Meetup in Magnolia

With roughly 2,300 other hardy locals, we're members of the Bellevue & Seattle Dragon Boating & Hiking Meetup. We have yet to get within 10 feet of a dragon boat, but we do lead occasional stairway walks for this group of good-humored, adventuresome urban hikers. On the first weekend in March, 18 humans and one dog gathered in south Magnolia to hoof it up, down and around this neighborhood's numerous scenic stairways.

The weather was just fine for doing Seattle stairs. Even though rain constantly threatened, we experienced only the briefest, light sprinkling. We enjoyed dozens of beautiful crocuses popping up out of the ground here and there, as well as blooming heather, early camellias, and our first blooming cherry trees of the year. The views of sound and city were outstanding, and everybody had a great time (slide show below first photo)!

To learn about future walks with us, check back often at our "Walks and Events" page! We'll have our next adventure posted soon. 

Stairs of La Conner!

We took a  brief midweek getaway to our neighbors' cabin near Port Susan, on the shore just east of Camano Island and south of Stanwood. The winter birding was great, but somehow we couldn't get away from - you guessed it - stairways. La Conner has a few of them, pictured below. It also has the La Conner Brewing Company, a brewpub with a wood-fired pizza stove. We had our pizza with a fragrantly hoppy IPA (Cathy) and a well-balanced, freshly malty ESB (Jake).

Stairs, then brews: what a combination!

Steps at the bottom of the in-town trail, La Conner