West Seattle, Washington
05 Thursday
… unless you can answer it for us: What IS a “Snooty Walk”? We thought we’d get the answer if we showed up for the last half-hour of the Pet Rodeo & Snooty Walk, but the party was already breaking up. Did spot Hizzoner, however, probably there to cheer on his wife in her role as Head Judge.
Tonight, a rare sighting of squadcarfuls of West Seattle’s Finest taking a break someplace besides Caffe Ladro: at the Westwood Village Barnes ‘n’ Noble.
We shared the first tip last week about the Groucho Marxes visible from the south side of the west end of the high bridge. Now, finally photos — these were linked from a new comment on the original item; the one below was e-mailed to us by Nick Peters:
Wandering through the Admiral District this morning, we spotted West Seattle’s Only Moviehouse in the process of getting a paint job (note the primer above the marquee):
Been away from the inbox for several hours; seems we missed something startling in the WS sky this evening — at least a dozen people have written to ask what was up with the chopper activity. We’ve seen military aircraft around here before — after all, we have beaucoup bases nearby — but this must have been truly out of the ordinary, given the mail barrage. We’ll see what we can find out; if anyone out there in WSB-land is a military insider or called authorities to ask and actually got an answer, please leave a comment. (UPDATE: One commenter says it was part of the Mariners’ military-salute promotion.)
More “public art,” according to a reader tip. We won’t get to check this out for ourselves for a while so we’ll take the liberty of quoting the reader, who reports the sighting from a bus ride over The Bridge:
This morning I had no choice but to crack a grin as I spotted a herd of crouching Groucho Marxes in the woods of Pigeon Point. They can be seen from the eastbound lanes of the West Seattle Bridge and are tucked into the woods maybe a couple hundred meters after the merge.
Drivers beware, road crews aren’t just working on the north-of-Junction repaving today — there’s also some work in the heart of The Junction itself. Looks like restriping, possibly also on the “raised crosswalks.” No lane closures when we passed through just now but could be a little congested later, so consider yourself forewarned.
The former video store and the ex-we-can’t-even-remember-WHAT-it-was-before to the west are now both rubble, barely a week after demolition work began. This view looks west from 41st (Jefferson Square sign off to the left):
It’s probably the #1 question we get: WS Trader Joe’s or no WS Trader Joe’s? Sorry to say, we have no definitive answer. We have heard way too many second- and third-hand reports of yes/no/maybe/never, plus we remember back when a businessperson near Caffe Ladro claimed the landlord for that building was insisting TJ’s would go in there, with condos above (ultimately, the commercial building stayed status-quo, and condos went into the empty lot next door). That said, it seems rather mean that Trader Joe’s has given names to its checkout aisles, including: Three Tree Point, Normandy Park, Des Moines, Seahurst … and … Fauntleroy. Why don’t they just rename one “Alki” and rub it in even further? Wah!
The Coast Guard returned to Don Armeni at midday today, launching at least three of their inflatables, with another hovering offshore. Still wondering why they often turn up here, instead of launching from their convenient downtown base across the bay?
Now most of Cali between Hinds and the post office is chewed up/grooved, so slower going. We tried side streets to the west as a detour; won’t do that again, those free-for-all intersections aren’t cut out for the overflow. Unrelated side street note: On 41st north of Admiral, heading north from Metro Market, the center stripe is green, leading all the way to a “shamrock” near the end of the street. Our e-mail tipster says the repainting is a St. Patrick’s Day holdover that apparently happens every year; first time we’ve seen/heard of it.
Our usual visitor volume was down by several hundred last night, so we rolled over to Alki to see if you were all at the Celtic Swell. The outdoor space was stuffed and the sidewalk too, almost as much of a backup as we saw outside Fado downtown as we approached the Viaduct from Columbia yesterday afternoon. However, the more interesting sight at Alki last night was the minus tide (new moon approaching); made for a nice flashlight-enhanced beach walk. Tide tables say no more minus tides at night for a while, but looks like some good ones at midafternoon next Thursday and Friday.
-Counter person in a business with line of sight to the Admiral Theater marquee: “It BUGS me that the movie title misspells ‘happiness’.”
-Turning off southbound Cali, heading east on Admiral, with a bit of difficulty — A huge loaded dump truck, driven by a woman with one hand on the wheel … AND ANOTHER CLUTCHING HER CELL PHONE TO HER EAR.
From Freedom Church and Eckankar to the south, on toward Our Lady of Guadalupe to the north and beyond, the area of West Seattle showing the most spiritual growth seems to be a 3-mile-ish stretch of 35th SW. Not only is Gatewood Baptist moving there … not only has Mars Hill chosen this stretch of street as its new home … now, a new neighbor has suddenly manifested itself a couple blocks south of MH at the ex-Adventist site, and its grand opening is just days away. And given what this spiritual “center” seems to be about, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the MH folks staging pray-ins outside to try to save them from h-e-double-hockey sticks (and the Temenos folks can just out-healing-vibe them right back):
-Tough choice but decided to go to the Alki cat adopt-a-thon instead of the SW library grand opening (one-day-only event vs. many chances from now on to see the books’ beautiful new digs). Did not emerge with a new cat. Old cats greatly relieved.
-Looks like Casa Feliz is back from the dead after 2 months away. Tried calling to ask what happened, nobody answered. All info welcome.
-Eagle-eyed reader notes the cameras on light poles by the new Admiral/Olga traffic signal (photo below). Will they be traffic webcams, or “run the light and you’re busted” cams? We’ll see if we can find out.
Or so it appears, at the only motel in West Seattle, where the Travelodge sign is now tarped over. Tried calling; no answer. Checked the Travelodge website; it says only “dates for this property are not available on our system at this time.” Hmm. (On a somewhat-related note, why IS that the only motel or hotel in WS? We kinda get the Alki angst over the lodging proposal there, but surely there is room somewhere within our borders for a nice non-B&B place to stay … you’d think. We had one a century ago!)
Some facade fine-tuning in The Junction: Bakery Nouveau
has finally erased the last traces of the previous occupant from its awning (left); Divina‘s front sign (right) is temporarily missing while some roof work is under way.
A little too cold for us personally to get out on the water (ice on the car roof this morning, yikes), but this photo (thanks to Bob Bollen) is immensely cheering anyway:
You might have noticed this sign that just went up in The Junction, over Matador. Seems to be a personal-training franchise, according to this press release (the company’s own site isn’t working at the moment.)
We had heard the Bear Under The Bridge had been joined by an owl, but hadn’t gotten a chance to seek it out with our camera. No need now; somebody else captured it.
Just when we thought we knew every square inch of West Seattle … sharp reminders that we don’t, not by a long shot. Drove out to look for something that somebody e-mailed us about; haven’t quite found it yet, but we did find incredible curving semi-secret streets on the bluffside over Beach Drive (such as 54th south of Genesee), stretches of road we never knew existed (Hillcrest to Andover north of Genesee is pretty wild too, especially the steep slope on Andover). Next time you’re bored with the same ol’ scenery, check ’em out (but not in a big car — they abruptly dead-end with driveways).
Just saw bold new T-shirts on the “Walking on Logs” figures alongside the Fauntleroy end of the high bridge — bearing the official Rat City Rollergirls logo. Bet that’s in honor of their season-opener next weekend.
That’s the wish to all of WS from Kelly — who took this photo tonight to capture a view you may have spotted from the waterfront or the bridge (it’s the WaMu building):
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