Transportation for America has released a study ranking the most dangerous metropolises for pedestrians and Seattle ranks as the 5th safest out of the 52 areas in the US with over one million residents.

Fewer than 1 pedestrian is killed each year per 100,000 residents (5th lowest rate in the US), despite 3.1% people walking to work (10th highest in the US).

By contrast, the DFW area, where we used to live (and not walk as much), has 1.47 pedestrians killed per 100,000 residents each year (28th lowest rate), despite only 1.5% of workers walking to work (9th lowest rate in the US). Although, that's actually part of the problem - that walking isn't a mainstream activity, so safety initiatives aren't prioritized by the voters.

Surely there are safe and dangerous areas to walk in both areas, but I just thought the study results were interesting. Click the link above for more details.

Highway 99 isn't a popular pedestrian route, but the segment on the east side of Queen Anne Hill is surprisingly sheltered and comfortable, leading to beautiful views from the Aurora Bridge. Dexter Ave N is a nice residential street for a stroll on the way back.



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Yesterday was mine and Troy's 9 year dating anniversary. To celebrate, we went to the Cascade Farmer's Market near our apartment, which is every Thursday during the summer. This is the first Thursday of the summer that the market has been there. We bought some pretty flowers, fresh raspberries and strawberries, and some strawberry rhubarb ice cream.

After that we went to Denny Park and sat on a bench for a little while enjoying the awesome weather. Since Troy's last post about the cloudy weather, it totally cleared up this week and we had highs in the mid 70s.

This weekend we plan on watching the US vs Ghana soccer match on Saturday and we're going to a cook out at one of my coworker's houses on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to a nice weekend.

This past Friday the weather was nice, so we went for a walk in our neighborhood and then to Whole Foods to buy some steak to grill. We got a top sirloin Chateaubriand steak for $10, some asparagus, onion, and mushroom to stir-fry, as well as some sweet corn on the cob, and red bing cherries and baklava for dessert!

We tried to grill the steak on the grills the apartment building provides, but they were both out of propane, so we had to broil it in the oven instead. We put some seasoning salt on it and then butter once it was done. It actually turned out really good and juicy and was almost as tender as a filet. The corn was also really good, much better than canned corn.

Saturday afternoon we decided to finally go to the Fremont Solstice Parade to celebrate the summer solstice. Everyone gathers to watch all kinds of colorful people in a flamboyant parade of strange sights. We saw body painted bicyclists, a giant spider, plastic bag decorated dancers, and a big yellow submarine. It was really crowded and it seemed like everyone had their dogs with them. There was also a big beach ball that rolled along the parade route with the help of spectators laying in the street to carry it underneath them. The entire parade is really pretty weird, and rivals even San Francisco's weirdness, though there were plenty of families with children there. It's something that every Seattleite should see at least once.

We went home after the parade to hang out for a bit and watch some FIFA World Cup soccer, then went to West Seattle to have some ice cream from the Husky Deli. I got raspberry decadence (chocolate ice cream with raspberries swirled in) in a waffle cone and Troy got the coffee oreo. Then we walked around the neighborhood for a little bit and saw lots of greenery and flowers in front of houses.

After our first year of living here, I said the weather was one of my favorite things about Seattle. I did dislike the dark winter days, but felt that the rest of the year made up for it. The weather is generally fairly moderate - no major snowstorms and, more importantly, summer temps aren't too hot. I got so tired of the high temps in Texas that summer high temps averaging in the 70s felt great.

The first year we were here, the cool spring weather was refreshing and I didn't mind that early June temps stayed below 60 for almost a full week, though I was told that wasn't normal. After that first week of June, the summer was great.

However, that winter was the terrible winter storm that almost kept us here for Christmas and paralyzed the city. There was snow, snow, and more snow. I was also told that wasn't normal.

After that winter, I was happy that the next summer got comfortably warm earlier in the year. But then it got warmer and warmer, and set an all time record high of 103. However, there were only a couple unpleasantly warm weeks during that summer - same as the summer before - so we didn't have much problem getting by without air conditioning.

This past winter, was rainy, but we had the warmest January on record, and I appreciated the moderate weather.

But now, in early June, yet again, the summer weather hasn't shown up yet. Worse, it's been cloudy most of the time, including all of this weekend. We did have some nice sunshine on Friday, and I was fortunate to get off of work a little early to enjoy it. But last week I was on my way to work in 50º weather, with rain and heavy wind (and complete cloud cover). And seriously, look at the temperatures yesterday:



Not only did we have cool weather, but there was solid cloud cover all day, with some rain. People consider this to be unusual as well.

