Rain and a Walk in West Seattle

Yesterday was an irritable day.  It rained, it was windy and I spent the day glued to the couch wrestling with our new lap tops.  Then last night we had a line of thunder storms go through.  There was impressive thunder and lightning for about an hour.  It was the kind of rain that you have to holler over because it’s so loud.  At one point it took satellite reception out because the rain was so heavy.

I am very taken with this radar image.  The pink areas are snow.



Today it was necessary to go somewhere.  We’re now tired of Bellevue, so we drove over to West Seattle.  This is terminal five.  It’s been empty for years.  At first they said the tenant had been moved to another terminal so they could install larger cranes.  Now it appears that there is no current tenant and there is push back on spending the money for modernization.  Some people have gone so far as to suggest that the Tacoma port should get the shipping traffic.   I suppose there is a desire to build condominiums there.  It is sad to see it abandoned.



We lived in West Seattle for ten years.  For the first 9.5 years we just loved it.  When I would crest the Admiral Hill and see this view, my blood pressure would drop and I could shrug off the day and be happy.  As traffic volumes grew, Jim’s commute grew longer and he began to chafe a little at how much time he spent in the car.  At that point I was telecommuting, so it was not a problem for me.  We decided to pull the plug and sell.  The neighbors had quit taking care of their yards, horse tails (a very invasive weed) were everywhere as were blackberries.  We made money on the house, and we were happy to find a rental on the east side.  Our other thought was that if we retired, we wanted to not be owning real estate. We closed in June 2006, which turned out to be the height of the housing boom before the collapse of the global economy.  The market has rebounded with a vengeance as have property taxes.  Our old house is currently paying $9,962 a year.  That would be burdensome for a retiree on a fixed income.



It was a glorious day.  We walked about a mile or so up the beach at Alki, and then stopped for lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant.  That’s the Space Needle on the right.  On the far right is a string of condos.  On the far left is the grain terminal.



This plant has a pretty blossom.



Look at the guy lower right in the photo.  See the round thing he’s riding?  It’s some off shoot of a Segway.  I would like to see him get on it without falling over.  It moves pretty quickly.



This house is 1,600 square feet with 2.5 baths.  It is on the water.  It’s listed for $2.67M.



It’s very nice inside, and they have a killer view.  In the summer they do get the setting sun, which can be brutal.



This is what they see at night.  It’s a stunning view.  It just seems like a lot of money for such a small house.



This is the taken from the West Seattle Bridge heading back to the east side.  This is the Duwamish waterway.  It’s an industrial part of town.  It’s highly polluted from years of people dumping everything in the water.



It was just a delightful day.  I think we’ll go back over there and walk from the other end of Alki.  It’s nice walking, it’s flat and there is a lot to look at.