Walking Down N 45th Ave in Wallingford

 

How many times have you thought, "I want to live where I can walk to the shops and cafes, have a pub and a bookstore and a grocery store and a dry cleaner nearby, where I don't get my car out of the garage every day, and almost never on Sunday."  It might be that Satellites are spoiled because this city has so many walkableneighborhoods and the urban village scale is so human that choices abound.

 

  One of the most Seattle of the neighborhoods in my opinion, is Wallingford, the central walking street being N 45th Avenue.  If you come explore you will be astounded at the variety of choices and the slow paced atmosphere of this neighborhood.  From the Farmer's Market to the Wallingford Center to the abundance of restaurants, cafes, tea houses, coffee houses and pubs, to the eclectic shopping (dare you to try going away empty handed!) it is a gathering of delightful experiences waiting for you to discover them.  According to one of my favorite websites, walkscore.com, Wallingford is the 19th most walkable neighborhood in Seattle with a "good" score of 86.

   

But if you find yourself within a block or two of N 45th Street that score will quickly go up to near 100 and you will be in Walkability Heaven.  Below a list of shops, parks, restaurants and cafes for you to peruse, and below that a little photo album of some of the sights.

Shops:  Kids on 45th; Comics Dungeon; Golden Oldies Records; Not a Number Gifts; Tweedy and Poop Hardware; The Vintage Closet; Alphabet Soup Books; The Sock Monster; Portage Bay Goods; Jewlry by Jilla; Paper Delights; I DO Bridal; Strictly Percussion; The Potted Garden; Zanadia; Yazdi; Pharmaca Integrated Pharmacy; Wish Boutique; Terra Hemp Boutique; Amita Art of Gifts; evo; Bonnie River; Mona Lisa Boutique; The Gypsy Trader; Seattle Book Company.

Cafes:  Starbucks; Tully's; M0saic Community Coffee House; Irwin's Coffee Shop; A Muddy Cup; Fuel Coffee; Choolati Cafe; Teahouse Kuan Yin.

Restaurants:  Satay; Tilth Restaurant; Rusty Pellican Cafe; Julia's; Sutra; Blue Star Cafe and Pub; Bizarro Italian Cafe; Chutney's Bistro, Moon Temple; That Thai Place; Dick's Drive In; May Restaurant and Lounge; Rain Sushi; Kasbah; Bottleworks; Murphy's Irish Pub; Trophy Cupcakes, Wallingford Bakery; Hawaiian Breeze; Fainting Goat Gelato; Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream; Kozue; Issian; Musashi's; Jhanjay Vegetarian Thai Cuisine; Sea Thai; Djan's Thai; Lotus Thai Cuisine; Chili Pepper Mexican Restaurant; La Casa Azul Oaxacan Cuisine.

More fun:  Wallingford Farmers Market (Wed 3-7 May-Sept); Woodland Park Zoo; The Rose Garden at Woodland Park (one of only two dozen certified Rose Test Gardens in the United States); nearby Meridian Park; Green Lake Park; Lake Union and Gasworks Park.  Not to mention the Burke Gilman Trail twelve blocks south running along the banks of Lake Union.  This 27 mile multi-use recreational corridor connects Kenmore and even south as far as Issaquah on the East Side with Ballard Locks (hence a pathway for bicyclists to head downtown) and Shilshole Bay on Puget Sound.

Meet Edy Kizaki.

Edy's Virtual Relocation Guide to Seattle.

Edy's May in Seattle 2012 blog.