Kerry Park, Queen Anne Neighborhood

The most photographed view of the city is taken from Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill just north of Downtown Seattle. You've seen it on many postcards, books or may even have it framed in your home. I was intimidated to do this post, because of the incredible competition out there. This is where the professionals go to get "the shot".  Here are a few of ours...

Dusk

  

 A place to think

 A place to talk

 or just... to be 

    

Heading West from Kerry Park on W Highland Drive. Amazing Homes.

 

 W Highland becomes 8th Ave West as it journeys North. 

This is a scenic walk with views of Elliott Bay and the Olympics.

Madison Neighborhood

One of the lovely and easier to find Seattle neighborhoods is that of Madison. A long, diagonal  street NE of Downtown along Lake Washington. Click here for map.

Jeremy and I used to come here on Sunday afternoons between our church's morning and evening services. There are great little coffee shops all along Madison, but we usually shared a latte at the Essential Baking Company. I always like to admire their award winning pastries. There are some fun little shops to browse, our favorites being City People's Garden Store, Pharmaca and a beautiful home decor store with linens and dishes, I think it's Our Distinctive Home Shop. There are several eating choices ranging from casual cafes to sit down restaurants.

The neighborhood Starbucks is one of the few Black Label stores around

and home to CEO Howard Shultz.  

The newly renovated neighborhood park.

Some unique play equipment with a space-age, modern feel.

I love the homey feel of this little corner of Seattle with towering trees 

lining the streets, old homes to admire, nurtured gardens, 

a relaxing drive along the BLVD and don't forget the Arboretum.

Cutts Island - Gig Harbor

A few years ago, Jeremy's boating parents were feeling very generous at Christmas and bought us a tandem kayak. We were so excited for all the adventures in store for us!

Our coolest and most frustrating of them all was our voyage to Cutts Island near Kopachuck State Park in Gig Harbor. We went on a sunny January day. Our first obstacle was finding a launch pad. Kopachuck would have been the logical option, but the long trail from the parking lot to the water was unappealing. We ended up parking on a side street and launched from an inlet. With life jackets, oars and snacks we were off! The view of the Olympic mountains to our West was awesome and within a short time we had landed.

Cutts Island, also called Dead Man's Island, was once an Native American Burial ground. The natives would bury their loved ones in canoes up in the trees. We spent an hour or so exploring  the 2 acre park with steep cliffs and an impressive 360 degree view of the Sound.

 

 We did not take the tides into account on our journey back, 

once we were in 4 inches of water, we knew we had to re-route. 

It was pretty cool to see the ocean beds, 

completely covered in sand dollars.

The detour around Raft Island added an extra hour of paddling, but on such a beautiful day we really didn't mind. Then we got back to the inlet--which was no longer an inlet-- only thick, sticky, stinky mud. Poor Jeremy lost a shoe and nearly lost his balance while carrying the kayak back to the car. By the time we had everything strapped down and seats buckled, neither of us were in a very good mood. But like all things, time has way of bringing out the humor of things, and if we had to do it all over again--we would.