Lifestyle
Ravenna: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013
Where your neighbor has your back.
Laced with Seattle history—did you know that Ravenna Park was originally part of a private estate and that a streetcar line ran along it?—Ravenna nowadays mixes the best of the urbane (coffee shops and sushi) with suburban perks such as small leafy streets replete with backyard retreats and front-yard chitchat. But the spirit of community…
Columbia City: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013
A deliciously eclectic pocket of the city.
Neighbors stop to catch up outside of Empire Espresso, untangling leashes as dogs sniff and weave around ankles. Saturday mornings bring lines out the door at the stellar Columbia City Bakery, and over at Bob’s Quality Meats, a staple in the heart of Columbia City that’s been open more than 100 years, baby back ribs,…
Kirkland: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013
The best of lakeside living.
With its breathtaking lakeside setting, spectacular sunsets, miles of trails, sweet micro ’hoods, terrific indie shops, fine dining, fabulous schools, plethora of parks and community passion for nature and the arts, Kirkland is easy to love. In summer, especially. When the sun is out, light dances on the water, the sky is bluer, the trees…
Capitol Hill: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013
Where wildlife meets wild life.
When I first lived on Capitol Hill in the ’90s, I loved living within a short stroll of great movie theaters, coffee and any number of dimly lit bars that tended to me and my vintage-clad peers. But I truly fell for the Hill on a dusky fall run. A couple of wrong turns and…
See Art in Bellingham
The Lightcatcher in Bellingham showcases the work of Jim Olson
WHERE: The Lightcatcher at the Whatcom Museum in Bellingham, for the exhibit Jim Olson: Art in Architecture (3/10–6/9; 250 Flora St.; 360.778.8930; whatcommuseum.org). WHY: It’s the first comprehensive exhibit of work by famed Seattle architect Jim Olson, half of Olson Kundig Architects. Fifty years’ worth of sketches, plans, models and photographs of Olson designs—including the…
Georgetown: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013
Seattle without the sanded edges.
Georgetown is a small neighborhood surrounded by a sea of industry. We’re like that tiny dust ball in Horton Hears a Who, easy to miss, but we are here! We know our neighbors, who become friends and then open a shop in a trailer or a yoga studio above a bar (in this case, the…
Queen Anne: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013
There’s a reason that Queen Anne is often at the top of Seattle’s best neighborhoods lists.
Queen Anne is much more than a 2.8-square-mile oasis of stately homes and century-old trees, good food and culture (especially when you count in Lower Queen Anne’s wealth of theaters, opera, ballet and Seattle International Film Festival’s year-round events)—all within walking distance of downtown. It’s a community of highly educated and engaged inhabitants who band…
Greenwood/Phinney: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013
A perfect place to put down roots and grow.
My husband and I were DINKs when we landed in Phinneywood. We collected gardening tips from neighbors and enjoyed the lively bar and restaurant scene. After we had kids, we discovered preschool co-ops, the old-school metal slides outside the Phinney Neighborhood Center and family-friendly coffee shops. I’ve transformed even further under the downward-dog tutelage of…
Burien: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013
A folksy—and affordable—small town only 10 minutes from downtown Seattle.
I was lured to Burien by the incredible bang for my real estate buck, but what I fell in love with was the community’s no-nonsense, hardy attitude; the beautiful, secret stretches of Puget Sound waterfront; and a charming downtown strip that makes you feel like Marty McFly stepping out of his DeLorean into a Rockwellian…
Ballard: Best Seattle Neighborhoods 2013
Comfortably cool.
The more “come as you are” of Seattle’s two major super ’hoods (see also: Capitol Hill), this northwest Seattle area is a cool—but not too cool—burg where middle-aged parents can wear their Patagonia fleece and have their Ethan Stowell eateries, while singleton 20-somethings, with their chunky hipster glasses, cocktail-hop down Ballard Ave. With choice boutique…
Five Mini-Escapes Perfect for When Seattle is Too Gloomy
Rain got you down? Try these five springy activities
1. Blush among the orchids and other tropical flora in the Volunteer Park Conservatory Palm House—kept at a hair-curling 72 degrees with 60 percent humidity. Prices vary. Capitol Hill, 1400 E Galer St.; 206.684.4743; volunteerparkconservatory.org 2. Bake away all traces of winter on sand heated to 140 degrees in the Sand Room at the Olympus…
Cool Ideas for Decorating Baby’s Room
Designer Leah Steen delivers a cliché-free nursery.
Just as interior designer Leah Steen was winding up her job of freshening up Amanda Carr’s downtown condo, she got a call. “I said, ‘What’s up?’” Steen recalls. “And Amanda said: ‘Well, I have a new project for you: a nursery.’ She told me she was pregnant. It was all very surprising.” The tricky part…
Explore Snow Country on Fat Bikes
Experience nature’s wintry glory threaded with the childhood joy of biking in the snow.
While we wait (and wait) for spring to arrive, Seattleites head east for blue vistas and shimmering snowfields; plunging into all that mood-lifting whiteness on sleds, snowshoes, skis and, now, on so-called fat bicycles. While bikes with wide, snow-gripping tires have been plying frozen stretches of Alaska for years, this is the first time any…
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