The summer, when it does show up, will be excellent I'm sure. The summers are awesome here - three of the best months anywhere. But, this atypical, unpleasant weather seems to be more typical than I had realized.

I do like the cooler weather, generally, but the worst part of the cool weather is the lack of sunshine. Maybe I'm just being too critical, at least it's not 100º.

Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

Volunteer Park is a diversely landscaped park with open green space and several landmarks including a water tower, conservatory, and Seattle Asian Art Museum.


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I posted a few months ago about our TV messing up. Well, we finally went ahead and got a used TV to replace it. It's a 27" Philips made in 2001, so it's actually 5 years older than what we had, but still the same size. It was kind of sad to part with my TV since it was only 4 years old. The apartment complex has recycling service for electronics, so we gave it to the apartment office for them to get rid of it.

So far this replacement has been good. The picture isn't as good as the other TV, but at least there aren't lines, black space, and an inverted picture at the top of the screen. I'm sure we'll replace this one in a few years with an HDTV. For now, this one will do fine.

Washington state made it illegal to talk on your cell phone and drive a couple years ago, but it was only a secondary offense, meaning the police needed another reason to pull you over. However as of this past Thursday, drivers can be pulled over just for talking on their mobile phones.

The law doesn't apply if you're using a hands-free device, but holding the phone to your ear with your shoulder apparently doesn't count. There are also a few exceptions to the law, including "if you set your phone to 'speaker' and hold it in front of you."

It's also not illegal to make a peanut butter sandwich while driving, as far as I'm aware. I have been driving more over the past few weeks, at least for work, and have had occasional reason to use my cell phone. I do have a headset for my personal phone, so I could use that, although plugging it in and putting it in my ear seems to be a lot more distracting than just talking on the phone like normal.

Schmitz Preserve Park is the only Seattle park with old-growth forest and is a beautifully forested area that makes you feel like you're in the foothills of the Cascades rather than in West Seattle.


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Seattle has one of the largest, if not the largest, film festival in the country. The Seattle International Film Festival runs for more than 3 weeks, with hundreds of films (400+ this year) at several different venues in the area.

Lesley and I have gone to a couple movies at SIFF for the past couple years and this year got a package to go to 3 movies. It's fun to go because it's such a big festival and there are so many movies to see that aren't normally available in theaters.

One of the movies we saw this year was Garbo: The Spy, a Spanish documentary on a double-agent who, working for both Britain and Germany during WWII, delayed German forces from reaching Normandy. It was a very interesting documentary about an unfamiliar historical figure who impacted history.

We also saw a less serious film called White Lion, which follows the life of a white lion in a majestic South African setting.

We're looking forward to seeing another movie later this week, about a New Zealand family that lives in the wilderness.

In the past we've seen some very good movies and some unremarkable movies, but they're always interesting and are different than the Hollywood films that you can see any weekend at the multiplex.

We went to a Mariners game with Lesley's friend Megan last Monday night. The weather had been terrible most of the weekend, but it cleared up Monday afternoon and was comfortable and sunny when the game started.

Megan bought our tickets - they were good seats in the outfield. We were the closest I've been to Ichiro and it was interesting seeing him stretching throughout the entire game.

Anyway, this was a Mariners game, so they gave up 3 runs in the 2nd inning, then back-to-back home runs later in the game. But, at the end they made it close, scoring a run in the 9th and having the winning run at the plate. Less-jaded fans had reason to believe in a comeback, but I saw the double play coming. Here's the game story. We've now seen 9 Mariners losses and 1 Mariners victory. It was an exciting victory, though.

We did learn from our transportation issues last time so we took a taxi home, and after a couple minute wait, it took us home pretty quickly for just over $10.

Note: This post comes from my Walking in Seattle blog.

NW Market St passes through the heart of Ballard and is an enjoyable street for a stroll on your way to the popular Hiram M. Chittenden Locks.


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My good friend Megan visited us this past weekend and we had a lot of fun! It had probably been over 2 years since the last time I saw her, so it was good to see her again. We picked her up from the airport around 4pm on Saturday and chatted for a while at our apartment. Then we walked downtown through the retail core, including Nordstrom and the Westlake Center. We briefly walked through Pike Place Market and stopped to get piroshkys at Piroshky Piroshky. Unfortunately it was close to closing time, so we didn't really see much of the market and most of the flower/fruit stands were closed. Megan seemed to enjoy the view of Elliott Bay.

