Doing Errands

Today was a beautiful day to do errands.  I like to wait until a nice day to do errands because I love walking to stores around our neighborhood.  Of course, I often drive because of rainy, windy weather like we've have lately but today was beautiful so out I go!   Doing errands isn't any different than before, the usual... grocery store, post office, bank machine...the main difference from driving is that I have to carry everything when I walk so I can't do MAJOR grocery shopping like for Thanksgiving.  I have carried two heavy bags from the grocery store and my arms were about ready to fall off by the time I got home. So, I only walk if I need to buy a few things like today.  And if you don't bring your own shopping bags, you will be charged for bags so I have finally gotten into the habit of keeping shopping bags with me.  

Our local shopping area is ~1/2 mile. If we walk to the movies at our local theater which we've done a couple times now, we will leave 20 minutes ahead of movie time to give us time to buy our tickets. Today, I mailed a package at our local mail center.

The post office is actually 1-1/2 miles away at "the Junction" and sometimes I walk down there, too. There is everything at "the Junction" including lots of restaurants and bars. That is also where the Farmer's Market is held every Sunday.  Yesterday, Bruce walked to get a document notarized at another place called Alki Mail and Dispatch, a couple additional blocks away from this mail center. Alki Mail is also a really cool coffee shop, as well as a business center. Coffee shops are everywhere here. It's Seattle, remember?

Starbucks is within walking distance and sometimes I stop in while doing errands. We stopped in here a lot when we were looking at houses. 

During our house search, we would stop in here and discuss everything. We spent many tense hours discussing housing possibilities in this Starbucks. I'm so glad that is over and now we can walk here with joy! But like I said, Starbucks is only one of many coffee shops. My favorite is Freshy's. 

They have good pastries, soup and sandwiches for lunch, too. Freshy's is right down from the mail center and across the street from the bank machine.

The bank machine is located at Safeway, our local chain grocery store. But I usually go to Metropolitan Market, which, of course, also has their own coffee shop. Today, I had a coffee here and browsed their gift shop area. They have such cute Thanksgiving stuff here right now.

Sometimes I stop into our local PCC (Puget Consumer's Coop) which is down from Freshy's. 

To tell you the truth, I rarely go to Safeway because between PCC and Metropolitan Market, I get all I need except cat food. Every one or two weeks, I'll make the drive to Fred Meyer for basic groceries and cat food which is 5-1/2 miles away. That seems so far now! Today, I walked through Hiawatha Park since it was such a beautiful day.

Walking through the park, we will often see kids playing sports since it's across the street from the high school

and a lot of the teams practice here.

There is also a community center and lots of community sport teams practice here.

You can see why I was able to check out so many Halloween decorations in our neighborhood now. It's just fun walking around and looking at everything. Or else I'm a very simple person to keep entertained. Just keep on truckin' and see what I can find.