Today on Travel Tuesdays we take a quick peek at our neighborhood in Seattle.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been here 3 weeks already. It’s also hard to believe that I’m still trying to finish getting my computer back in shape – it’s been a little more than 3 weeks since the hard drive died, and I am almost back in business, as it were.

Unfortunately, most of the time my computer is up and running I am using it for doing that not-so-fun annual ritual: taxes. You’d think it would be easy to do tax returns for  2 people with little income, no jobs and no property. But, not actually. A worksheet that we have to work through  for just one item on the basic tax return required 35 steps/decision points before coming up with what amount to enter on that one line. 35 steps.

And here I though things were complicated when we lived abroad. Well, they were, but in a different way, I guess.

Ah well.  So, while that fun is in progress, plus with my computer still needing some extra love and attention, I can’t promise regular blog posts this week. But that’s my goal by the end of the week.

In the meantime, though, here’s a glimpse of some of the area around where we’re staying.  You can’t see it from our windows, but if you go down the street and look to the south, you can actually see most of the Seattle skyline. In the following photo, if you look carefully to the right of that big evergreen tree in the middle, you can spot the Space Needle off in the distance:

Downtown Skyline, seen from Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle

Now, it’s been pretty raining and gray much the time, so it was a surprise on a clear day the other day to discover there are mountains visible both to the east and to the west.  I believe the following photo is of the Olympic Mountains to our west. (Again, this is visible if you walk down the street a little bit from where we’re staying):

Mountains near Seattle

The photo of the Cascades to the east didn’t come out with my little  cell phone camera – we’re not that close to the mountains, and the cell photo works better with unobstructed views of things in the distance. I’ll try again with my other camera when we get another clear day.

We’re staying in a cute residential neighborhood, and there are a lots of flowering trees at the moment, including some that I think are cherry trees:

Trees in bloom, Seattle, March 2016

Blossoms, Seattle, 2016

But of course the best part of the place is our location: we’re staying at the corner of Woodlawn and 42nd street:

42nd Street and Woodlawn Avenue North

That’s the best part because that’s a song cue if I ever heard one.  Here’s a link to the 42nd Street song and dance from the Broadway show by that name. In that same clip the performers  eventually go into the song We’re in the Money. The jury’s out if that will apply to us or not with the taxes this week … but we are at least staying on 42nd Street.

Anyway, I hope to be back with regular posts soon. Thanks for staying tuned until then!