information from the Southwest Seattle Historical Society

Cathy and Jake Jaramillo are retired executives who now enjoy spending more time doing wilderness and urban hikes with each other. Together they have written Seattle Stairway Walks: An Up-and-Down Guide to City Neighborhoods, the city's first guidebook to the best neighborhood walks in Seattle that feature public stairways.

The public is invited to this FREE series from 5 to 7PM on Friday, April 3rd, at Barnes & Noble/Westwood Village.

As one of America’s hilliest cities, Seattle has dozens of little-known stairways offering intimate access to a fascinating variety of neighborhoods and Jaramillo's Seattle Stairway Walks includes several in West Seattle: the "Fauntleroy and Morgan Junction Walk", the "North Admiral Stairway Walk", and the the "Alki From Above Walk". In addition to presenting their book to the West Seattle audience, Cathy and Jake are offering to conduct a modified version of the Alki walk for the "Words, Writers & West Seattle" audience on Sunday, April 9th, beginning and ending at the Loghouse Museum, 3003 61st Ave SW, the home of the SW Seattle Historical Society.

Jaramillo's book gives curious urban hikers a handy guide to exploring the city’s neighborhoods from a whole new angle. It’s a “best of” compilation of 25 scenic walking byways all over town, each one including detailed directions, pictures and maps along with descriptions of local scenic and architectural highlights. Stopping points for lunch, coffee or a local craft brew are included too, not to mention key stats like stair counts, time required, and distance.

Since moving to Seattle in 2000, Jaramillos discovered that Seattle’s many stairways are the perfect way to get wonderful views of the diverse neighborhoods. Jake and Cathy were inspired to write this book because of the memory of many happy hours spent exploring the stairways of L.A. with Cathy’s parents.

"Words, Writers & West Seattle's" next FIRST FRIDAY book-talk is scheduled for May 1st and will feature West Seattle author/illustrator and SSC instructor, Jan Koutsky with her book My Grandma, My Pen Pal. Additional information on future presentations can be obtained by calling Dora-Faye Hendricks, chair, "Words, Writers & West Seattle" by phone at 206-280-9983, or by e-mail at: Dora-Faye@comcast.net.