Exploring South Seattle with Cleo - Weeks 1 to 4

 Tyler Reporting: 

Editor's Note: Approximately14 weeks ago, with the kids out of school, I began walking our dog, Cleo, 2 to 3 miles every morning. In order to keep myself from getting bored of the same routes every day, I decided that I would try to do a new route every day, and track it on an old map of Seattle I owned. As I went, the process became more formalized, and I began taking pictures and notes along the way, and posting them on Facebook. 

Now, in order to keep Facebook's feed from Memory Holing the earlier entries, I've decided to copy and paste them here. I feel that these walks have become an extension of this blogs goal of exploring our strange and benevolent world. 

Weeks 1 & 2

With the kids out of school, I've begun taking Cleo on 2-3 mile walks each morning, with the idea of exploring all the streets in my neighborhood. We are still less than 2 weeks into this routine, and I'm already realizing I will need to expand to other neighborhoods.

(Sorry this first entry is so short, I hadn't fully grocked what I was doing yet.)

Weeks 3 & 4

Cleo and Tyler Explore South Seattle: Update 2. Two weeks ago, I posted a picture of a map showing all the streets that Cleo and I had explored since the kids got out of school. Since then, I've formalized the process a bit, and we've continued to expand and explore. A couple of my rules:

1) 2-3 miles a day. Avoid re-walking the same street.

2) The goal is the explore, not to be a completionist. We don't need to hit every street but try to cover each area enough that you couldn't walk more than a block or two without hitting a street we've been on.

3) I've begun marking off quadrants. We'll work though one, then move on to another.

So, the last two weeks, we finished off our first quadrant. Strolling through the uniform houses of New Holly, past the Buddhist temple on Graham St (that causes the air in the surrounding streets to smell vaguely of incense, and reminds me of travel), down through Georgetown and exploring the neighborhood between MLK and Rainier Ave. Then it was on to North Beacon Hill, where we've walked long north-south stretches, crawling from the west (over I-5) to the east (eventually dropping down to Rainier Ave again).

I haven't historically been a lover of seafood, but I sort of love this place that feels like a place out of time and so neighborhood-y. Ba-humbug to the fish markets at Pike Place.

A lot of the things we stop to look at are of more interest to Cleo than me.

A mural up off Beacon Ave.

A giant sticker-thing of a taun-taun with an AT-AT head, under I-5. There's also a C-3PO with a Spock head on the next post over.

A rare dirt road. This one between Rainier Ave and MLK. Almost felt like being in the country.

Another mural. This one on Rainier Ave, north of Columbia City.