Affordable living

                                                    

                                                                               

                                                                       

 

                                             

I know that  this live was gone, but can we do better our future ?

From now on we, the people of Seattle will enjoy the privilege of “affordable living”.

That means, if we don’t like our old house, or just moved in town we have a new option. But if we have a limited budget, we will find out that things may have changed lately…

 We see strange structures growing in our beautiful city, some like odd monstrous boxes or shipping containers, pushed so tight together like they are thrown in a graveyard, with windows opened to a  view of into the  neighbor’s living room and poor sound treatment, which allows not only to see, but hear them as well…

  Those newly growing mega condominiums boast 200-300 units at a time..

And one more thing, the sizes of the “homes” probably is around 500- 800 sq. feet. Right, the new owners don’t need big bedrooms, because they only sleep for 7-8 hours. The smaller the windows the better, lower heating bill! Then, less and smaller furniture is cheaper, our clothes and shoes can be shoved under the bed out of sight… so we can actually walk around the bed..

Who needs of big sofas and armchairs in the leaving room? It’s better to go out with friends to get some fresh air, go biking, shopping, or visit relatives and friends, who were lucky to buy houses before the “affordable living “era?

 We also wouldn’t need big kitchen; Seattle is saturated with cafes and restaurants, and fancy organic food stores.

 I’ve seen slogans “Do not sale your home to developers”, then see them gone soon after that to open place for one of those monstrosities

Last and not least – the colors of the buildings! I am wondering are their architects depressed, or they just hate us,! Or may be the dark gray and black paints are cheaper?

Why are there so many dark walls on our streets? In the entire world new and old buildings are colored in fresh, light tones that make us happy. How is it possible to paint a 6 story building in dark gray, dark blue and beige all together?  On top of the “prison size”  windows…

We leave in Seattle with 260 cloudy days and no negative temperatures, what is the reason for these tiny  holes?

 Did I forget to mention your guests probably need a GPS to find your unit in the condominium complex?  Don’t even want to think of what may happen in case of fire?

Could you please clarify to us, what are you trying to do with our beautiful city, my dear very respectable developers and builders of Seattle? 

Sunny day in Ballard, Seattle

                               

                                                                                                    

                                                                  

                                                                   Rain in Port of Seattle                                      

                                                        

   

Aren't  this houses to similar of the containers in the port? 

                                                         

   Do you like to live in this  affordable houses in  Seattle, Ballard?

 

                                                                 

             

            

The lakes

 

                         

                           

I am lucky to live last 20 years in a city with many lakes. Whatever direction I take, I can see some: Union, Washington, Sammamish, Green, Bitter and many others - 25 in Seattle and around the city.

We love the lakes and this year on our way from Arizona to Washington State we stopped at Lake Tahoe, Crater and Klamath lakes.  At this season all surrounding resorts are packed with tourists and vacationers.

What attracts everybody there? Is the quite, blue or green water, or the boats and other water activities?

Maybe are the beautiful sunrises and sunsets?  Or the mirror images in the water of the closest mountains, trees or buildings. What about the cotton-white clouds drifting across robin-egg-blue skies over the lakes?

Of course there is one thing that joins seas, lakes and rivers – the water, the unique thing on the Earth that make our live.

One telling Sais “One bird doesn’t bring The Spring”: Yes it’s not; the beauty of the lakes depends also of the environment. It comes with the mountains, with the flowers and fragrance, with grin forests and meadows.

I am glad, that we have visited first Lake Tahoe. Crater Lake is special experience, it is beautiful, but around Lake Tahoe there are a lot of things to see and to do. We started with the mountain trip, because we wanted to see first the entire valley. By the way, there are a lot of high peaks around; at least 10 of them are over 10,000 foot.
 

Our gondola reached Unmet Peak and the view from there is a dream. We enjoy the dark-blue mountains on the horizon, than the slowly change of the color in 2-3 tonalities of green. Finally, right under all this beauty we saw the blue shiny water. Watching this gigantic picture, I had the feeling that the sky has spread his blue hands willing to protect this magic moment for ever.

                                                    

 

                                              

                                                                        

                     

                                                                       

                                                               

The dream ended at the moment when we have left the second stop of the gondola Heavenly. It is always lake this, if humans come in the mountain with all their technique, wires and noise, Mother Nature cries. From here start 6 chairs to the ski-runs on the top of the mountain.

 

                                                                 

                                     

 There  are two zips for the brave visitors.  Hum, the Blue Streak Zip is 3,300- foot-long and you glide over the forest with 50 miles per hour, what about this pleasure? Well, do first Hot Shot Zip, it is only 1000 –foot-long and from there you can see the Mt. Taller and Pyramid Peak. We also “produced” less adrenaline here, and our friends on the 2 parallel lines kept us company.
          

O yes, the second big experience is Emerald State Park. Fannett Island is the only one in the Lake. Long ago the majesty of this Island attracted the Washoe tribe, who had done here their annual sacred rituals.

The Yacht Sightseeing Cruse skirts the shores of the Emerald Bay and Eagle Falls. The Vikingsholom Castel, build from Mrs. Lora Josephine Knight, now Coffee House, gives captivating feel of its unique history.

We lost the chance to visit this park, but the view from I-89 was amassing. No wander, why English Capitan Dick Barter had chosen to live here 10 years from 1863th. He even wanted to be buried here, but the deadly storm found him in another place.

Maybe the majesty of the glacier-carved Emerald Bay attracts the Bold Eagles here, before they return to the mountains. We are not eagles, but we wish to fly with hot air balloon. This would be the best experience , but we skipped this pleasure for now…