Green Seattle (St. Paddy's Day Parade Tomorrow!)

This is the thing, everybody's Irish on St. Patrick's Day. So from wherever you may find yourself there is just one thing to do this Saturday morning. Come down to 4th Avenue and Jefferson Street in Downtown Seattle at 12:30 p.m. That is Saturday, March 15, for the St. Patrick's Day Parade! The parade will travel north on 4th Avenue to the reviewing stand at Westlake Park (that is 5 minutes from our office!) and it officially ends at 2 p.m. at Seattle Center. With Formalities! Closing Ceremony! What might you encounter if you make your way down?

http://www.irishclub.org/parade.htm

This link will take you to a site which has all the details, and not only that but photos from last year's parade! Which includes a wonderful photo of what is undoubtedly The REAL St. Patrick! Since he was at the parade last year, there is no reason to believe he will not be there again. In fact, I am counting on it.

Something else that sounds worth attending...a St. Patrick's Day Mass for Peace. Details are on that same site. And there is an Irish Week Festival Noon-6 p.m. Sunday at Seattle Center. The excitement includes "booths selling Irish and Celtic products, Irish food and libations, Irish music, singing, dancing, an Irish Film Festival, workshops, lectures, cultural displays, children's contests and activities, etc. For more detailed information, call 206-223-3608."

More! Everett's Irish Cabaret Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at the Historic Everett Theatre, 2911 Colby Ave (at Hewitt), downtown Everett. It's an old fashioned Irish event with humour, dancing, music, and singing, MC'd by an Irish Storyteller and an Irish Singer. Gotta be there!

For the fast (preferably not furious) among us, there is the St. Patrick's Day Dash Sunday (Mar. 16) at 9 a.m. It goes downhill from T S McHugh's near the Space Needle to F X McRory's near Safeco Field! It's nearly 4 miles, and last year over 15,000 runners participated. You have to register PRIOR to the day, go to this website for details: http://www.stpatsdash.com/. And on the day itself, more Irish Week Festival at Seattle Center, noon - 4 p.m.

Something a bit more bouncy where you can down a pint or two and tap your toes to great Irish music? On March 17, St. Patrick's Day, $5 joint cover gets you into both Molly Maguires (610 NW 65th St in Ballard) with music from 1 p.m. to closing and into the Ould Triangle (9736 Greenwood Ave N) with The Raybourne Experience performing all day. Click on this link to hear some of the promised music: http://www.myspace.com/ouldtriangle See you all there!

Olympic Sculpture Park

I have finished the virtual tour I took of Olympic Sculpture Park.

This was a wonderful day when Krista, a client that was relocating from California, and I went to the Olympic Sculpture Park with her dog Bella.

A bit later I will fill in my impressions and some history of the park...there's a great website the city has for it which I'll put in too...

Edy Kizaki, Realtor

Happy New Year in Seattle

Here are the photos of the Fireworks at the Space Needle on New Year's Eve at Midnight! These are a bit blurry, taken in the middle of the night, but hopefully you'll get the (ooooo! ahhhhhhh!) sense of it.

I will never forget New Year's Eve on the Mound in Gasworks Park, watching the fireworks. Last night around 11:30 p.m. we arrived at Gasworks Park. There were cars everywhere parked nearby, but turning toward the water we discovered the whole parking lot behind the park was empty. But we boldly parked there anyway, and 10 minutes later so did about 15 other people, it just took one car and the whole place filled up!

Gasworks Park is just at the north end of Lake Union. It is right down the street from our office and famous for a great kite-flying location (there is even a kite shop just down the street from us!) but there is also a great view of the Space Needle and downtown, and there were, I would say, over 1,000 people sitting on the hillside facing the Lake and the Space Needle. We only got there 15 minutes before midnight, but was my rear ever cold in those 15 minutes. Next time remind me to bring a blanket or at least a square of cardboard to sit on!! But it was wonderful, a bright black night with lighted boats crusing the lake and the space needle with it's little pointed Christmas tree on top standing up right across the lake from us.

The people around us were in high spirits laughing and joking and calling out to the crowd, and one guy kept saying, if they don't do the fireworks pretty soon, then definitely the aliens are going to arrive...it really did look like the scenes in movies where people gather at the top of a mountain and raise up their arms to the sky waiting for the aliens to show up. My son started calling out "We come in peace!" My camera, not on a tripod, did not get any real crisp photos of the fireworks, so what I have to share here are some blurry, impresionistic images of the lake, night, the lights on Queen Anne Hill and the Space Needle spouting fire and glory

It was definitely the place to be and the thing to be doing, I doubt I will ever be anywhere else ever again on New Year's Eve. If Fremont is the Center of the Universe (as you may know this truth was discovered more than 20 years ago by a Fremont native), then Gasworks Park must be the Center of the New Year in Seattle. We watched 2008 being born on the Pacific Rim, in the dark and the crisp air among a crowd of joyful people who had no intention of letting the joyful event go by unnoticed!

May 2008 bear out the promise this celebration brought into life, and bring you all to Seattle to enjoy it with us!

Edy Kizaki, Realtor

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

Went over the Cascades to Wenachee (Apple Capitol of the World) a couple nights ago in the moonlight...to pick up my daughter who had been supposedly on a bus to Vancouver BC to visit friends...even the most sincere of girls can get on the wrong bus, I guess!

What a trip, how beautiful. Old forest firs covered in snow, that sense of expectancy in the air... now I think Santa must have been somewhere in that forest, preparing for the big day.

Seattle is still uniquely itself, humming with energy and a special mix of spice which comes from being The Most Highly Educated City in the US, full of fun and mischief and hopes for the future, and on the Pacific Rim with all the international flavor that brings, each area and neighborhood a delightful treasure trove of things to explore and discover. Of COURSE I found Starbucks coffee under the tree this year, the aroma of coffee is everywhere here, but that's just the beginning. I will try to be better at sharing my experiences of this wonderful place with you as the year progresses. Hope the coming year gives us many opportunities to spend time together and share our lives.

All the best to you and yours!

Edy Kizaki, Realtor

Snow, Rain, Sun, and Here Comes the 25th!

It really has been an especially nice fall season. And it's not that I've done as much as usual, but ... quality people. Thank you, people in my life! Slowing time down and noticing the little stuff. This is not a burning revelation, I know, but it really does make a difference every moment. And it's like... let today linger.

Seattle? Yes, it's here. I love driving through Wallingford every day on the way to the office. On those little narrow streets with the round islands in the intersections so you weave around. And if another car starts up the street from the other side, you look for a driveway to pull over and let them pass. And you can see Lake Union, the boats, the city and Space Needle behind it in the distance, as you glance up from the narrow street and the green-in-your-face circles... and during the whole progress down toward the lake you are sneaking long, timeless glances at the as-much-as-100-year-old homes with various signs of age and glory, most often lovingly cared for and brought with shining honor right up into the present moment by those who live in them and care for them. And saying to yourself... This is Seattle...this is Seattle...this is Seattle...this is sooooo Seattle...

Tell you what, you've been good so next time I drive down those streets I'll take a few shots of lovely Wallingford character homes and put them in this post to try and give you a sense of the neighborhood.

Edy Kizaki, Realtor