Cross-city journey
Aug. 13th, 2004 09:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperToday, I ventured out of the house on my own for the first time since we moved in, and for the first time since my surgery. My quest: to go to the shopping center just down the road and go to the bank, the Rite Aid, and Third Place Books.
It's a nice, leisurely walk from our house, and the good part is that there is a route to the shopping center along residential streets so I don't have to go down to Bothell Way at all--which is good, since the traffic is very heavy along that road. The route I followed took me along some prettily shaded streets that lazily curved and turned their way down towards my destination, and I enjoyed glancing at the various attractive houses I passed. Sure, it's a suburb, but it's a very tree-heavy, rustic suburb, and I'm good with that.
The funny part of the walk, though, was when I reached the boundary between Kenmore and Lake Forest Park. Even on the residential street I was on, there was a bit of a roadblock that spanned about halfway across the road and sported a sign that stated LOCAL ACCESS ONLY and STRICTLY ENFORCED. A few feet in either direction along the street were the signs that said "Welcome to Lake Forest Park" and "Welcome to Kenmore By The Lake".
That is, apparently, the official name of my new town: Kenmore By The Lake. It's on all the official signs. Heh. And it's such a tiny community, too. So's Lake Forest Park, for that matter. Yet, when I went past that little roadblock, I had such an odd feeling as I realized that I was technically going from one city to another to go to a shopping center that's only a few scant blocks away from my house.
But the roadblock really underscored the feel of crossing a border, as though I should have had out my passport, or declared the books I'd bought to a customs guard or something.
It's a nice, leisurely walk from our house, and the good part is that there is a route to the shopping center along residential streets so I don't have to go down to Bothell Way at all--which is good, since the traffic is very heavy along that road. The route I followed took me along some prettily shaded streets that lazily curved and turned their way down towards my destination, and I enjoyed glancing at the various attractive houses I passed. Sure, it's a suburb, but it's a very tree-heavy, rustic suburb, and I'm good with that.
The funny part of the walk, though, was when I reached the boundary between Kenmore and Lake Forest Park. Even on the residential street I was on, there was a bit of a roadblock that spanned about halfway across the road and sported a sign that stated LOCAL ACCESS ONLY and STRICTLY ENFORCED. A few feet in either direction along the street were the signs that said "Welcome to Lake Forest Park" and "Welcome to Kenmore By The Lake".
That is, apparently, the official name of my new town: Kenmore By The Lake. It's on all the official signs. Heh. And it's such a tiny community, too. So's Lake Forest Park, for that matter. Yet, when I went past that little roadblock, I had such an odd feeling as I realized that I was technically going from one city to another to go to a shopping center that's only a few scant blocks away from my house.
But the roadblock really underscored the feel of crossing a border, as though I should have had out my passport, or declared the books I'd bought to a customs guard or something.
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Date: 2004-08-14 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-14 07:27 pm (UTC)How big is your navy?
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Date: 2004-08-14 07:35 pm (UTC)Is that Lake Forest Park or something else?
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Date: 2004-08-14 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-14 08:32 pm (UTC)Navy? If we have one, I suspect it's the same thirtysomething yuppie with a Super Soaker I mention to Mimi in my comment to her elsewhere on this thread. ;)
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Date: 2004-08-14 08:39 pm (UTC)There's a nice green bit along a curve of Lake City Way around where 25th dumps you out. That's still Seattle. I've been trying to pay closer attention to where the city boundaries actually are--you are still in Seattle up through Lake City, which is not incorporated as its own entity despite it having a strong community presence.
Lake Forest Park is just north of there... I THINK but am not a hundred percent sure that it's just north of the first big traffic light intersection north of Lake City's little "downtown" core where there are suddenly trees in the middle of the street. Basically, once Lake City Way starts calling itself Bothell Way, you're in Lake Forest Park.
And Lake Forest Park remains up to just north of the shopping center where the Albertson's is, and Third Place Books, and the other things I mentioned in my post. The big cross street there is Ballinger Way. But right in this general area, there are a lot of nice leafy green trees, and the Burke-Gilman trail swings in close to Bothell Way at this point, and there's a point where you can leave the trail right across the street from the shopping center, about a block or so south of Ballinger.
Just a short ways north of Ballinger Way is the border between Lake Forest Park and Kenmore. Dara says, in fact, that our lot just about straddles that border.
Kenmore hangs in there until the next big burst of green--but the next big burst of green is Bothell.