GOOD SOURCES in SEATTLE WA AREA ---- rewarding the good -------- I don't know these businesses personally, but suggest them as standing out from the crowd. (In a few cases they caught my eye as providing something out of the ordinary but I have not checked them out - in which case I say so.) Information in this list may not be up to date. AUTOMOTIVE Totem Lake Auto, east of Totem Lake in NE Kirkland, is good. Salmon's Service Centers have a good reputation (last I noticed they had one location on 85th west of Greenwood, one north of the UW). Harold E. LeMay car collection south of Tacoma is opened to the public once in a while. It contains over 2,000. vehicles, and shows may include cars brought in by outsiders. Among the buildings are Chevrolet and Packard exhibits. Bonus displays include automotive literature, automotive memorabilia, costumes, dolls and toys. I do not have a location but one of the two locations is called "Marymount". Basic contact information and a photo gallery is at: http://www.lemaymuseum.org/lemay/default.htm with more info coming. There are classic car dealers in Tacoma, Bellevue on Northup Way, and Snohomish (611 2nd St). I find stations operated by Tesoro Petroleum company to be well run. They are an independent refiner and marketer operating in AK, HI, the west coast, and the Gulf of Mexico. AVIATION The Aviator's Store Inc, on the freeway side of BFI (the terminal side) has a good selection of aviation books and pilot supplies, well organized. BOOKSTORES/OFFICE SERVICES & SUPPLIES The world's best used bookstore may be Tacoma Books, at the north end of the parking lots for the Tacoma Dome. Even have better section signage than most (which isn't saying a lot for it). Off I-5 take the exit on the south side of the Tacoma Dome, going west toward the city center (east will send you toward Mt. Rainier). Keep right around the parking lots of the Dome, turning right at the traffic light - the bookstore is on the corner at the next traffic light. Open 7 days a week. Last time I was at Shorey's I decided it was fading - and not worth the trip into the crowded Pike Place Market area. Elliot Bay books is OK for a mostly-new bookstore, though parking that close to Pioneer Square is a bother. Much easier to drive to is the bookstore in the small mall at the corner of Ballinger Way and Lake City Way-Bothell Way in Lake Forest Park (between Lake City and Kenmore). A good selection, with some used books. Next to the bookstore is a "commons" area - a foodcourt with several outlets including Italian. Ample seating, and at least one private room. The store is open until 9 pm most nights, but some of the food outlets probably not as late. Enter either from the back side of the mall off Ballinger Way (205th exit eastward from I5) or the center of the mall facing Bothell Way, up the stairs. Seems to be a convenient mall for north-enders, with a good grocery store, city library, bakeshop, video rental store, and a booth type restaurant on the back side. Comstock Books in Auburn, south of Seatle, emphasizes transportation history. May have significant self-help and religion sections. Relatively well well organized but not as good as Tacoma books. Not open Sunday. 257 East Main street, 939-8770. The US post office in Redmond provides very good service, well above average for a USPS outlet. One morning when the power was out they kept working, going over to the windows to read addresses and bringing flashlights from their cars - which prompted customers to give them more flashlights. CLOTHING European Shoe Repair, 2624 Bellevue Way NE, 827-1329, and Juanita Shoe Service near 100th and 116th in northwest Kirkland are good. Shoreline Wide Shoes on 205th on the way from I-5 to the Edmonds ferry terminal seems to be dedicated to hard to fit feet, male and female. I recommend avoiding Foot Zone. Once you get on their mailing list you cannot get off. That shows disregard for the customer, and possibly incompetence in administration. COMPUTER RePC is a large well-organized surplus computer store. Two locations, on 6th Ave. South in Seattle (623-9151, closed Monday) and near SouthCenter shopping center in Tukwila (575-0249, closed Sunday) - phone to verify day closed (in the phone directory as RE-PC). The PC Recycling store on 20th in Bellevue (west of Fred Meyer) is worth visiting for used computer stuff. Staff are offish with an exaggerated notion on value of some old stuff, but you may find good things. The Lynnwood location is not really into used things. The PC Surplus chain has an outlet in the Southcenter area, small but well organized with good things and better staff. Find the 7-11 on West Valley Highway and look in the small strip mall beside it. Radar Electric used to be THE surplus electronics place in Seattle, but changed to being just another place, not knowledgeable (now in Bothell's Canyon Park area). Vetco is now further west on Northup Way in Bellevue, north side, awkward to get into but worthwhile. They have less used stock, less computer and telephone and network installation parts than before. And Active has disappeared - too bad, as I received great service from a young lady there. ENTERTAINMENT See my Art/Music page regarding Doug Bright/Taylor Jay performances, some of them at the New Orleans Creole restaurant near Pioneer Square on Tuesday evenings. Drive-in movie theatres: Puget Park in Everett (may be in southeast Everett just off I-5) Valley 6 in Auburn Rodeo in Port Orchard There may be another in Whatcom County - perhaps the one in the south end of Bellingham just off I-5. KIXI, AM880 plays big band and smooth rocknroll. (Though they've started playing more hard-edged music such as Brenda Lee's rnr/country hit Comin' on Strong, and souful music like Gladys Knight sings.) The classical station at FM 98.1, KING, is good but