After the market, we walked back to the Westlake Center and looked at some of the stores there. Then we took the Monorail to the Seattle Center. That was actually the first time for me to ride the Monorail, if you can believe it. We hung out for a while at the Northwest Folklife Festival, where we saw some tap dancers, live music, and lots of interesting people. I had my usual roasted corn on the cob and Troy and I shared some stir-fry noodles.

We were pretty tired after all that walking, so we decided to take the bus back to the apartment. The three of us played some Super Mario Kart 64 before going to Paddy Coyne's, the bar on the main floor of our building, to have some drinks and appetizers.

Sunday morning we went to Top Pot for donuts. It was really busy, but we were still able to find a table. Megan had an apple fritter, I had a chocolate covered ring, and Troy had a cinnamon sugar old fashioned donut. After breakfast, we toured the Museum of Flight near Boeing Field. They have 85 aircraft including the supersonic Concorde and the first jet Air Force One. We were able to go inside the Concorde and Air Force One, which was really cool. This particular Air Force One served in the Presidential Fleet from 1959-1996. The museum also had a small section reserved for space exploration, which was probably my favorite part along with seeing the inside of those two planes.

The weather continued to be cloudy with drizzly rain, so we decided to just drive around and show Megan the different neighborhoods in Seattle. We drove through Fremont, the U District, and Capitol Hill. We also stopped at Gas Works Park briefly for a view of Lake Union and downtown. By the time we were done with that, the rain had stopped, so we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island.

We went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants for dinner - Mamma Melina in the U District. The piano player was really good and even played "Got to Get You Into My Life" by the Beatles (because I suggested it when he asked what we'd like to hear.) After dinner, Megan and I went up in the Space Needle while Troy walked around the Folklife Festival again. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy and most of the mountains weren't visible, but it was cool seeing downtown lit up at night. For dessert we went to B&O Espresso on Capitol Hill before going back to the apartment to watch one of Megan's and my favorite movies, Back to the Future.

Megan thought she might have to leave Monday afternoon because flying stand-by can get tricky, but the flights were pretty open for Tuesday morning, so she decided to stay until then. For breakfast on Monday we ate at the very popular Portage Bay Cafe, just a few blocks away. Troy was nice enough to walk over there early and put our name on the waiting list. There was a 45 minute wait, so we just hung out at the apartment for most of that time before going there.

Then we drove to the Boeing plant in Everett to take a tour at the Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour. We saw the manufacturing facility Boeing is using for the 747, 767, 777, and the new 787 airline jets. The place was huge, in fact, it's the largest building in the world by volume at 472 million cubic feet. About 30,000 people work there and has over 2.33 miles of pedestrian tunnels running below the factory. It was really cool seeing how the planes are made.

Afterward, we drove to Snoqualmie Falls, made famous by the TV show Twin Peaks. This time there was probably the most amount of water I've ever seen pouring over the falls, which are 268 feet high. In comparison, Niagara Falls is only 167 feet high, but is much much wider of course. The tallest one in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela at 3,212 feet high. Anyway, it was misty and rainy when we first got there, but then cleared up as we were about to leave.

Megan's trip to Seattle wouldn't be complete without seeing the view from Kerry Park, so that's where we went next. Unfortunately most of the weekend had been cloudy with drizzly rain, but Monday afternoon the weather decided to clear up, giving us a decent view. Mount Rainier wasn't visible, but the overall view was still impressive.

We went back to the apartment briefly and then took the bus and Link Light Rail to the game. Megan bought us tickets in the right outfield lower level, which was very nice. I hadn't sat in the outfield in any ballpark in a long time, so it was a nice change. We sat right behind Ichiro, which was cool. I had some Thai food at the game and Troy and I shared the famous garlic fries. Unfortunately the Mariners couldn't pull out a victory in the bottom of the 9th.

After the game we took a taxi back to the apartment, which was a lot faster than the bus/light rail would have been. We were channel surfing when we got home and just happened to find Sleepless in Seattle playing, so Megan and I watched the rest of it and I pointed out all the places I recognized.

Overall everyone had a great time and I really enjoyed seeing Megan again. It was nice to catch up and show her our city. We're glad she came to visit us and look forward to next time!