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Links & Media

* Seattle Channel's City Stream: Seattle Stairways (2016) 

* KPLU 88.1 "Tourist in Your Own Town" - Mount Baker Stairway Walk (2013)

* KING 5 Evening Magazine - Discover the Secret Stairways of Seattle (2013)

* KUOW News - The Hidden Legacy of Seattle Stairways (2013)

* AAA Journey - Last Stop: Stair Attraction (2012)

* Seattle Times - Guidebook Authors Show Ups and Downs. . . (2012)

Feet First - Seattle Walkability Advocates

* Sound Steps - Great Walking Groups for Over-50s!

* WalkOn inBellWa! - Walking Routes in Bellevue's Parks and Neighborhoods

Inventory of Seattle Stairs of 100 Steps or More website by Doug Beyerlein

* All Stairs Seattle Guide website by Susan Ott & Dave Ralph

* Year of Walking Seattle's Parks blog by Linnea Westerlind

*KOMO News - Year of Mapping Seattle's Stairs (2011)

*Seattle Times -  Queen Anne Stairways Map (2009)

* Washington Trails Association Magazine -  Urban Hiking (2007)

* Seattle Times - Seattle Stairways: Taking Time to Learn More About the City (2003)

* Seattle Weekly - Stairway Weekend (1999)

The Mountaineers as well as our publisher, Mountaineers Books

Seattle Stairway Walks: An Up-and-Down Guide to City Neighborhoods 

by Jake & Cathy Jaramillo

* The only guidebook to stairway walks in Seattle
* Explore Seattle neighborhoods in a new way with these interesting walks in Seattle
* Written for people of all ages who want to get outside, exercise, and explore
*Learn more --> 


ORDER TODAY

Friday
Mar282014

Family Visiting? Take Them on a Stairway Walk!

Along with scattered rainshowers, we forecast good weekend stairway walking along those routes with high spring flower exposure: Laurelhurst (Chapter 6); Eastlake, North Capitol Hill and Portage Bay (Chapter 9); and The Arboretum, Interlaken Park and Volunteer Park (Chapter 14). University of Washington's (Chapter 7) incredible cherry blossom show, featured in our previous post, should continue over the weekend.

This week, with family visiting from Southern California, we thought we'd sample from two routes at one go. We bundled our visitors into extra raincoats and headed out for flower-gazing and stairway sightseeing. The deciduous trees were still barely leafing out, so we could take in some territorial views that will be screened out in a few weeks. Check out the slide show below for a hint of what you can see this weekend!

We started our walk midway along the route in Chapter 14, from the Volunteer Park Water Tower. After climbing the tower stairs and enjoying the views from the top, we walked around to the park's northwest exit for a quick sidetrip over to Streissguth Garden next to the Blaine Street stairs. The Garden gives a great Spring flower show. It's part of an adjoining stairway walk (Chapter 9), and a wonderful detour from this route year-round.

Back on our original route, we made it about halfway into Interlaken Park before turning around to head back up the ravine and out of the park. In a few blocks we stopped for lunch and coffee at Volunteer Park Cafe, right in the heart of the Stevens neighborhood. The cafe occupies a charming 1904 building that housed a small grocery back in the early years of the last century. In fact you'll see the old "Grocery" sign occupying a prominent spot at the back of the cafe.

 

Saturday
Mar222014

Cherry Blossom Explosion at the Quad

Whoo-wee! Spring is here! We'd heard the cherry blossoms were out at UW, so on this first weekend of Spring, we decided to go see for ourselves. The verdict is: if you love some cherry blossoms, throw on your jacket and head out to the Quad, because the annual cherry blossom explosion is in full force. Do the whole UW stairway walk (Chapter 7), and you'll see plenty of other kinds of blossoming flora as well.

On the first part of the stairway route there wasn't much foot traffic, and any cherry-like trees we saw were only starting to blossom. As we neared Red Square, we started to see many groups of parents with kids - so many, that we thought there must be a family fair nearby. We should have known: when we entered the Quad, we were suddenly enveloped by a huge crowd of all ages.

In the video, look for a glimpse of the wedding party in the background, and watch for the guy who appears in shorts just as I'm saying everybody is dressed for the high-40s temperature. You can view more pics in the slide show, just below the video.

 

Cherry Blossoms at the Quad March 2014 from Jake Jaramillo on Vimeo.