almost felt like a little fishing village in the middle of Ireland or something. Strange how you can be transported somewhere so far away less than a mile from your own house.

Streets Completed: Cremona, W Argand (which, one piece of is really an alley)
Staircases: None, or private abandoned unmarked one
Total Time Walked: 48 minutes

Dead Ends

Sometimes the walks that I dread the most turn out to be the best. All day today I was feeling just blah, didn't want to move, despite the sunny weather greeting me at the window.

As I sat and watched a re-run of a gymnastics meet I saw a story about Shawn Johnson, the gold medalist, who was making a comeback after an ACL tear! Well, if she can do all the stuff she was doing on the balance beam with a busted knee, well, then, I could go for a damn walk. Yes, that is right, a gymnast got me to go for a walk. I will fully admit that!

Off I went, part of the problem was I feeling uninspired by where to go. I decided on a patch of streets on the eastern side of the hill that I hadn't yet visited. It didn't look too exciting. But it was! It was the land of dead ends and views. One after the other, one more interesting than the other.

This is one of those posts that is best left to pictures.
This dead end has a little circle of a forest at the end, of course I walked around the whole thing!


Did you know there is a matching wall on the opposite side of the hill from Wilcox Wall? Same lights and everything! Who knew?
Don't know if you can see it but there a ton of crows flying overhead in this one.

Added bonus pic, this was just too cute to pass up, almost an exact replica of the big house, for Lola, the dog!

Streets Completed: Bigelow and 4th Ave N
Staircases: None!
Total Time Walked: 1 hour 17 minutes

Welcome back, slacker!

This is me, trying to look like a bad ass in front of a graffiti wall in a Queen Anne alley!

Go for a week from Queen Anne and she makes it hard to get back into the swing of things! Especially when you try to come back to steep hills and staircases! All of today's walk seemed to be up and up. 6th West between Prospect and Highland, steep, Lee, from 8th W to Willard, steep, 3rd West up from Olympic, steep!

W Lee, Up staircase number 200

W Comstock, very steep, went down and then straight back up again. Phew!

Staircase number 314, long and steep!

Streets Completed: Lee, Willard
Staircases: 342, 314, 200, 123, 325
Total time walked: 42 minutes

Feeling Deprived

For the last few days I haven't had a chance to do any Queen Anne walking. And, now I am about to jet off for a fancy vacation at the coast and will not do any Queen Anne walking for the next week. What is a girl to do?

For my update today I will show you all the map and how much it has filled out.

The south side of the mapThe north side

Till next week!

Fellow Climbers

A couple of days ago I saw a group of women huffing and puffing up a staircase on Warren and 2nd. They all had workout clothes and their trusty Queen Anne Staircase Map! I was whizzing by in a car so I couldn't stop to chat so I assume they are doing all the Queen Anne staircases.

It's nice knowing there are other wanderers, climbers and trekkers out there with me, sometimes it gets lonely!

I just cant stop!

It seems to be that once I get going on these walks there is no stopping me. I just can't make myself stick to the original route, I must get more done!

Today was no different, I think I was in every single section of Queen Anne, all over the map, literally!

My mom dropped me off on Nickerson and 11thW and I climbed up a steep walkway all the way up to Ruffner (see left). Hooked a right and the plan was to go all the way across the hill on 13th W and then up and over the hill on Garfield. An hour, tops!

First I added a little loop around some little street around 13th. That was my first detour. Then, as I got to the West Howe Jurassic (which is a staircase, do not know why it was called the West Howe Jurassic but it sounds pretty neat!).

I got hungry and had to go to the bathroom and decided to pop into the Icebox on 10th W. What a cute little place. I was refreshed with deviled eggs and a gatoraide and pulled out my map. I decided to ditch the idea of Garfield opting instead for West Howe up to the top where I was just going to head home.

I hiked up the hill (realizing that I should have done all the steep bits of Queen Anne when it was a little cooler outside). Came to this great bench (see right) and had a sit down and determined that I was feeling pretty good and why not finish all of Howe? So, I did, which was way out of my way.

Then, on a fluke, there was a little part of Garfield that I skipped over on a previous walk, so I trotted down the hill, just to come back up again. This time I was going to complete Hayes St. So, back toward the center of the hill on Hayes, where I was going to turn to go home.

Got to the end of Hayes and Blaine was just right there, just one block over. Fine! Up Blaine I went, I was going to go until I hit 3rd and then turn down the hill. Well, on 5th Ave I finally turned down. Headed left on Comstock, then back to Highland to do staircase 331. Good thing too, because I saw a fleet of Seafair big military ships leaving Elliott Bay.

I just can't stop myself! My map is filling up with highlighter marks! And, now, quite frequently I intersect with a street I have already done and have fond memories.

Total time walked: 2 hours and 12 minutes
Streets completed: 13th Ave W, W Howe, Hayes St

Staircases: 42, 175, 43, 365, 364 (otherwise known as West Howe Jurassic), 162, 331Did you know that many streets on Queen Anne are marked in the pavement?

The Trees of Queen Anne

Took another long walk at the end of last week and the one thing that stood out was the magnificent trees we have here. Today's blog post will be a visual tour of the wonderful trees of Queen Anne:

An elephant's foot tree! On top of the Comstock Grand Dame

A gorgeous twisty tree, with the sun behind it on 4th Ave W

A perfect garden on 4th Ave W
A perfect tree canopy on Smith St

One of my favorite Queen Anne trees in the park at 2nd and Prospect

Streets completed on this walk: 1st Ave N, 1st Ave W, 4th Ave W
Total time walked: 2 hours 2 minutes