Wallingford, Seattle

A few years back, my family traveled to Vietnam in the days leading up to Tet, the annual lunar new year celebration. As temperatures crept into the 90s each day, we found eating was something best done early in the morning or late at night, with plenty of iced coffee to tide us over in the middle of the day. It was a routine easily recalled last week as Seattle experienced its string of 90-plus degree days. One steamy evening turned…

If there's one day every year that's "Wallingford Day", that would be today. Here's the line up: 10 to 4: Seattle Tilth's Chicken Coop & Urban Farm Tour. If you're at all interested in bees, goats, chickens, or just seeing cool stuff people build in their yards, this is a great event. I've been on the tour twice and gone on the tour twice. I'm always bummed when they schedule it the same day as the Wallingford parade / Mike Carton…

If you're reading this on a desktop computer, instead of a phone, you must have noticed things look a bit different. After almost seven years without a design refresh, I thought it was about time to clean things up. The new theme also makes it easier for me to add new features to the Wallyhood, and get a bit more creative with some articles (e.g., better use of photos and video). It's still a work in progress, I'll be tweaking it over…

Our Seafair parade enters its 66th year with the theme "Route 66". The drill teams are a lot of fun to watch. My daughter did drill team, so I went to ALL the parades (every weekend, all summer). Try to position yourself near the Wallingford Center, that's where they perform for the judges. If you like it, check out the International District parade, as the Chinese drill team is amazing there (dragons and tight choreography with hundreds of kids). For such a long tradition,…

Rodents killed our hot tub not once, but twice. Plywood isn't enough to protect it; they like the warmth. In retrospect, we should have wrapped the base in galvanized wire mesh, but the tub came with the house and we were too lazy to hoist it out of the ground for retrofitting. Anyhow, thanks to craigslist, at least it's gone (the power of "free!") Now we have 240 volts sitting there plus a hole in our deck. What next? Density of course!…

It is with deepest regret that we report that Andres Hulslander, manager at Wallingford's Bartell Drugs, was struck and killed while biking home from work on Saturday, June 27th at about 11 pm. Andres is survived by a wife and two children. According to the Seattle Bike Blog, Andres was biking eastbound on NE 65th St towards his home in Lake Forest Park when he was struck from behind by 29 year-old Lucas McQuinn near the intersection at 15th Ave NE. McQuinn, who…