you have to hold your nose at the PC views of some of its announcers. KWJZ is light jazz, easy listening, at FM98.9. KOMO AM1000 is news - I tune to it when I need to check on local conditions (though most stations have good traffic reports). Seattle Symphony and Opera are good, except for their PC approaches which are respectively: - symphony insists on limiting the number of performances of popular composers/works, in order to present what people don't want, so you need to buy tickets early. Then they whine about lacking money. The Opera's educational director knows his opera but not his socio- economic history that he tries to include in the educational sessions before an opera. EXCERCISE Seattle has a long bike trail system. (OK for walking as well.) You can ride from Lake Union in Seattle to Lake Sammamish in Redmond, going around the north end of Lake Washington. Not steep, because it is built on old railway roadbeds. Along the way there are a few places one could stop for lunch or snacks or ice cream, including in Kenmore and Bothell - and an Albertson's store northeast of the UW in Seattle. (And if you pay attention northeast of Lake City you may see the mall with the nice bookstore across the street.) Seattle has many parks. Notable ones include Seward, Arboretum, GreenLake, the old army base northwest of the Ballard locks, Sammamish in Redmond, and Alkai Beach in West Seattle. For cross-country ski equipment, and some other outdoors equipment, Marmot Mountain Works in Bellevue has a good reputation. FOOD Kid Valley hamburgers is a refreshing but not radical change from the usual. In its day Burgermaster was the class of drive-in restaurants in Seattle. It's quality and service have deteriorated, and some locations are now dine-in only, but a few drive-ins remain: one near the intersection of I-520 and the Bellevue-Kirkland connector road, perhaps another on Aurora Ave. North in Seattle. Desert Fire on the south side of the Redomond Town center mall has reasonable selection and not all its food is hot. HARDWARE/BUILDING SUPPLIES The world's best hardware store (well, at least that I know of but it must be a contender) is Arlington Hardware in the old town of Arlington WA. It is on one of the main north-south streets on the east side, covering quite a bit of the block plus building supplies across the alley. The best selection of fasteners I've seen. Lowe's stores have a good selection, including an extensive selection of fasteners (far more than Home Depot), but their pandering to environmentalists turns me off. (Appears to be identical to the former Eagle Hardware. Locations include Bellevue (off Northup Way) and Arlington/Marysville.) The Woodworker's Store, 3823 Stone Way N, Seattle, 634-3222, is a unique resource. They have specialized hardware like wide keyboard trays and articulated arms. MALLS Keith is an ABM guy, but two deserve mention: - Bellevue Square (large, innovative developer, but the area is getting crowded) - Redmond Town Center, just south of the old downtown area of Redmond (down in the valley, not up where Microsoft is). Unique in that the shops face the streets that run through the "mall". Two levels, parking in garages behind the stores, some restaurants behind the mall on the south side. It is in effect the type of stores, entertainment and food that malls have but on streets as in days before malls. (Even to the parking in the back, which many towns provided.) Future to the back? (ABM = Anywhere But a Mall) RESTAURANTS The Seattle area has many small Thai restaurants. Desert Fire has a good selection, and its easy to avoid the spicy selections. Behind the Redmond Town Center mall (i.e. south of it). SECURITY Bulger Lock on Lake City Way NE is the class act of key places - selection and quality. (For example, they make duplicates of straight notch box keys that work - most places do it so crudely the duplicate does not work.) Check out their key return tag offer. Call 206-363-8797. (Moss Bay Locksmith in Kirkland has good selection for eastsiders, but seems less interested and is understaffed.) TRANSPORTATION I'd look into Orange Cab company, because they were started to provide competition and good service. 522-8800. I have not used them. Seattle has a monorail, built with private money for the world's fair. It operated profitably and is still running from the Seattle Center site (next to the Space Needle) to downtown near the Westlake shopping area. Seattle's bus system, the Metro, is good - not as nice as Vancouver BC's but their's may not be affordable to the taxpayers. Seattle freeways are too crowded - the bypass route I-405 east of Lake Washington is too crowded to be a good bypass. Watch out for the High Occupancy Vehicle lanes which are poorly situated and signed in some locations, thus impeding exit/entry and risking police action for getting in them too early. It's as though freeway authorities didn't think that people don't stay on the freeway perpetually. And watch out for traffic lights that meter entry onto the freeway. One particularly deficient installation can be found on the ramp from Bellevue Way northbound to highway 520 westbound - just as you begin accelerating from a tight curve toward a safe merging speed there was the light (by that time you are past it, so may get a ticket). Duh? In the travel agency field, I note Parker Cruise and Tour because of their claim regarding the financial failure of a cruise company. The Seattle areas's largest customer of that company, Parker stopped booking customers on their cruises because too many things did not seem right. Their judgement proved correct. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright Keith Sketchley 2009.05.20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACK in your browser should return you to the page you came here from.